Meaghan Anderson
Meaghan Anderson is a field agronomist in central Iowa and an extension field 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.
Subscribe to RSS FeedA concern for corn fields damaged by this year's Derecho is how best to manage volunteer corn in 2021. Our recommendation is to rotate to soybean or some other crop if at all possible since additional control options are available in soybean (...
August's derecho left many Iowans with unharvestable corn. For operations that left their corn in the field, decisions should be made to reduce the problem of volunteer corn next planting season.
In this video, Field Agronomist Meaghan Anderson and Weed Specialist Bob...
The challenges of this growing season continued this month when a storm front brought more than 3 inches of rain to much of the state. While the rainfall was welcome for pastures and cover crops, it added to the challenges in corn fields, especially those suffering from drought and the derecho....
While drought is still widespread, rainfall blanketed most of the state last week, providing some welcome relief to pastures, hay fields, newly-seeded cover crops, and later maturing soybeans. The rainfall caused some standability concerns with corn. Other issues noted by field agronomists ...
Downed corn from the August 10 Derecho, which affected millions of acres in Iowa, will contribute to significant volunteer corn populations in crop fields in 2021. Volunteer corn ranging from 800 to 13,000 plants per acre can cause yield losses up to 54% in soybean and up to 13% in corn,...
Drought continues to expand across the state, and August 2020 came in as one of the driest Augusts since 1893 across the state. Crops appear to be racing toward maturity, with several reports of both corn and soybean very near harvest-ready. While...
Following the derecho event on August 10, millions of acres in Iowa face challenging conditions. In many cases the corn may be unharvestable. These unharvestable fields require some level of fall management to ensure the future crop can achieve even emergence and normal early plant growth.
...Rainfall still eludes most of the state of Iowa, and drought has continued to envelope the state, with the driest areas expanding from the west central part of the state. Crops continue to go downhill in the...
While some rainfall has come to the droughty areas of the state, drought intensified to D3 (extreme) drought in parts of central and west central Iowa. Unfortunately, a large swath of the state is now facing...
Drought conditions persist in western Iowa and have expanded further into central and north central Iowa this week. Common issues reported by ISU Extension field agronomists this past week included poor grain fill and fast reproductive development in corn, increasing disease pressure in some...
ISU Extension and Outreach field agronomists, Meaghan Anderson and Angie Rieck-Hinz, recently partnered with their extension colleagues at the University of Minnesota to organize and deliver the second webinar series, Essential Row Crop...
Extension specialists in Iowa and Minnesota are again collaborating to provide a series of short webinars for farmers, ag professionals, Extension personnel and other interested parties from July 14 to July 23. The theme is “Essential Row Crop Management" for summer 2020, with a focus on key...
We’ve seen more herbicide injury to soybean than I recall in past summers, resulting in questions about determining the source and reasons for the damage. This ICM Blog will share some tips on identifying herbicide injury we’ve seen this summer in soybean fields.
Crop injury may be caused...
One important benefit of cover crops to our production system is providing an alternative selection pressure on weed populations. Cereal rye has the best potential to suppress weeds because it accumulates more biomass than other cover crop species. Weed suppression is closely related to the...
Numerous herbicides registered for postemergence use on Xtend soybean have excellent activity on important weeds of Iowa’s soybean fields. Unfortunately, herbicide resistance in waterhemp is widespread to the herbicide groups active on this weed: Group 2 (ALS inhibitors), 9 (glyphosate) and 14 (...
While all applicators should carefully read their pesticide labels, newer products like the dicamba products labeled for use over-the-top use in soybean have many more application restrictions and recordkeeping requirements than others. This blog will describe the new language in the ‘...
Thanks to ISUEO Field Agronomist Meaghan Anderson and Extension Entomologist Ashley Dean, I had a great field scouting adventure in central Iowa. First visiting the field for poor germination and other issues, Meaghan was digging in the soil in search of more information and found grubs! So of...
Late last week, Dr. Justin Glisan, State Climatologist of Iowa for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, wrote some really interesting comments about the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center monthly outlooks. We’ve...
Extension specialists in Iowa and Minnesota are collaborating to provide a series of short, daily webinars for farmers, ag professionals, Extension personnel and other interested parties from April 6 to April 10. The theme is “Essential Row Crop Management" for spring 2020, with a focus on key...
Now is the time to be thinking about improving pasture stands by either the frost seeding method in February and early March or interseeding later in the spring months. Below are guidelines and considerations when it comes to frost seeding or interseeding.
Frost seeding...
This winter we will be hosting several soil fertility workshops around the state to help farmers better understand how to interpret soil test results and make soil fertility recommendations.
Join us for one of these workshops to:
- Learn how soil tests are done and what they...
Did insects bug you and your crops this year? As the 2019 growing season winds down, ISU Extension field agronomists are seeking information from producers and retailers across the state regarding what the most problematic insect pests were this growing season.
Give us...
Temperatures fell into the low 30’s and upper 20’s in most of Iowa over the weekend of October 11-13. Because of the very late planting season, some crops were immature enough to be injured by the freezing temperatures. This ICM Blog will address frost damage concerns to soybeans.
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Proper planning and preparation are needed to successfully improve pastures with either late winter frost seeding or no-till renovation with interseeding next spring. This ICM Blog post will discuss what you should be doing now to prepare for pasture renovations in 2020.
Fall is a great time to take soil samples. Soil testing is the only way to determine soil nutrient levels, and the results of these tests can help make critical management decisions for the next growing season. This article will discuss when to soil sample, different soil sampling methods, how...