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Later Planting Sets Stage for Possible Black Cutworm Injury

  • May 19, 2022
  • Kelly Estes

While planting has been slow in 2022, moth flights have been steady across much of the state. Regular flights have been observed through much of the northern two-thirds of the state. Several counties have reported significant moth flights (9 or more moths over a 2-night span). We can use the date of the significant flight to predict potential cutting dates based on degree day predictions.
A few key things to note:
Black cutworm moths are strong migratory insects with northward flights commonly observed from Gulf States into the Midwest from March through May.…

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Soil-Residual Herbicides Applied to Emerged Corn

  • May 19, 2022
  • Aaron Hager

A potential scenario of planting delays will be corn planted in fields where no soil-residual herbicide was applied. If the corn has not yet emerged, the soil-residual herbicide can be applied as originally planned. But, what if the corn has emerged and the soil-residual herbicide has not been applied? Can the application proceed as planned, or will a different product need to be selected? The answer depends on the respective herbicide.
Most, but not all, soil residual herbicides can be applied after corn has emerged.…

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Emerging Crops and Delayed PRE Herbicide Applications

  • May 16, 2022
  • Aaron Hager

Soil-residual herbicides are important components of integrated weed management programs. Labels of many single and multiple active ingredient products allow application before and after crop emergence, but other active ingredients can cause severe crop injury if applied to emerging crop plants. In fields where a PRE herbicide application has been delayed and corn or soybean are beginning to emerge, the following active ingredients (applied either alone or as a premix product) or commercial products should not be applied:
Corn
saflufenacil (Sharpen and Verdict,…

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Illinois Crops Update 5/13/2022

  • May 13, 2022
  • Chelsea Harbach

Welcome to the first weekly crops update from Illinois Extension. Each week, I put out a request to crops educators and specialists from University of Illinois to compile an update to share with the entire state. We hope you find this information useful, and if you have any questions or suggestions about the format, please email me (harbach2@illinois.edu).
Emerson Nafziger, agronomy specialist and professor emeritus Dept. of Crop Sciences
While we welcome the warm weather that has dried fields and enabled a lot of planting this week,…

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On the Watch for Soil Crusting

  • May 6, 2022
  • Emerson Nafziger

Corn and soybean planting progress has been slow so far in Illinois, with 7 percent of the corn crop and 5 percent of the soybean crop planted by May 1. These numbers should increase modestly by May 8, but this will not be an early-planting year. With warm temperatures returning next week, planting progress should accelerate.
Soil temperatures at the 2-inch depth over the last ten days ranged from around 60 in southern Illinois to 55 in central Illinois to 50 in northern Illinois.…

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Spring Nitrogen Management

  • March 28, 2022
  • Emerson Nafziger

High fertilizer nitrogen prices are providing an incentive to manage N this spring with as much efficiency as possible. We’ll consider here some ways to work towards that.
Nitrogen rate: Higher corn prices are helping to counter the effect of higher N prices on N rate: if N and corn sale prices hold at current levels, MRTN rates for corn following soybean are 154 lb/acre in northern IL, 167 in central IL, and 185 in southern Illinois.…

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Is That Enough Nitrogen?

  • March 17, 2022
  • Emerson Nafziger

While N fertilizer prices remain high, at around $0.90 per lb of N as anhydrous ammonia and in the vicinity of $1.00 per lb of N as UAN or urea, recent increases in the price of corn have produced moderately higher MRTN N rates from the N rate calculator. As an example, with N at $1.00 per lb and corn at $7.00 per bushel, the MRTN rate for corn following soybean in central Illinois is 167 lb N per acre,…

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Spring Moth Trapping Set to Begin April 1

  • March 2, 2022
  • Kelly Estes

As in past years, our Moth Trapping Network is set to begin April 1 with our spring migratory insects. We are currently looking for cooperators to monitor both black cutworm and true armyworm traps from April 1 – May 31.

Requirements for trapping:

  • Set up traps provided.
  • Check traps regularly. Ideally, we’d like traps to be checked every other day to help accurately identify significant moth flights, but checking on Monday,

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2021 Applied Research Report Now Available

  • February 2, 2022
  • Nick Seiter

Each year, we produce a report of our applied research efforts related to insect and disease management in field crops. New for this year, we’ve created a landing page at https://extension.illinois.edu/global/field-crop-insect-and-disease-applied-research, where you can view this year’s report along previous versions (2018-2020). The 2021 report includes several highlights, such as:

  • Western and northern corn rootworm Bt resistance monitoring, as well as trait performance in field experiments
  • New surveys of dectes stem borer stem tunneling and corn rootworm sticky traps,

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2022 Weed Control Guide Now Available

  • January 10, 2022
  • Aaron Hager

The 2022 Weed Control Guide for Ohio, Indiana and Illinois contains 232 pages of weed management information, including weed response ratings for corn and soybean herbicides.  Information and recommendations for managing weeds in small grains and forages are included, along with specific information about, and control recommendations for, several problem weed species.  The 2022 Weed Control Guide is available in pdf or print format and can be ordered at: https://extensionpubs.osu.edu/2022-weed-control-guide-for-ohio-indiana-and-illinois/

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