Many people have asked about the need to make a fungicide application for frogeye leaf spot on soybeans this season. I have posted a new article on the Illinois Field Crop Disease Blog which reviews this pathogen, how it works, and some new tools that may help you with these important decisions. Find the article by clicking here.…
If the appearance of the soybean crop going into late July predicts how it will yield, the 2018 crop in Illinois is going to be a high-yielding one. The crop in Illinois was rated at 78% good + excellent (G+E) as of July 22. Conditions across the US soybean growing regions are somewhat variable, but the 2018 crop is in good condition overall.
As I did with corn in the Bulletin on July 6,…
The University of Illinois Extension will host the Ewing Demonstration Center Agronomy Field Day on Thursday, July 26, 2018 at 9 a.m. Every growing season presents challenges to production, and this year is no exception! We are happy to host this summer field day to share with local growers current, ongoing agronomy research in southern Illinois, including cover crop trials on corn and soybeans, nitrogen management in corn, weed management in soybean, and our continuous no-till field,…
We are at that time in the season where many people will be making final decisions regarding fungicide applications in soybeans and corn. I wrote an article with tips and other items to consider when making fungicide decisions and on farm trials on the Illinois Field Crop Disease Blog, which can be found by clicking HERE. …
Authors: Talon Becker and Nathan Kleczewski
Among the various soybean pests, Heterodera glycines Ichinohe, known by most as soybean cyst nematode (SCN), continues to be a persistent cause of yield loss for soybean producers1. SCN has been found in every county in Illinois, as well as much of the eastern United States, Puerto Rico, and parts of Hawaii and Canada2 (Figure 1).
Figure 1.
Map of the known distribution of the soybean cyst nematode,…
Well, it is that time of year where we start to see issues developing in the field. Questions such as, “What happened?” and “Why me?” will become more common. The key to managing diseases is proper diagnosis, and this starts in the field. In my recent post on the Field Crop Disease Blog, I provide several tips for diagnosing issues in the field, and distinguishing disease related problems from abiotic issues. Check out the post,…
This past week we spent a few days surveying wheat fields throughout the state in order to see how the crop is progressing as well as better understand what disease related issues we may be experiencing. Most of the crop was near flag leaf emergence (Feekes growth stage 8/9) with a few fields near boot in locations further south. The good news is that of the 26 fields we looked at, none had any stripe rust,…
Authors: Nick Seiter, Talon Becker, and Nathan Johanning
Slugs can be a difficult pest to manage when conditions are favorable for them, which has been the case often (particularly in southern Illinois) over the last couple of years. These mollusks can damage both corn and soybean early in the season, along with a variety of other crops; however, they have the potential to be especially problematic in soybean, where they can kill the cotyledons and ultimately reduce stands.…
A number of times over the past 30 months I’ve asked Illinois soybean producers for help in gathering field-level information on soybean fields to feed into a study, led by the University of Nebraska and funded by the North Central Soybean Research Program, looking at weather, soil, and management effects soybean yield over the Corn Belt.
The last growing season from which we are collecting information is 2017, so this is probably the last time I’ll ask.…
It is looking like at least some harvest surprises may be positive after an up-and-down 2017 season in Illinois. The September 1 yield predictions released by the USDA this week are for Illinois corn yield to average 189 bushels per acre, up a bushel from the August 1 estimate. The soybean yield estimate is unchanged at 58 bushels per acre. Both would be outstanding after the tough start to the year and dry weather at times over much of the state.…