Emerson Nafziger Email

The 2016 Orr Center field day will be held on Wednesday, July 20, beginning with sign-in and refreshments at 8:00 AM. The format will be new this year, with three UI Extension specialists making presentations in indoor classrooms:

• Weed scientist Aaron Hager will talk about weed management
• Agronomist Emerson Nafziger will discuss crop conditions and nitrogen management
• Ag economist Gary Schnitkey will discuss crop income projections

Indoor sessions will be followed by a short wagon tour to look at crop conditions and some of the research trials underway at the Center.…

Except for some areas of southeastern Illinois, the 2016 corn crop went in well, and on June 12 was rated at 75% good or excellent. Warm temperatures have speeded up growth, and although below-normal rainfall, especially in western Illinois, is starting to cause some concern, the 2016 corn crop is off to a very good start.
The corn crop this year has excellent stands and there are few drowned-out areas, though there is some unevenness depending on when the crop was planted and how much rain it received after planting.…

Fields days organized in 2016 by Crop Sciences and Extension at the University of Illinois, Western Illinois University, and Southern Illinois University will focus on crops and pests, with speakers talking about current crop issues along with information from previous research. Each event will offer CEUs for CCAs.
Following is the schedule of crop-related field days for 2016, including locations, dates, starting times, and contact information.

• Macomb, WIU: Thursday June 23, 12:00 PM; Mark Bernards (309) 313-5917,

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Corn planting has moved ahead of the 5-year average, with 66% of the Illinois crop planted by May 1. Early planting usually means an early start to nitrogen uptake. But N uptake is slow for a month or more after planting: in one study we did in 2015, plants at the 4-leaf stage about five weeks after planting had only 4 pounds of N per acre in the above-ground part of the plant. So there’s time both to get N applied to the crop before it needs it and also time for N in the soil to move out of the rooting zone if it’s in the nitrate form and the weather turns wet.…

Even though the price of nitrogen fertilizer has dropped some in the past year, the lower price of corn means that decisions about N management need to be made carefully, with an eye towards maximizing the return to this critically important input.
The return of dry weather over the past week and the forecast for the coming week has lessened the concern about N loss, though we still need to consider the possibility that some fall-applied anhydrous ammonia might have moved out of the upper part of the soil.…

The pattern of warmer and wetter than usual weather this past winter has changed some in the past two months, but hopes for a warm, dry, early spring have faded as well. Concerns remain about how much fall-applied N might have been lost and about whether and how this should change how we manage N this spring.
Most Illinois producers waited until soil temperatures had dropped to 50 degrees or less before applying anhydrous ammonia last fall.…

With funding from the Nutrient Research & Education Council (NREC) we started a project in 2014 to try to get a better idea for how much nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) are contained in harvested grain of corn, soybean, and wheat.
In 2014 we tried to get yield level for each sampled field in order to see if yield level affects nutrient content. We found that it did not, and so we dropped the requirement to include yield level (will leave it as an option) and ask only for the county in which the sampled field was located.…