cropCENTRAL | Field Crop Production Resources

Corn and soybean crops limp towards the finish line

  • September 5, 2019

After the worst start to a cropping season in decades, mid-season lack of rain in parts of Illinois, and season-long low crop ratings, it’s time to take a look at what comes next as the 2019 cropping season moves into its final stages.
Corn
To no one’s surprise, various crop tours in recent weeks have confirmed that corn yields in parts of Illinois are likely to be disappointing. If there is a positive, it’s that the crop may look a little better than we thought it would by now after more than half of it was planted after June 1.…

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Late season tar spot- what is on the horizon?

  • September 4, 2019

There has been some chatter about tar spot starting up a bit in Northern Illinois corn fields.
However, crops are almost at R5 in many places.  What options do we have and what can you expect?  Check out our new post on the Illinois Field Crop Disease Hub by clicking here.  Remember to sign up at the website for updates and look forward to new materials such as factsheets, images, and guides by Spring,…

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Diagrams to help you rate foliar disease on corn

  • August 19, 2019

Many in the agricultural community, as well as researchers annually rate corn for disease as a means to assess hybrid response, hybrid effectiveness, or potential disease level on field productivity.  It can be difficult to rain the eye to accurately measure disease on foliage, and differences in the type and size of the structure or lesion associated with the pathogen varies significantly.  The four links below will direct you to disease area diagrams we developed in order to help you obtain accurate disease severity estimates in your fields.…

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Let us know if you see these diseases in Illinois!

  • August 8, 2019

There are two, fairly new and / or important diseases  to keep an eye out for in 2019.  We are actively seeking samples of symptomatic plants for research to help us understand the biology, ecology, and management of these pathogens.  If you have a suspect sample, please send to the UIUC plant diagnostic clinic for confirmation (cost will be covered), and or contact me via email, telephone, or twitter.
 
The first is a disease that we started working on in late 2017- Tar spot on corn. …

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2019 Observations from the Field: Dicamba

  • August 2, 2019

Approximately two weeks ago, only a few (11 reported as of July 16) dicamba-related complaints had been filed with the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA), and some held aspirations that the magnitude of off-target issues would be less this year than during the two previous seasons.  Today, it appears those hopeful aspirations are being replaced by the harsh reality that the magnitude of off-target issues in 2019 might be either similar to or possibly exceed those of previous seasons. …

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Corn and soybean crops at mid-season, 2019

  • July 19, 2019

The 2019 Illinois corn crop reached 50% planted during the first week of June, more than a month later than the average of the past five years. The soybean crop reached 50% planted a few days later than corn, and more than three weeks later than the average of the past five years. May rainfall was above normal over most of Illinois, and June brought near-normal rainfall over much of the state. Still, the late planting coupled with too much or too little rainfall after planting produced July crop condition ratings of only about 40% good + excellent for both crops,…

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Southern rust in Illinois- it’s complicated

  • July 18, 2019

This week we started picking up Southern rust in the southern Illinois.  Thusfar, reports indicate that disease severity is low.  However, the recent hurricane remnant and warm forecasts may mean that we may see the disease progress somewhat in the coming days and weeks.
When people in Illinois hear the words southern rust, it brings back memories of a few years ago when the disease moved in and environmental conditions favored disease development for a prolonged period of time. …

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New maps for tracking Southern rust in corn (repaired link)

  • July 14, 2019

Southern rust is caused by a fungal pathogen that does not overwinter in Illinois.  Instead, it blows in from warmer regions during the growing season.  When conditions favor spread and development of this disease significant damage can occur, especially if it arrives before tasseling (VT).  For more information on Southern rust, check out the Crop Protection Network publication by clicking here.  Yesterday our colleagues detected this disease in Southeast Missouri.  With the hurricane/tropical storm remnant pushing northward,…

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Avoid the cosmic freakout

  • July 13, 2019

Today colleagues in Indiana reported tar spot presence in some of their research plots located in North West IN.  They found an extremely low number of stroma (less than 10) when assessing approximately 500 feet of plots.  When you see or read about the report keep a few things to keep in mind:
1) The amount detected was exceptionally low, and not close to the widespread severity we saw early last year.  For example, on  July 5th,…

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