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Subscribe to RSS FeedIowa has 80% corn planted as of May 8, according to Monday's USDA Crop Progress Report, up from 57% the previous week. The report shows that soybeans planted also made a notable jump from 7% complete on May 1 to 29%.
Many farmers were able to get back in the...
Clarke McGrath
May 6, 2016 4:08 PM
I've been getting a lot of questions about needing additional N for corn; growers are torn between putting some UAN in with herbicides vs. spreading urea. I’d caution them against using UAN as a carrier on emerged corn if they are applying herbicides. Yes, there are a few products that allow...
Angie Rieck-Hinz
May 5, 2016 12:33 PM
My home drinking water source comes from the Xenia Rural Water District. Depending on where you are located within the district, your water comes from an alluvial aquifer, or surface water from the Raccoon River or the Des Moines River. The water is treated and delivered to my home and,...
Paul Kassel
May 4, 2016 1:58 PM
We have had a couple nice days and farmers are looking forward to some predicted good weather. Farmers are taking this all in stride since many have been through this before.
There has been a fairly abrupt line of heavy rainfall/planting progress in the area....
As of May 1, the USDA reported 57% of corn had been planted in Iowa. See below for area conditions and planting progress around the state from Iowa State University Extension and Outreach field agronomists. ISU...
The United States has almost half of the corn crop planted for the season at 45% complete, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Crop Progress Report on May 2.
The USDA reported 57% of corn planted in Iowa as of May 1, with the 5-year...
Clarke McGrath
May 3, 2016 3:12 PM
Mark Licht
May 3, 2016 3:12 PM
Replanting is something we hope we don’t have to do a lot of, but if we do, there are some good resources to use to help make those decisions.
Stand assessment and replant decisions are often (OK, almost always) agonizing. It is hard to leave a stand that is below...
John Sawyer
May 3, 2016 9:45 AM
You should visit the newly formatted and revised Corn Nitrogen Rate Calculator (CNRC) website. The site has a new url ( http://cnrc.agron.iastate.edu/ ). For Iowa, there are now two regions, the Main Iowa area and a Southeast Iowa area (SEIA) – see...
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.
...
Accelerated, early planting in some parts of the state increases pressure on applicators of preemergence herbicide to speed up sprayers to cover a larger numbers of acres. Increased speeds increase boom pressure for existing nozzles, and can tempt applicators to increase boom height. Both...
Clarke McGrath
April 25, 2016 11:52 AM
Corn typically requires 90 to 120 Growing Degree Days (GDD) from planting to emergence. Of course this GDD range assumes adequate soil moisture and varies with planting depth, tillage system and residue cover. As a rule of thumb, if 120 GDD have accumulated since planting and seedlings haven’t...
Bob Hartzler
April 23, 2016 9:48 AM
Had a question why winter annuals, specifically henbit, are so thick this year. Two main factors: 1) ample moisture at the end of last year's growing season, and 2) a relatively mild winter. Most winter annuals emerge in late August-September, in many years we don't have enough soil moisture...
Rebecca Vittetoe
April 20, 2016 1:25 PM
I’ve received a few questions asking what the purple weed is that is appearing in the landscape. It is probably either purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) or henbit (Lamium amplexicaule).
These weeds often get confused because they look similar...
Alison Robertson
April 20, 2016 11:12 AM
Many of you are aware that a few years ago we collected diseased soybean seedlings from fields across the Midwest and identified organisms associated with the rotted roots. This soybean seedling disease survey was funded by USDA-NIFA and soybean check-off and the identification of the organisms...
Meaghan Anderson
April 20, 2016 10:24 AM
I received one report of a cereal rye control failure this week as temperatures warmed and rye growth resumed. Some follow-up questions and photos showed that concerns regarding burndown applications during cool, early-spring conditions have merit.
A southeast...
Paul Kassel
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...
Bob Hartzler
April 19, 2016 9:49 AM
The focus has been on planting corn, but don't forget about the weeds. In addition to getting preemergence herbicides applied to the corn acres, burndown applications on no-till soybean fields should be a top priority. Timely application of burndown herbicides simplifies controlling many winter...
Overall, planting was variable in many parts of the state from Wednesday, April 13, to Sunday, April 17. After five days of great weather and good seedbed conditions, some farmers are completely done with corn, some were able to begin and reach the halfway mark, and others are still doing...
Weather conditions this past week (April 13-17) kicked off corn planting for many farmers throughout the state. As soil temperatures rose above 50°F towards the end of the week, farmers were able to dive into fieldwork and planting corn.
See statewide planting progress and field...
Alison Robertson
April 15, 2016 11:12 AM
A couple of weeks ago in a blog post, I shared with you some research we are doing on the effects of cold stress on soybean susceptibility to seedling...
Meaghan Anderson
April 14, 2016 10:05 AM
John Sawyer
April 14, 2016 10:05 AM
It seems that anhydrous ammonia (AA) applications and planting may fall very close together on the timeline of events this spring. This could be concerning with drying soils and lack of significant rainfall chances in the near future.
Important notes to remember:
...
Mark Licht
April 11, 2016 2:08 PM
Planting season is or soon will be underway. This presents an opportunity to talk about a few things; 1) ideal conditions for planting, 2) seeding depth, and 3) imbibitional chilling.
Planting conditions
Ideal planting conditions are when the soil temperature...
Erin Hodgson
April 11, 2016 1:53 PM
In March, I posted a blog about alfalfa weevils laying eggs in SE Iowa. Degree days have been slowly accumulating in April. I've updated the degree day map for 2016 and alfalfa weevils should be...
Bob Hartzler
April 9, 2016 12:36 PM
A 'true' weed ecologist probably would have shuddered at my explanation to young 4-H'ers how weeds survive our control efforts:
1) shake them off (giant ragweed) or 2) overrun them with numbers (waterhemp).
...
Clarke McGrath
April 7, 2016 8:58 PM
I've had a lot of questions/discussions this week about planting corn. I had some growers get started Monday, some others were going to start towards the middle or tail end of this week, a few were going to wait until Monday, and a few were undecided. When to start planting was probably...