all

Dr. Erin Hodgson started working in the Department of Entomology, now the Department of Plant Pathology, Entomology, and Microbiology, at Iowa State University in 2009. She is a professor with extension and research responsibilities in corn and soybeans. She has a general background in integrated pest management (IPM) for field crops. Dr. Hodgson's current extension and research programs are focused on improving corn and soybean production by using IPM tactics to protect yield and increase overall farmer profits. Among other projects, she oversees insecticide efficacy evaluations for soybean aphids, Japanese beetles, and aphids in corn. Erin also helps manage emerging field crop pests and invasive species. 

Photo of Erin Hodgson

Daren Mueller is a professor and extension plant pathologist at Iowa State University. He is also the coordinator of the Iowa State Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program. Daren received his bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996, and his master's degree and doctorate in Plant Pathology from the University of Illinois-Urbana in 1999 and 2001. Daren’s main research interests involve understanding the biology and management of field crop diseases. Daren is also a co-director of the North Central IPM Center and the Crop Protection Network.

Dr. Alison Robertson is a professor of plant pathology and microbiology. She provides extension education on the diagnosis and management of corn and soybean diseases. Her research interests include Pythium seedling disease of corn and soybean and Goss's wilt. Dr. Robertson received her bachelor's degree in plant pathology in 1991 from the University of Kwazulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, and came to the United States in 1999 to pursue a doctoral degree in plant pathology at Clemson University. She started working at Iowa State University in May 2004.

Alison Robertson photo

Adam Sisson is an extension specialist with the Iowa State University Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program and a Certified Crop Adviser. Sisson focuses on the development of publications and other educational resources for farmers, agribusiness, and students. He received his bachelor's degree in agronomy and environmental studies in 2006 and a master's degree in sustainable agriculture in 2009; both from Iowa State University. 

Dr. Mark Licht is an associate professor and extension cropping systems specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. His extension, research and teaching program is focused on how to holistically manage Iowa cropping systems to achieve productivity, profitability and environmental goals. Research is centered around varied aspects of soybean, corn and cover crop management as well as agronomic implications of precision technologies.

Meaghan Anderson is a field agronomist in central Iowa and an extension specialist at Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Educational programming is available for farmers, agribusinesses, pesticide applicators, certified crop advisors, and other individuals interested in crop production.

Areas of expertise include weed management, weed biology, cover crops, corn and soybean management, and integrated pest management.

Subscribe to the Central Iowa Crop Update for current topics and agriculture events in the area.

Meaghan Anderson

Dr. Sotirios Archontoulis is an assistant professor of integrated cropping systems at the Department of Agronomy. His main research interests involve understanding complex Genotype by Management by Environment interactions and modeling various components of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Dr. Archontoulis's overall goal is to investigate practices that can increase the efficiency of system by means of increasing crop yields and simultaneously decreasing inputs or losses such as water and nitrogen. His approach combines field experimentation and use of mechanistic simulations models.

Dr. Kathleen Delate's current position as a professor and extension organic specialist at Iowa State University is a joint position between the departments of horticulture and agronomy, where she's responsible for research, extension, and teaching in organic agriculture. Organic agriculture is now a $35 billion industry in the United States, with 18,000 organic farmers. Her research focuses on pest management and soil fertility management strategies for transitioning and certified organic farmers.

Dr. Delate grew up on the East coast where her father was a statistician for Dupont and her mother hailed from a family farm in Magnolia, Minnesota. She spent many summers working on her cousin’s diversified farm in Minnesota, helping bale hay and feed hogs, which is where she developed a love for agriculture. Dr. Delate earned her bachelor's degree in agronomy, a master's degree in horticulture from the University of Florida, and a doctoral degree in agricultural ecology from the University of California-Berkeley. She has farmed organically in Iowa, California, Florida, and Hawaii. In 2014, she spent a sabbatical in Italy, studying organic no-till farming with some of the 48,000 organic farmers there. A video on the organic no-till system is available at: https://vimeo.com/user20353817/review/99643832/0a09248894

Results of the organic research are located on the Iowa State University Organic Agriculture webpage: https://www.leopold.iastate.edu/organic

Betsy Danielson is an extension specialist for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach in the Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP).

Betsy Danielson
May 18, 2018 8:31 AM

Cool conditions during planting season increase the potential for herbicide injury to seedlings due to slow emergence and reduced ability of the crop to metabolize herbicides. While herbicides may be responsible for emergence issues, most problems that have been brought to our attention seem to...

Weeds
May 14, 2018 6:07 PM

Planting conditions in northern Iowa, especially north of highway 20, is experiencing delays due to abundant rainfall. Corn planting progress is currently at 40% across the northern crop reporting districts compared to 65% and 70% for the state and 5-year average (...

Crop Production
May 8, 2018 9:43 AM

#Plant18 continues to progress across the state. According to Monday’s USDA Crop Progress Report, approximately 40% of Iowa’s expected corn crop has been...

Crop Production
May 7, 2018 11:31 AM

Over the weekend, someone let me know they saw a western corn rootworm adult. Remember this pest overwinters as an egg that hatches in June! They get confused with closely-related species every spring: striped cucumber beetle. Striped and spotted cucumber beetles overwinter as adults and become...

Crop Production, Insects
April 25, 2018 7:13 AM

It has been a slow start to #Plant18 in Iowa. The cooler and wet weather has kept many farmers out of the fields despite the fact that it is getting to be the end of April. Spring finally seems to have arrived (or at least for parts of Iowa), and with that farmers are not wasting anytime getting...

Crop Production
April 9, 2018 3:16 PM

The 29th David W. Staniforth Memorial Lecture was presented by Dr. Fred Gould on April 3rd.  The lecture was titled "Will Genetically Engineered Pests Protect Health, Biodiversity, and Crop Production?".  Dr. Gould is the Co-director of the Genetic Engineering and Society...

Weeds
April 9, 2018 3:04 PM

Green cover crop fields are slowly starting to appear across the state. Despite the recent snow that fell across the state, #plant18 is right around the corner. Farmers should have a game plan in place for how they plan to terminate their overwintering cover crop. Killing cover crops with a...

Conservation, Crop Production
April 6, 2018 8:41 AM

It is important to keep stored grain cool as we go into the spring and summer months.  Some warming of stored grain may have already occurred during warmer weather and with the sun shining on the south side of grain bins.

With the weather forecast for Friday through next Tuesday...

Grain Storage
March 30, 2018 10:31 AM

Insecticide-resistant soybean aphids have emerged as a new challenge to farmers throughout the upper Midwest. In a new regional publication, we suggest strategies for managing soybean aphids resistant to pyrethroid insecticides. A few key points for managing aphids are: 

Crop Production, Insects
March 12, 2018 1:13 PM

Pest resistance is a world-wide challenge from hospitals to farm fields. I recently spent several days in the hospital battling an internal bacterial infection, which required intravenous antibiotics. I noted that the medical staff:

Crop Production, Insects, Diseases, Weeds
March 1, 2018 2:58 PM

A collection of educational resources to help people on farms, orchards, forests, and other agricultural establishments comply with EPA’s revised Worker Protection Standard (WPS) regulation is now available online at http://pesticideresources.org/wps...

Pests
February 27, 2018 2:12 PM

The IPM team at Iowa State University has been monitoring for field crop pests for a long time. The target pests have changed over the years, but the goal always remains the same: help inform farmers about pest activity in Iowa. One long-standing...

Crop Production, Insects
February 14, 2018 2:32 PM

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach published the Field Crop Scouting book as an online learning tool for crop scouts and other ag professionals in Iowa. This interactive textbook allows individuals to acquire knowledge about multiple crop scouting topics to help create stronger crop...

Crop Production, Insects, Diseases, Weeds
January 26, 2018 11:46 AM

If you are interested in an in-depth course covering soil fertility and nutrient management, then consider attending the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach 2018 Soil Fertility and Nutrient Management Short Course. This is a two-day event that provides an opportunity to dig deeper into...

Soil Fertility
December 27, 2017 3:37 PM

Dicamba has been an important component of Iowa weed management systems for more than 40 years.  The history of its use is somewhat unique in that its popularity has ebbed and flowed over time.  The increase in herbicide resistant weeds combined with the introduction of dicamba-resistant soybean...

Weeds
December 19, 2017 8:30 AM

At the recent North Central Weed Science Society annual meeting I was asked to provide the opening presentation (A historical perspective on dicamba) in a symposium focusing on issues with dicamba.  Following are the slides and the abstract of my presentation.

...

Weeds
December 18, 2017 8:06 AM

The Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Soil Fertility web site has undergone a recent redesign and update. The site was updated, but the URL has remained the same (http...

Soil Fertility
November 29, 2017 1:43 PM

The number of acres planted to cover crops annually has been steadily increasing in recent years throughout the United States. Meanwhile, the soybean cyst nematode (SCN) continues to sit atop of the U.S. list of yield-suppressing pathogens. It’s no coincidence, then, that there is an increasing...

Diseases
November 6, 2017 9:03 AM

There have been many reports of corn along the edge of the fields yielding drastically less than the remainder of the field. In many cases, the yield loss is most obvious on the southern edge of the field, but it has been observed along the west, east, and north sides of fields this year. This...

Crop Production
October 26, 2017 3:40 PM

Up to this point in the harvest season we have been short on grain dry down and cooling weather. Corn moisture percentages have been hanging in the 20’s, sometimes in the upper 20’s. This past week eliminated much of the moisture, but favorable field dry down weather rarely continues into...

Grain Storage
October 23, 2017 4:07 PM

I’ve received lots of inquiries in the past few weeks about sampling fields for nematodes that feed on corn. Most every Iowa field has one or more different nematode species present at low numbers. But it’s only when numbers are at damaging levels that yield loss will occur.

Unfortunately...

Diseases
October 20, 2017 10:07 AM

I grew up watching the television show Quincy, M.E.  Jack Klugman starred as a Los Angeles County medical examiner in the mystery-thriller, one-hour show as Quincy who had to solve mysterious deaths.  I would argue this show set the tone for future shows such as "CSI: Crime Scene...

Crop Production
October 6, 2017 8:44 AM

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been doing stalk rot assessments at several of the ISU Research Farms including the Southeast Research and Demonstration Farm, the McNay Research Farm, and the Ames Farm. While the plants seemed to be standing well, minus where the raccoons had fun in one of...

Diseases
October 4, 2017 11:48 AM

If you would like to learn more about current soil fertility issues and research being conducted at universities across the North Central region, then consider attending the 47th Annual North Central Extension-Industry Soil Fertility Conference to be held November 15-16, 2017, from 1:00 p.m. to...

Soil Fertility
September 29, 2017 9:49 AM

This week, my technician Greg VanNostrand found a black widow in our storage Quonset at the ISU Johnson Research Farm. The farm is just south of Ames in Story County. She is an adult female and had a pile of dead body fragments below her web. Needless to say, she was healthy and happy in the...

Insects

Pages