WHY AURORA AERIAL – Jon Langenberg

I have been doing business with Dale Bittner in Norfolk for the past 20 years. I believe my relationship with Dale is a very good and positive one. I know I can call him up to get things done in a timely manner. The first few years I farmed we didn’t get to involved with the aerial spraying. However, the last 10 years Dale has been doing all of our corn.

Aerial application is a priority to keep our operation running smoothly, as we are spraying 75-80% of our acres. What made me go to the aerial piece is obvious with the fact the ground rigs are only good for so long once the corn gets too tall. With beans we do more ground spraying ourselves however moving over to aerial is definitely in the future. We normally hit all the corn fields once after tassel, but we did a little playing around this year with some things before tassel. About 15-20 days after tassel we will run through the corn fields again. I am definitely trying to push my farm to see new results. I am spraying numerous times and trying new things on my plot acres as well.

The thing I learned years ago is that you have to be pushing your hybrids to get higher yields. You have to be taking these extra steps to get higher yields. You just can’t plant your fields and leave them anymore. You have to keep feeding them and figuring out what you need to be doing next. So many of the guys raising 300-400 bushel corn are trying new things all the time. We don’t want to be lagging behind by not doing anything. We are a little more limited up here with the ground, but there’s no reason we aren’t trying the same things they are when it comes to aerial spraying. As far as trying new things go, we have been one of the first in the area to try aerial application seeding. We do that with rye on cover crop for our soybeans. We have found that it is more difficult to do it with corn.

One of the biggest questions that arises with growers and aerial spraying is if you are getting what you ordered or asked for. Some guys have made that the reason they don’t turn over to aerial spraying. I have personally watched the aerial spraying being done and watched the product land on the plant. I believe this helped me see first-hand what was going on. I trust Dale and the team here in Norfolk to give me the right products in a timely manner. I enjoy working with them and know they will help me raise the best crop I can.