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.…
Corn and soybean take up relatively large amounts of phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), and much of this P and K ends up in the grain that is taken off the field during harvest. In order to keep soil nutrient levels from dropping over time, the amounts removed need to be replaced by applying fertilizer or manure.
In order to know how much nutrient a crop removes, we need to know how much there is in a bushel of harvested grain.…
Thirty-six counties representing the nine crop reporting districts were surveyed at the end of July/beginning of August as part of our annual statewide corn and soybean survey. The surveys were performed by sampling five corn and five soybean fields per county. For the past several years (2011, 2013–2017), surveys in corn and soybean fields have been conducted with the goal of estimating densities of common insect pests. The estimates provided in this article should not be considered a substitute for scouting individual fields and making informed pest management decisions—even areas of the state that appear to be at low risk could have contained fields with high densities of a given insect pest.…
Only a short time ago, many agricultural professionals were optimistic Illinois would somehow be “spared” the incidents of off-target damage caused by dicamba that continue to plague several states to our south. The recent preponderance of evidence (observations made traveling the state, stories on social media, an increasing number of pesticide misuse complaints filed with the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA), etc.), suggests otherwise. Instances of soybean demonstrating symptoms of exposure to dicamba have greatly increased over the past two weeks and it’s nearly certain the number of affected acres will continue to rise. …
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,…
Japanese Beetles
Japanese beetles are back. Reports statewide indicate Japanese beetles are here (and in some locations, in very high numbers.) With corn starting to tassel and getting close to tassel, it’s important to remember, even though densities may appear to be extremely high, the average density of beetles across the field may be below levels of economic concern. An insecticidal treatment should be considered during silking if:
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The program is set for the 36th annual University of Illinois’ Northwestern Agricultural Research Center Field Day. The program will begin at 8 am on Wednesday, July 26th.
Topics and speakers will include:
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Are you having trouble with Palmer amaranth? We have something new for you.
NEW Palmer ID test available this year: We spent a long winter optimizing a new assay in collaboration with Dr. Pat Tranel’s lab to aide in Palmer amaranth ID. Contamination of seed mixes with Palmer amaranth became a wide-spread issue last year. Efforts to determine if a seed mixture is contaminated can be hampered by low germination rates and slow grow outs in greenhouse tests.…
The weather has turned from cool and wet to warm and dry, with thoughts now turning to when it might rain next. The US Drought Monitor at http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ shows no drought in the Corn Belt, and water use is still low, but some plants whose roots are not growing well or are in compacted soil are starting to show afternoon leaf curling, and water demand is increasing as plant growth rates increase. We hope rainfall returns soon.…