Blog

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach has published an updated version of the Soybean Diseases publication to help farmers and other professionals in the agriculture industry identify and scout for disease threats to soybean production in Iowa. The publication includes scouting tips,...

Farmers and agribusiness have a new tool to help them tackle crop management challenges. The Crop Protection Network, a multi-state and international collaboration of university and provincial extension specialists, has redesigned its website...

Dicamba has been an important component of Iowa weed management systems for more than 40 years.  The history of its use is somewhat unique in that its popularity has ebbed and flowed over time.  The increase in herbicide resistant weeds combined with the introduction of dicamba-resistant soybean...

The Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Soil Fertility web site has undergone a recent redesign and update. The site was updated, but the URL has remained the same (http...

There have been many reports of corn along the edge of the fields yielding drastically less than the remainder of the field. In many cases, the yield loss is most obvious on the southern edge of the field, but it has been observed along the west, east, and north sides of fields this year. This...

I’ve received lots of inquiries in the past few weeks about sampling fields for nematodes that feed on corn. Most every Iowa field has one or more different nematode species present at low numbers. But it’s only when numbers are at damaging levels that yield loss will occur.

Unfortunately...

Fall is usually not a time I expect to get questions about armyworms, but last week I received several questions about fall armyworms in cover crops, particularly in cereal rye, triticale, or wheat cover crops. In Iowa, fall armyworms can be pests in corn, hayfields and pastures, but this is the...

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been doing stalk rot assessments at several of the ISU Research Farms including the Southeast Research and Demonstration Farm, the McNay Research Farm, and the Ames Farm. While the plants seemed to be standing well, minus where the raccoons had fun in one of...

This week, my technician Greg VanNostrand found a black widow in our storage Quonset at the ISU Johnson Research Farm. The farm is just south of Ames in Story County. She is an adult female and had a pile of dead body fragments below her web. Needless to say, she was healthy and happy in the...

To help farmers and agronomists identify, scout, and manage corn diseases a new Corn Diseases booklet, published by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, is now available to crop producers and industry professionals. The up-...

It’s always difficult to forecast weather, but if dry field conditions persist, potential for combine and field fires this fall could be a problem. All it takes is a single high-temperature source in the engine area, or an overheated bearing to ignite dry plant material.

During harvest...

In mid-August of this summer, I wasn’t hearing anything about aphids feeding on corn and I thought we weren’t going to see it this year. These aphids are highly erratic and so where and when they land are not well understood. But the last week of August, I started to hear from folks in northern...