Paul Kassel

April 29, 2016 4:18 PM

We have had a couple windows of opportunity for fieldwork this spring. The week of April 10 to 17 saw a lot of fieldwork completed. Also, there was some fieldwork completed on April 23. I am referring to an area around Clay County and parts of Dickinson and Buena Vista counties.

...

Crop Production
April 19, 2016 2:42 PM

The recent rainfall broke a string of dry days for us. Spencer received about 0.7 inches of rain. Storm lake, Spirit Lake and other areas in the highway 71 corridor received a similar 0.4 to 0.7 inches. However, areas east of Highway 4 did not receive much rain and are returning to the field...

Crop Production
December 14, 2015 9:34 PM

It looks like the month of March has arrived in December. 

There have been rain amounts of 1.3 to 2.3 in the area. I know that is not much compared to the 3-4 inches of rain in central Iowa. However, it looks really wet in the area. There is water standing in the fields and water running...

Soil Fertility
November 25, 2015 12:16 PM

By: Paul Kassel
The question comes up from time to time-‘is there an alternative to the Roundup Ready based seed and herbicide system for soybeans?’  Of course there is-we have conventional varieties with conventional herbicides and there is the Liberty Link seed and Liberty herbicide. ...

Crop Production
November 19, 2015 8:09 AM

By: Paul Kassel

waterway in Clay county

The weather has turned really wet in much of my area. We are not use to seeing water running out of fields, water...

Crop Production
November 10, 2015 10:30 AM

By: Paul Kassel


Iowa State University has conducted a survey of subsoil moisture since 1955.  It is my understanding that there were some very dry conditions in the 1950s – and the ISU Agronomy department and ISU Extension responded by assessing soil moisture to help farmers...

Crop Production
October 30, 2015 1:41 PM

By: Paul Kassel

Soybean harvest has been complete in northwest/north central Iowa for a couple of weeks. 

Corn harvest is wrapping up also. I would guess that there is about 15% of the corn that is yet to be harvested.

We have experienced a very warm and dry harvest season....

Crop Production
October 2, 2015 11:20 AM

A couple of farm visits took me from Emmetsburg to Cylinder to Ringsted on October 1. I am guessing the soybean harvest in those areas is about half done. 

The big news this year is that we are seeing some exceptional soybean yields. There are lots of credible reports of 60 bu/a whole...

Crop Production
September 11, 2015 3:03 PM

Crop development progress is looking good in northwest Iowa. We are seeing corn that is in the 1/2 milk line stage as well as a few fields that have reached black...

Crop Production
August 19, 2015 4:23 PM

We have experienced quite a turnaround in weather the last four days.  Last Sunday August 16 – we were experiencing dry soil, high temperatures and crop stress.  After a late Sunday afternoon rain shower of around 0.5 inch – things were looking good. 


However, the...

Crop Production
July 31, 2015 12:12 PM

Waterhemp continues to be a problem in parts of northwest Iowa.  There is a fair amount of waterhemp that survived the glyphosate and/or Flexstar applications in late June. 

There is also a new crop of waterhemp that has germinated recently.   That fact is surprising since it has been...

Herbicide Resistance
July 24, 2015 3:17 PM

Parts of northwest Iowa are listed as ‘abnormally dry’ on the most recent edition of the Drought Monitor. I would agree with that – we are seeing some effects of dry weather this week.


Corn and soybean crops are wilting in the afternoon on some of the light soil...

Crop Production
July 19, 2015 2:07 PM

soybean aphid in hancock county

I am seeing some really good crop development progress in my area.   Most of the corn is tasseled out.  I am thinking...

Crop Production

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