Soybean Cyst Nematode is an extremely important, yield limiting pathogen of soybeans in Illinois, reducing yields an average of 1-3% across the state. As I have written in earlier posts, sampling your fields every 3-5 years to assess SCN levels and HG types is the first step in managing this issue. The best time to sample for SCN is after harvest in the Fall, and this can easily be added onto any samples you gather for soil nutrient testing. …
The following is posted on behalf of Dr. Nathan Kleczewski, Field Crops Pathologist for Growmark. This content is from the Field Crop Disease Hub webpage Dr. Kleczewski curated.
The harvest in 2018 has been marred by frequent rains that resulted in soybeans in portions of the state being left out longer than desired. As expected, more attention to these unharvested beans resulted in more observations. One common observation was the presence of various types of black growth on stems of senesced plants,…
With harvest winding down in most of Illinois after another year with high to very high yields, it’s time to review some basics of fall fertilization. Neither fertilizer nor grain prices are historically high, so there’s reason to be aware of costs while making sure to cover the nutrient basics.
Nitrogen
In a webinar on October 19 organized by the Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Association, we looked at some of the nitrogen response data that have come in so far this fall and considered what this might mean in terms of fall N management.…
The following is posted on behalf of Dr. Nathan Kleczewski, Field Crops Pathologist for Growmark. This content is from the Field Crop Disease Hub webpage Dr. Kleczewski curated.
As we finish our corn harvest in 2018, we have noticed an increasing amount of information pertaining to tar spot circulating through the agronomic community that is not entirely correct. Let’s take a minute to clarify some of the more commonly encountered rumors and set the record straight.…
Remember that game of telephone we played as kids? One person says something in to the ear of another and after passing through 10 people or so the starting message, “I like peanut butter” ends up as, “John licks turtles.” Sometimes that can happen with information pertaining to plant diseases. Lately there have been some interesting things said about tar spot on corn in the community. To help clarify, and set the record straight, I published an article on my blog,…
Tarspot in corn continues to be the hot topic in our field crops this season. I put together a brief update on what we know based on this seasons observations, which can be found by clicking this link.…
For those that attended Agronomy Day this past August, the title and above graphic may look familiar. As field and research season winds down, we’re able to finish collecting and summarizing data. One of our biggest summer projects is the annual corn and soybean survey. While some of that information was shared at Agronomy Day, the complete results are summarized below.
As a recap, this survey has been carried out across the state for several years (2011,…
Hybrid resistance is a key component for managing many plant pathogens. To access a new sheet on hybrid response to tar spot in corn click the following link: Corn Hybrid Response to Tar Spotfin.docx.
We are currently rating multiple variety trials in affected areas across states to generate more hybrid-specific data. More information will be available soon.…
Illinois corn and soybean yields in 2018 were predicted in the August 1 NASS report (released on August 10) to be 205 and 65 bushels per acre, respectively, both an all-time record for this great state. Corn yields in the U.S. were predicted at 178.4 bushels per acre, a new all-time high, and for U.S. soybean the August 1 prediction was 51.6 bushels, which is very slightly below the 2016 U.S. yield.
Trying to guess which way and how far the yield numbers will move from predicted levels is a popular pastime,…
Producers in Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota have been dealing with gall midges in soybean. This is a fly in the family Cecidomyiidae, which is the same family as the Hessian fly, sorghum midge, and several other agricultural pests. We have not confirmed any infestations of this insect in Illinois at this time; the closest confirmed, damaging infestations that I know of are in western Iowa. However, because so little is known about the biology of this insect,…