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With recent reports of mandatory water conservation in several counties across Iowa, some people may be switching their water source from Rural Water to a private well. We wanted to share some resources, for both human and livestock consumption, if you are considering making this shift.

Private well water as drinking water

The 2024 crop season is quickly approaching so this article will help you prepare your GPS monitor for the planting season.  The ISU Extension and Outreach has a web-based guide that can be used either from a computer or smart phone using a web browser like Google Chrome.  This web-based interactive monitor guide can help farmers, crops advisors, and agronomists work efficiently with most GPS monitors for both the planting and harvest seasons. 

The spring planting season in Iowa is quickly approaching. Therefore, it is critical to prepare now and check a few items when starting each field. While it takes time to check these items, field research has shown that getting the correct gauge wheel pressure (downforce pressure) to help create the best possible seed furrow is critical to yield potential.

The spring planting season in Iowa will start soon, so it is time to make a list of items to check and get completed before we go to the field. As we all know, planting the seed at the right time, right seed depth, and acceptable soil conditions is critical to giving the crop the best starting point for our yield goals. Whether a person has brand-new equipment or the same as prior years, the maintenance checklist remains the same.

By Nabin K. Dangal, Edgar Nieto, Stith Wiggs, Jose Gonzalez-Acuna, and Daren S. Mueller.

Recent court cases have brought changes to two pesticides with agricultural uses.

It most certainly has been a strange winter with very little moisture. This fact, combined with a multi-year drought has people concerned for spring planting. Most farmers I have talked to this winter have shared concerns about not only the lack of precipitation, but the lack of soil moisture. And while we had outstanding yields in some places in 2023 even with drought conditions, I would point out there is one major difference shaping up so far for 2024.

High February temperatures have prompted many alfalfa fields across the state to initiate greening up over the past couple of weeks (Figure 1). However, temperatures then plummeted (9°F) earlier this week, likely resulting in the demise of the new growth. But the more pressing question is whether this has led to stand damage or crown injury. Furthermore, this winter has witnessed numerous warm and extremely cold days.

You are invited to the Southeast Iowa Agricultural Research Association's annual meeting, on Thursday, March 7, at the Southeast Research and Demonstration Farm, located at 3115 Louisa-Washington Rd, Crawfordsville.

The association, in partnership with Iowa State University, oversees the ISU Southeast Research and Demonstration Farm.

The annual meeting will feature:

Soybean planting dates have been moving earlier and earlier. In a nod to this, the USDA Risk Management Agency has moved up the earliest planting dates for replant insurance coverage – April 10 for the southern 3 tiers of Iowa counties and April 15 for the northern 6 tiers of Iowa counties. Even with this change, there has been some experimenting with planting soybean even earlier.

Iowa State University’s IPM Team has monitored field crop pests for a long time. The pests have changed over the years, but the goal is the same: to help inform farmers about pest activity in Iowa. Our moth trapping efforts target black cutworm, which is a migratory moth. Since timing of arrival is variable between growing seasons, trapping black cutworm helps us predict when injury will occur.

To maintain your private pesticide applicator certification, you must either pass an exam every three years or attend an approved Private Continuing Instruction Course (P-CIC) between December 1 and April 15 each year your certification card covers.

Corn seed costs continue to go up and with weaker commodity prices there is growing interest in looking at ways to cut costs or simply ensure seeding rates are economically optimized. These efforts open eyes to the possibility of using variable rate seeding to reduce seed costs in low productivity areas, increase yields more in high productivity, or simply move away from farming on the average with uniform seeding rate.

The Midwest Cover Crops Council (MCCC) will host their 2024 Annual Meeting and Conference at the Crowne Plaza Indianapolis-Airport on February 13-14, 2024. The MCCC is a collaboration of researchers, extension staff, farmers, agencies, and industry with the mission of facilitating widespread adoption of cover crops across the Midwest. February 13^th is the MCCC Annual Meeting which is open to the public and will largely be State and Province reports.

Aside from visiting loved ones, my favorite thing about the holidays is the food. Particularly the big sit-down meal shared with a full table. So my question today – what would that holiday spread look like for a blade of grass in the pasture? Simply put – what can we, as grass growers, provide to satisfy our pastures in the growing season?

Preparation: Groceries & cooking for me, soil test & expert advice for my pasture

Many are considering which corn hybrids to select for the 2024 crop. This also means I start getting questions about whether or not to plant transgenic or conventional hybrids. It is a really important decision to make because selecting the right hybrid, the right genetics is, in my mind, the single most important crop management decision to make.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Field Agronomists have completed their fall survey of subsoil moisture in northwest Iowa. Subsoil moisture sampling in Iowa dates back to February 1954 when ten sites were chosen for soil moisture sampling. In 1959, the sampling increased to 22 locations, and in 1971, 61 locations were sampled. Today, 18 locations are sampled in northwest Iowa.

The rain that has occurred over the state this fall has been welcomed and sorely needed. However, rainfall totals have been variable across the state and not enough to make up the deficit from the growing season. Northwest Iowa has received the most rainfall, with totals ranging from 3-6”. Parts of east central Iowa have received some similar totals. Northeast Iowa and southern Iowa have received less, with 1-3”.

Researchers recommend that soil temperatures at the 4-inch depth are 50° F and cooling before applying fall anhydrous ammonia or manure with a high ammonium nitrogen (N) content, such as with liquid swine manure.

Looking at the current 4-inch soil temperatures across the state, we did drop below that 50° F mark this weekend.

Crop stover is used for livestock feed, bedding, and cellulosic ethanol production. When stover is removed from the field, nutrients, in addition to what is removed with grain harvest, are removed and not recycled back to the soil for future use by crops. Crop stover removal amounts are also complicated by when the stover is baled. Plant potassium (K) is highly soluble and will leach from stover during rainfall events.