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Stalk Rot: A Significant Disease in Corn

  • August 16, 2024
  • Esneider Bojaca, Diane Plewa

Stalk rot in corn primarily leads to stalk breakage and lodging, and consequently yield loss. Stalk rot is caused by pathogens (fungi or bacteria). While abiotic stress like flooding, droughts, or insect infestations can cause similar damage, the symptoms in the stalk can vary depending on the cause.
Stalk rot pathogens attack the pith, degrading it and destroying the vascular tissue within the stalk. This disruption affects water and nutrient movement within the plant, resulting in premature plant collapse.…

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Illinois Crop Update – August 9, 2024

  • August 9, 2024
  • Illinois Extension

Russ Higgins – Commercial Agriculture Educator
Grundy County
Soil Conditions: Mildly Dry (soil is drier than normal, plant growth may have slowed)
This week precipitation has been mixed in northeast Illinois, areas north of the Rte. 80 corridor have received multiple rainfall events while areas south have received limited to no precipitation. Soy continues to progress, reaching R5, beginning seed stage. Depending upon variety maturity and planting date, most corn fields visited were R3-R4 to R4-R5.…

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Illinois Crop Update – August 2, 2024

  • August 2, 2024
  • Illinois Extension

Emily Hansen – Commercial Agriculture Educator
LaSalle County
Soil Conditions: Mildly Wet (soil is wetter than normal, local vegetation is healthy)
We have gotten quite a bit of rain in the last week in LaSalle County, with most areas seeing between 2-3 inches.  Some areas in Bureau County received up to 4 inches of precipitation in the past week. With this, many fields have fairly saturated soils, but I have not noticed any ponding. …

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Weekly Climate Review & Weather Forecast

  • July 26, 2024
  • Todd Gleason

Thankfully, our weather calmed down this week. Temperatures this week ranged from the high 60s in northern Illinois to the mid-70s in southern Illinois, between 2 and 6 degrees below normal for mid-July. July to date has been 1 to 3 degrees cooler than normal as well. Despite the cooler weather lately, the entire state is still about 50 to 100 growing degree days ahead of average, going back to May 1st.
This week was also quite a bit drier,…

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Illinois Crop Update – July 26, 2024

  • July 26, 2024
  • Illinois Extension

Kathryn Seebruck – Commercial Agriculture Educator
Stephenson County
Soil Conditions: Moderately Wet (soil is damp, standing water may be present in low areas, water bodies are full)
After last week’s storms, the corn that was most heavily impacted (which was minimal) has mostly come back up. Everything still looks very healthy as we continue to receive rainfall. Corn is silking and soybeans are anywhere between R3 and R5. I have seen some rootworm beetles and subsequent silk clipping but not in high amounts.…

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Illinois Crop Update – July 19, 2024

  • July 19, 2024
  • Illinois Extension

Emily Hansen – Commercial Agriculture Educator
LaSalle County
Soil Conditions: Near Normal
LaSalle County experienced a good amount of precipitation this week from the several large storm systems that moved through the area. Luckily, we have not seen any severe damage from these storms.  I also have not noticed much standing water in fields.  Corn at the IVCC + Extension plots is tasseling or getting close to it.  Soybeans are flowering.  The IVCC + Extension plots are a little behind in development compared to fields in a lot of LaSalle County. …

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Illinois Crop Update – July 12, 2024

  • July 12, 2024
  • Illinois Extension

Kathryn Seebruck – Commercial Agriculture Educator
Stephenson County
Soil Conditions: Moderately Wet (soil is damp, standing water may be present in low areas, water bodies are full)
Some side-dressing is still occurring on later planted corn, and beans are currently being sprayed. Some are struggling to finish wheat harvest due to the wet weather we keep getting. Not all areas have been affected similarly with rain, but the range is between just enough and too much to the point of creating drowned out low areas;…

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Illinois Crop Update – July 5, 2024

  • July 5, 2024
  • Illinois Extension

Russ Higgins – Commercial Agriculture Educator
Grundy County
Soil Conditions: Near Normal
This past week I had the opportunity to travel a larger area of northern Illinois. Generally, both corn and soybean crops appear to be in good shape. This comes as somewhat of a surprise when considering what the crop has endured to this point (near midway) in the growing season. Earliest planted crops include R1 corn and R2 soy. In recent trips across the countryside,…

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Illinois Crop Update – June 28, 2024

  • June 28, 2024
  • Illinois Extension

Nicole Haverback  – Watershed Outreach Associate
Henry County
Soil Conditions: Near Normal
After a few needed storms this week, Henry county received around 2 inches of rain with hail and wind impacting some areas

Figure 1: Hail damage soybeans- Annawan

Figure 2: Hail damage corn – Annawan

Figure 3: Hail damage corn- Annawan
 
Emily Hansen – Commercial Agriculture Educator
LaSalle County
Soil Conditions: Mildly Dry (soil is drier than normal,…

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Rootworm Beetle Emergence – 2024 Monitoring Program

  • June 25, 2024
  • Nick Seiter

Corn rootworm beetles will begin emerging throughout Illinois over the next couple of weeks (we noticed the first few western corn rootworm beetles of the year at our Urbana field site earlier this week). There are a number of things we can learn by keeping track of corn rootworm emergence, particularly in fields that have a history of rootworm problems:

  • Control performance. Usually, our first indication that a local population is developing resistance to a Bt trait package is elevated numbers of beetles emerging from traited corn;

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