10/09/2025
2025 Growing Season - Key Takeaways
As we wrap up another season, I wanted to share a few quick takeaways and thank you for another great year of working together.
💧CropX V4 Sensor Success
The new CropX V4 sensors worked almost flawlessly this season. Hardware uptime was excellent, and the only repairs needed were from wind-blown or chewed antennas — not the sensors themselves. That’s a big step forward in reliability. We will continue to tweak and improve our install methods so that agronomic and irrigation/precip data are as accurate as possible
💧Border W**d Control
One thing that stood out this fall was how many waterhemp plants broke through in the outer 120 feet of fields. When 5–6 ft weeds surround corn, they steal large amounts of sunlight and moisture, using up to 0.25–0.50 inches of water per day in hot weather. That kind of pressure can cause 40–60% yield loss in border rows, translating to 8–10% across a full field (around 20 bu/ac on a 250 bu crop).
Each mature waterhemp plant can drop 250,000–500,000 seeds, adding millions per acre to the seed bank. In years when escapes happen, a targeted border cleanup pass can be a HUGE benefit to the crop.
💧Fungicide Importance
Fungicides were a difference-maker again this season. Southern rust blew in late, and we even started to see a few pockets of tar spot. Both are reminders that timely scouting and treatment will be critical moving forward.
💧Late-Season Water & Stalk Quality
September rains really helped maintain stalk quality this year. When corn has to pull water from 36” deep late in the season, stalk integrity drops fast. That late moisture made a noticeable difference.
💧Trusting the Data
I grew in my trust of probe data more than ever this year. In-field checks consistently confirmed what we saw in the charts — whether it was a pressure drop on corners, nozzle pattern issues, compacted layers slowing infiltration, or even late-terminated cover crops pulling heavy early season moisture. The ability to spot and correct in-season is extremely important in this farm economy.
💧Cover Crop Lessons
Late-terminated rye had us nervous early, but once the top 12” refilled, infiltration and overall water holding capacity through those old root channels was highly impressive. That said, we’ll need to watch rye and wheat cover crops closely in the future. Wheat stem maggot pressure was clearly moving from rye into corn in many areas and reduced the corn stand in a way that we have not seen before. Next year we will likely see a big benefit to adding insecticide in with the termination herbicide.
💧Root Depth & Efficiency
I continue to learn more about how the top 18” of soil is such an important area of the root zone. Roughly 85–90% of total water use happens in the top 18 inches, with only 10–15% coming from deeper layers. Mining that deep water, just for “efficiency,” doesn’t add yield benefit and can often leave us short or struggling to catch up in a dry year. Keeping a reserve below 18” helps maintain efficiency while also protecting yield potential in case of equipment downtime or late-season stress.
💧The Role of AI in Agriculture
One final note, it’s hard to ignore how fast technology is moving, especially with the advent of AI. I truly believe AI is going to be one of the biggest shifts this industry has ever seen, not just a buzzword. We can either embrace it, or risk getting left behind. This summer I was able to build my first custom web-app, MeterCalc, using AI — something I never imagined being able to do — and I already have a couple more in the works for the next growing season. I am pushing CropX every day to get this integrated into their systems as the water-data analysis capabilities from AI are already incredible. I’m excited for what tools like this will mean for the future of Acre Insights and the efficiency of every acre we manage together.
— Ryan Overleese
Acre Insights, LLC
