cropCENTRAL | Field Crop Production Resources

On October 31, 2015, I will retire from the University of Illinois and on November 9, 2015, begin a new career with Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri as Sustainable Agricultural Systems Lead. So, my actual retirement will be short-lived. In this new Regulatory Policy & Scientific Affairs position, I will have responsibilities for advancing important sustainability initiatives and advanced agricultural technology platforms. This position will require close collaboration across multiple teams including Monsanto’s Regulatory,…

Each year the University of Illinois Extension’s regional Crop Management Conferences offer hours of research-based education to farmers, Certified Crop Advisors, and other agricultural professionals. Interactive online courses were developed from 2015 conference presentations by University of Illinois Department of Crop Science faculty:

• New (and old) Tools for Delaying and Coping with Herbicide Resistance – Dr. Adam Davis, USDA Weed Ecologist
• Confirming Herbicide Resistance – Dr. Aaron Hager, Extension Weed Scientist
• Corn &

…

Producers throughout the Corn Belt are in the midst of harvest operations. However, it’s not too soon to begin evaluating the value of corn rootworm inputs for 2015 and their potential value for the 2016 growing season. Earlier this month, the Plant Management Network posted a new webcast titled Estimation of Efficacy Functions for Products Used to Manage Corn Rootworm Larval Injury. The webcast was created by Dr. Nicholas Tinsley,…

On August 10, 2015, Dr. Doug Johnson, an Extension Entomologist with the University of Kentucky reported that the sugarcane aphid, Melanaphis sacchari (Zehntner), was collected in two western Kentucky counties (Fulton County and Graves County) on grain and sweet sorghum. The identity of the aphids was confirmed by Dr. Lee Townsend, Extension Entomologist, University of Kentucky. To date, this aphid has largely affected sorghum producers in several southeastern states as well as Kansas,…

With funding from the Nutrient Research & Education Council (NREC) we started a project in 2014 to try to get a better idea for how much nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) are contained in harvested grain of corn, soybean, and wheat.
In 2014 we tried to get yield level for each sampled field in order to see if yield level affects nutrient content. We found that it did not, and so we dropped the requirement to include yield level (will leave it as an option) and ask only for the county in which the sampled field was located.…

As part of a USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) sponsored grant, surveys of insect pests were conducted in randomly selected corn and soybean fields across 28 counties throughout Illinois this summer. Fields were sampled during two discrete periods: July 27 – July 31 and August 12 – August 24. Within each county, five cornfields and five soybean fields were sampled. Within a cornfield (away from the field edge and end rows), 20 consecutive plants were examined carefully for northern and western corn rootworm adults.…