Blog

In the interview, “A Farmer’s Journey with Miscanthus: Part 1,” we learned about Steve Schomberg and his involvement with growing miscanthus for the University of Iowa power plant. Steve has also been working with Koch Angus Farms, a cattle production farm near Letts, Iowa for the last four years. During this time, he got to know Scott Hintermiester, a herdsman for Koch Angus, who manages the day to day operations for the last two years.

ISU Extension and Outreach field agronomists, Meaghan Anderson and Angie Rieck-Hinz, recently partnered with their extension colleagues at the University of Minnesota to organize and deliver the second webinar series, Essential Row Crop Management.  This series featured four topics discussing mid-season crop management.  The topics included Tar Spot identification and in-season management, Soybean Aphid IPM, Corn Rootworm Management and Soybean Gall Midge update. 

Over the last two weeks I have received a few calls related to identifying a “new form of waterhemp” in Southwest Iowa. In reality, we do not have a new form of waterhemp, but a condition referred to as ‘fasciation’ (Figure 1). While this can occur in many plant species, plants like cacti and members of the sunflower family (Asteraceae) are more likely to have fasciation of stem cells. However, we’ve noticed it quite commonly on waterhemp this year, so what’s going on? 

While the drought concerns and drought impacts on row crops and forage crops seems to be the big issue especially in western Iowa, other common issues or questions reported by ISU Extension field agronomists this past week included corn rootworm activity, earworm feeding, Japanese beetles causing defoliation in soybeans and silk clipping in corn, low levels of soybean aphids, potato leafhopper damage, gray leaf spot pressure increasing (especially eastern Iowa), low levels of frogeye leaf spo

Growing up on his family’s farm, Steve Schomberg learned the importance of environmentalism by his father. Conservation and sustainability remained central to Steve’s life while he worked at the University of Illinois, which is where he first learned about miscanthus and its use as a biomass crop. When searching for a third, more environmentally diverse crop to grow on his farm, Steve decided to begin farming miscanthus for the University of Iowa Power Plant.

One option to consider in fields with severe storm damage with no or limited yield potential is annual forages. This option may especially be of interest to livestock producers who could utilize the forage or may be short on forage or feed as a result of the storm damage. The following recommendations are meant to serve as a starting point for those considering an annual forage in storm damaged fields.

 Iowa State University Extension and Outreach in Pocahontas and Sac county will hold meetings to discuss the effects of the current drought on crops and livestock.

The Sac county meeting will be held on Thursday August 6 at the Sac County Fairgrounds 4-H Building at 416 Park Avenue, Sac City. Registration and refreshments will begin at 10:00 a.m. The meeting will start a 10:30 a.m. and adjourn at 12 p.m.

Low rainfall and high temperatures recently have caused some drought stress on local crops this summer. This is not wholly unexpected and there are some strategies crop producers can do to minimize the damage.

Crop scouts and field researchers now have a new tool at their disposal to help correctly estimate disease severity and insect defoliation in field crops. The new online tool has been created by the Crop Protection Network and can be found at https://severity.cropprotectionnetwork.org. ­

While parts of southern Iowa did receive some much needed rain, the western part of the state continues to be dry with parts considered to be in a D2 or severe drought.

With several severe weather events in Iowa this month, reports of lodged corn are coming our way. Often times, a small part of the field is flattened and would be difficult to see from the edge. I encourage you to get out into cornfields and see how your stands look this month. In some cases, using a UAV camera to scan large fields is helpful. Evaluating root injury and adult activity is helpful for determining future management decisions.

I was recently asked about an alien-looking caterpillar from central Nebraska. I occasionally see silver-spotted caterpillars in Iowa and wondered if you were seeing any in soybean?

The caterpillars are definitely a unique species because of the body coloration! The bodies are yellow-green in color and the head is brownish red. The caterpillars can make webbed nests similar to thistle caterpillar. They like to feed on locust trees, legumes, and wisteria.

While the western part of the state continues to be on the dry side, parts of central and eastern Iowa got hit with some storms this past week resulting in wind and hail damage. Besides the dry conditions and storm damage, herbicide injury in soybeans, gray leaf spot, potato leafhoppers, and low levels of soybean aphids are some of the issues ISU Extension field agronomists have observed this past week.

Hailstones damaged corn and soybean in multiple locations across Iowa on July 11, 2020.  Fungicide use after hail injury is sometimes suggested as a way to benefit damaged plants. In order to help determine if fungicide use after hail is beneficial, Iowa State University undertook multiple years of research.

To summarize this research on reproductive stage crops:

The storms that moved across Iowa late last week and over the weekend brought rainfall, but they also brought some strong winds and hail. For those folks dealing with wind or hail damage, the first step should be to communicate with your crop insurance agent. Additionally, below are some resources that may be useful in evaluating the impact of the damage.

Hail Resources 
 

In 2018 and 2019, research was conducted on a relay intercropping and double cropping systems to evaluate as a possible alternative to Iowa’s traditional corn-soybean or continuous corn cropping system.

Each year, decisions on planting date and cultivar selection are the major deciding factors on yield potential. Under current, year-to-year variable weather patterns and future climate change these decisions have become much more important. And there is a known knowledge gap on how future climate change will affect these decisions. In a recent paper, we explored future climate change impacts on planting date and cultivar selection using a robust crop model.

For a couple of years, some Iowa farmers have noticed lower yields along the southern and/or western edges of their fields. The low yields along the border tend to be prevalent when soybean, hay, or pasture are growing adjacently to the field on the southern or western edge. This phenomenon tends to be more prevalent during less desirable growing seasons when the weather is rather hot and dry. Some believe herbicide drift from adjacent fields could be the culprit for the lower yield.

Now is the time when decisions to apply a foliar fungicide in soybeans are being made. As you are making that decision, this is a quick reminder that fungicide resistance, particularly to the quinone outside inhibitor (QoI) fungicides (FRAC Code 11), has been found to be widespread in Iowa in the pathogen that causes frogeye leaf spot on soybean. See this previous article for additional details.

Since July 1 high humidity and temperatures have been scorching Iowa. Okay, maybe that is a little extreme. June has led to dry conditions across much of central and southwest Iowa. Heat and dry weather are not desired weather conditions in the 2 weeks before or after pollination. This four-week time period is finalizing the kernel number per ear. Water use by the plant is at its peak of between 0.25 to 0.45 inches per day.