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The northwest Iowa fall survey of subsoil moisture completed by Iowa State University in November shows improved subsoil moisture at nearly all locations when compared to the fall of 2020. Subsoil moisture levels are checked in the fall in many northwest Iowa counties through this survey.  The survey provides a historical perspective on subsoil moisture levels.

Farmers may be planning to grow soybeans in 2022 in fields cropped to soybeans in 2021 because of high prices and limited availability of inputs for corn production. Doing this in fields infested with the soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is always a risky proposition. But growing beans on beans in SCN-infested fields in 2022 will be especially dicey.

Cover crops can enhance soil health by capturing nutrients, slow erosion and can reduce the need for herbicides. Growers face many different decisions in the field, and the latest edition of the Cover Crop Field Guide will assist in some of those choices.

Across Iowa, the forecasted average day/night temperatures are between 30 to 40 degrees F in the coming ten days, so the time is right to cool any grain that went into the bin at higher temperatures. Good harvest conditions and warm weather early this fall mean that there is on-farm grain that likely went into storage too warm. Warm grain in most large bins (over 3,000 bushels) will hold its temperature in the center well and will need to be cooled using aeration before winter.

Following up on Meaghan’s blog post on October 5 about sap beetles in corn grain, I received a few more questions about infested bins. There are MANY insects that cause losses in stored grain and food processing facilities. Complete eradication is difficult to achieve, and therefore defining acceptable limits is a more practical way to manage pests after harvest.

The November and the meteorological winter (December-January-February) temperature and precipitation outlooks were recently released by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC). Below is a recap of what those outlooks are predicting and the potential impacts those outlooks could have on agriculture.

November weather outlook

Corn Hybrids

Choosing corn hybrids is one of the most crucial crop management decisions to be made. There are a range of factors to consider, most notably the weather, which makes it difficult as this decision is typically made months in advance of the growing season.

With rising fertilizer prices, and concerns about possible shortages, it pays to time our applications of anhydrous ammonia and manure well. When the value is high, the focus on management is even more important.

Anhydrous costs are reported to have risen to $850 or more per ton.

I have yet another weird insect situation to add to what feels like an already comprehensive list of issues for 2021. Last week, a farmer in central Iowa brought a grain sample into an ISU county extension office that was full of small, black beetles. These beetles had survived through the combine and were still present when he transferred the grain to a grain dryer.

Much of Iowa is currently abnormally dry or in some state of drought according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor. If dry field conditions persist, the potential for combine and field fires this fall could continue to be a problem. Low relative humidity levels and high winds further amplify the risk of fires. All it takes is a single high-temperature source in the engine area or an overheated bearing to ignite dry plant material.

2021 has been an unprecedented year for fall armyworms, not just here in Iowa but other states as well. There have been many questions regarding how to manage fall armyworms in hayfields and cover crop fields. 

Here is some background that may help explain some later comments.

As corn has quickly reached maturity, the next hurdle of the 2021 growing season is harvest. Stalk quality will be a concern for fields across that state that experienced the stress of too much or not enough moisture. Alison Robertson recently wrote an article about stalk rots that is very good.

Safety should always be at the forefront of your farming operations, and harvest is no different. When operating large equipment such as combines and grain carts, overhead power lines pose an increased risk to farm safety. An average of 62 people each year are electrocuted when their farm machinery contacts a power line.

I got invited to SERF (ISU Southeastern Research Farm) field day last week to highlight corn rootworm management. I was easily distracted when it wasn't my stop and started walking around soybean plots looking for insects. [this is a common occurrence with entomologists!] Soybean was in various stages of senescence around the farm as you could imagine with multiple maturity groups used for research projects.

While the rains the end of August have helped to improve the dry conditions some across the state, the rains also brought along some strong winds and hail that caused some significant crop damage in parts of NE, EC, and SE Iowa by flattening cornfields and causing lodging in soybeans. Additionally, parts of NE Iowa also delt with some flooding.

As the 2021 growing season comes to a close, what should you be thinking about in terms of corn disease and how that might impact your harvest plans?

As harvest starts to ramp up across Iowa, many people will be evaluating their crop scouting activities from 2021 and starting to make plans for 2022. In a previous article, we outlined options for capturing imagery of your fields to aid in scouting and making management decisions. Fall can be a great time to capture imagery to understand crop dry down, late season weed pressure and crop lodging.

With harvest quickly approaching, it’s time to make sure your combine is prepped and ready for the field. This article published in fall of 2020 has some good tips for calibrating your yield monitor to ensure high quality yield data. If you are going to harvest test plots or other strip trials with your combine, there are some additional steps you should consider to ensure high quality data from test plots.

Evaluate the Status of your Yield Monitor Components

Although I am retired, I still am passionate about weeds and decided to continue my Labor Day Tour of the first known infestations of Palmer amaranth in Iowa. I started this ‘survey’ in 2014, links to earlier reports are found at the end of this article. My efforts do not involve a systematic sampling of Palmer amaranth infestations at these sites, but rather casual ‘hit and run’ observations.

Anytime after R3 (milk stage) has traditionally been a great time to do yield checks in corn. After R3, kernel abortion is less likely and plant stress will result in reduced kernel size or fill rather than kernel loss. In addition to performing a yield check, walking late reproductive corn provides a good opportunity to check the field for other things like stalk rots or other standability issues and foliar disease, especially if you left any test strips of untreated vs.