Ken was in Lindsay Ontario giving a presentation for the Durham Soil and Crop Improvement Association and got the chance to talk to a couple of Canadian farmers about what 2025 looked like for them and what they are planning for the 2026 crop year.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report, Ken Ferrie talks about how in the early planted beans, growers need to be watchful for a need to replant the ponds and to keep a close eye on conventional tillage fields for crusting. He encourages growers to hoe before they know, check on their seed quality, and to use the rain delay to finish up last minute items so they can be ready to go once we dry up.

We need warm temperatures, moisture, and time for decomposition of last year’s crop. Due to the dry fall and cold winter temperatures, we will be facing a heavier carbon penalty this spring since we didn’t get much decomposed last fall. In this episode of Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie walks through making sure you are taking care of the corn crop and avoiding being caught in the “ugly corn phase” for long.

Ken talks about what to consider in several areas due to drought conditions; tillage, anhydrous applications, topdressing wheat, population and hybrid selection and more in this week’s Boots In The Field Report!

Ken continues to answer questions that came in during our CTC Winter Virtual College and answers the following questions: “Where would you rank the closing wheel system when it comes to planter attachment updates in comparison to all the other updates you can buy?”, “ How can I evaluate my stand to identify if my closing system is an issue?”, and “Can you put too much downforce on a cast iron wheel?”

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie walks through some of the questions that come in during the Virtual College about tillage tools and how to evaluate which is the right one for your situation.

In this week’s Boots in the Field Report Ken Ferrie walks through some important aspects of doing a good year end review session as you look forward to the coming growing season. “What worked, what didn’t, and why?” He also gives his thoughts on growers asking about cutting out insecticide on the planter to try to reduce costs.

Ken does a round robin crop recap with some of our northern growers who came to Osage, IA to help with the hand shelling day.