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.…
The University of Illinois Extension will host the Ewing Demonstration Center Agronomy Field Day on Thursday, July 27, 2017 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,…
While the record will show that corn planting progressed at a more or less normal rate this spring in Illinois, wet, cool conditions that developed after nearly half of the crop had been planted resulted in a great deal of replanting, especially in the flat-soil areas of Illinois. Some fields damaged by water and some that were too wet to plant before late May likely were planted to soybeans instead of corn. The June 30 acreage report shows Illinois corn acreage dropping by 500,000 from 2016 to 2017 (to 11.1 million acres) and soybean acreage increasing by 290,000 acres,…
Very little corn or soybean planting took place in Illinois over the past week, and while planting progress is not far behind average for the end of the first week of May, crop development is starting to lag as temperatures remain cool. Crop emergence has been slow, with only less than half of the corn crop that was planted by the end of April emerged by May 7.
One of the most visible consequences of the cool weather has been the poor corn crop color of recent days.…
In January I posted about the large project we are part of, funded by the North Central Soybean Research using soybean checkoff funds, to gather information on some 500 soybean fields in Illinois for each crop year from 2014 through 2017. The response has not been as enthusiastic as I had hoped, so I’m again calling for help on this. With 10 million acres of soybean in Illinois, 500 fields is less than a quarter of a percent of fields.…
Newer and longer-term partnerships between personnel in Illinois and personnel in Missouri and Iowa have resulted in several bi-state crops conferences to be held during January 2017 in Western Illinois or Eastern Iowa.
Friday, January 6, 2017: Bi-State Crop Advantage Conference, Burlington, IA, 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM
Location: Comfort Suites, 1708 Stonegate Center Drive, Burlington, IA.
Hosts: Iowa State University and University of Illinois Extension
More Information: Click here to access the flier.…