Despite the fact that the “active” weather pattern gave no signs of changing over the past month, few of us thought we’d see so little planting progress by now. But here we are, with only 35% of the Illinois corn crop and 14% of the soybean crop planted by May 26. With more rain this week, we will have less than half the corn and less than a fourth of the soybeans planted before June 1 in Illinois.…
Persistent wet field conditions have increased the likelihood that many farmers will opt to take the prevented planting option through their crop insurance policy. Even though no crop will be planted, weed control practices still should be implemented to reduce seed production from summer annual weed species. Any weed seed produced in 2019 will add to future weed control costs. The old weed science adage “One year’s seedling equals seven years weeding” reinforces the need to adequately manage weeds on prevented planting acres.…
A few weeks ago we wrote an article on how to assess severity of Fusarium head blight (FHB) in small grains as well as some practices to consider that can help improve potential profitability in cases where outbreaks are severe. Now that symptoms of FHB are starting to develop in the earliest flowering wheat, it is a great time to assess your fields and determine if any considerations for harvest need to be made. To access the article click here.…
Much of the vegetation visible from the road is comprised of winter annual species, including the now obvious yellow-flowered species cressleaf groundsel (a.k.a. butterweed) and yellow rocket. Some summer annual weed species, including common lambsquarters, smartweeds giant ragweed and waterhemp, also have begun to emerge. When field conditions become conducive for planting, several possible scenarios exist for the management of existing weed vegetation. One possible scenario is that planting will occur before any type of weed management program (tillage or herbicide application) is implemented to control existing vegetation. …
Most Illinois producers are behind in getting corn and soybeans into the ground this year as a result of persistent rains and cool temperatures. Some people are wondering what this might mean for some of the diseases we encounter in our field crops.
Keep in mind, disease occurs when you have the correct host, plant pathogen, and environment together. The longer those three factors are together, the more disease will occur. Although we cannot speculate much on the long term environmental conditions we will face this year and how that will impact diseases,…
Cooperators around the state are monitoring black cutworm and true armyworm traps this spring.
Black Cutworm
Continued flights have occurred this last week, but at low levels overall. Reports of corn emergence have been trickling in and along with those reports are also those of black cutworm feeding. As a reminder, some management suggestions from Nick Seiter’s 2018 article (http://bulletin.ipm.illinois.edu/?p=4151):
…
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.
Wheat in the southern part of Illinois is approaching heading or just headed, which means that flowering will start within 4-5 days, depending on temperature (heads produce small yellow anthers-(Figure 1)) Vomitoxin (DON) can accumulate in the absence of significant visual symptoms, and thus that is often the focus of my Fusarium head blight (FHB) recommendations. …
Fusarium head blight risk remains elevated in much of Illinois and may have impacted wheat flowering over the last 7-10 days. A new article on the next steps you can take can be found in the Illinois Field Crop Disease Blog by clicking here.…
With only 9% of the Illinois corn crop planted by April 28 and with 3 to 5 inches of rain this past week in the northern half of the state, and above normal rainfall just about everywhere else, there has been little further progress. The start in 2018 wasn’t much earlier than this, but planting was very fast once it started, and we finished earlier than normal. That will not repeat in 2019. In fact, the progress report released today (May 6) shows that corn went from 9 to 10% planted over the past week (it was 68% one year ago),…
On March 1, 2019 the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) announced it will require Special Local Needs labels (referred to as 24(c) labels) during the 2019 growing season for the four commercial dicamba-containing products labeled for use in dicamba-resistant soybean varieties. The Special Local Needs labels include five elements, one of which is a June 30 application deadline. IDOA recognizes the importance of this technology to Illinois soybean growers and is taking this proactive step to reduce the instances of damage to dicot plant species (including sensitive soybean,…