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In addition to preparing the soil for planting, tillage can be an effective strategy for weed management. During a field trial, blue chalk was applied to the soil surface in areas where a tillage pass was made with a vertical tillage (VT) tool at a 3 degree, 5 degree and 9 degree gang angle setting.

Adjustable vertical tillage (VT) tools can easily allow you to till your fields more or less aggressively depending on the tool’s gang angle setting. In this video, Dr. Matt Darr shows the impact different gang angle settings have just below the soil surface.

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 include the start of harvest, harvest safety, cover crop seeding, and improvement in the condition of hay and pasture.

Vertical tillage (VT) tools can be an effective way to maintain residue and prevent soil erosion while still preparing the soil for planting.  When you select a vertical tillage tool for your operation, consider these factors:

1. Types of blades

After the derecho passed through Iowa in early August, many farmers have been left with unharvestable fields. These fields may require additional management to prepare the soil for another crop next season. In this video, Dr. Matt Darr reviews the results of four tillage options five days after tillage, and the benefits of each tool to help you choose which option is right for your operation this fall.

Managing residue and tillage this fall can be a challenge given the volume of residue due to downed corn by high winds and drought. There is a tendency to think about tillage as the first option in managing a high volume of crop residue. The impact of residue incorporation with tillage on soil health and water quality has been demonstrated to be significant.

Safety should be a major concern for all farmers during harvest, but as the season goes on, it can be easy to miss details or neglect safe practices that can put you or others at risk. Here are six simple safety tips to maintain throughout the season to keep yourself and your crew out of harm’s way.

1. Keep your machine’s safety features, mirrors and windows clean both in and out of the field

Before working in or around your combine, it’s important to go through proper shutdown and lockout/tagout procedures to ensure safety for yourself and those around you. Refer to this list for a reference on how to safely shutdown your machine, and use these practices every time you perform maintenance on the combine. 

Fall nitrogen (N) application for corn continues to be popular for several reasons, including lower product cost, time for application, equipment availability, suitable soil conditions, and competing springtime field activities.

ISU Extension and Outreach and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences recently hosted a “five-stop” virtual field day series. This series featured a greeting by Dean Dan Robison, an administrative update on the farms, and four consecutive days featuring water quality research, fungicide trials, a long-term tillage trial and phosphorous and potassium placement trials for crop production.   

Harrison County: Ground zero for Palmer amaranth in Iowa is a 25 acre field that had a severe Palmer amaranth infestation when the weed was first identified in 2013.  Since then populations have consistently declined - this year I was unable to find any Palmer in the field, field edges or road leading to the field.

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, according to the research conducted at SDSU, UMN, and UNL.

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.

Save money and time this fall by planning for no-till soybean planting next spring. Many farmers are moving away from tillage, due to a host of detrimental environmental factors involved with tillage as well as reducing cost of soybean production.

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.

The combination of drought, derecho and recent hot weather in Iowa increases the need to keep grain quality in check. As harvest nears, consider the following:

Corn fields destroyed by the August 10, 2020 derecho will have different crop residue than normal after grain harvest. Things that will be different include early plant death (at varying reproductive growth stages), ears at various stages of grain fill, and whole plants instead of “loose” stalks/leaves/husks after grain harvest (unless tilled). The amount of vegetative material, except for some husk material, basically reaches a maximum around R1- silking.

Dear regulators,

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 drought and the derecho areas, especially with the warmer temperatures of this week.

Chopping silage during rapid drying conditions always bring up the question of “How much water do I add?” The short answer: It is practically impossible to add enough to get to your desired moisture level.