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Right now, I have five different insects walking around my office! Of course, they are accidental invaders along with many other nuisance pests active right now. It’s also a sign of the quality of the building I work in [sigh]. I’ve been asked several times, “how cold does it have to get to kill insects?” Perhaps it is important to understand why cold temperatures kill insects. Insects are unlike mammals and birds because they must generate their own heat (called ectotherms).

Sept. 18-24 is National Farm Safety and Health Week and Iowa Farm Safety and Health Week. Clarke McGrath, on-farm research and extension coordinator for the Iowa Soybean Research Center and extension agronomist at Iowa State University, provides farm safety tips during harvest, based on his experience as a firefighter, EMT, and involvement in the agriculture industry.

Safety is always a priority for farmers at harvest, but this year may push us harder than most. If our current wet weather pattern continues into the fall, it could be a muddy, difficult 2016 harvest season.

Sept. 18-24 is National Farm Safety and Health Week and Iowa Farm Safety and Health Week. Clarke McGrath, on-farm research and extension coordinator for the Iowa Soybean Research Center and extension agronomist at Iowa State University, provides farm safety tips during harvest, based on his experience as a firefighter, EMT, and involvement in the agriculture industry.

I tell students in my ID class that weed identification is easy since very few species have traits that allow them to persist in disturbed habitats, thus you run into the same weeds over and over. After a few years in the business, you seldom encounter a weed you haven’t dealt with before. That premise was blown out of the water when I was involved in identifying a weed whose only known occurrence in the western hemisphere was New York City. Acalypha australis

On Sept. 8, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach hosted a fall field day at the ISU Southeast Research and Demonstration Farm near Crawfordsville, Iowa.

The field day started out with a growing season update from Myron Rees, superintendent of the ISU Southeast Research and Demonstration Farm, and Greg Brenneman, ISU ag engineer specialist, provided an update on the CENUSA biomass project.

The early signs of corn and soybean in particular ready for harvest are around the corner, and it is time to think about your next season conservation plans.

On Sept. 8, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach hosted a fall field day at the ISU Northern Research and Demonstration Farm in Kanawha, Iowa.

As you venture around the countryside this time of year you might notice the presence of a plant with white flowers along the edge of woodlands. There is a good chance this plant is white snakeroot, a perennial in the Asteraceae (sunflower family). The plant is adapted to shady areas with low levels of disturbance, and typically reaches heights of 2 to 3 ft.

I took my final Labor Day Palmer amaranth tour on Saturday, visiting the first three known sites of Palmer amaranth in western Iowa. First stop was Harrison County, ground zero for Iowa Palmer amaranth. The Palmer was identified in the summer of 2013 in a 50 acre fallow field; because of the extensive infestation we believe the Palmer must have been introduced several years earlier. Since identification, the Palmer has been managed fairly well in this field while in soybean.

The first step in managing any pest is correct identification. For Palmer amaranth, we have stressed the need to examine the inflorescences of female plants for the presence of the large, sharp bracts. Farmers/agronomists are not accustomed to examining flowers since almost all weeds can be identified using simple, vegetative traits.

Most people are aware of the multiple findings of Palmer amaranth across Iowa this month.  Palmer amaranth has been identified both in crop fields and in conservation plantings using native seed mixes.  Early detection is essential in order to prevent the new weed from getting permanently established in fields where it has been introduced.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach field agronomists report crop conditions in your area of the state:

Mark you your calendars for the Southeast Research and Demonstration Farm's Fall Field Day, which is set for September 8. Registration will begin at 1 p.m. with the tour starting at 1:30 p.m. 

The featured stops for this year's field day include a presentation on UAVs with a demonstration and discussion on the basics of imagery, farm pond management, and a closer look at the ISU yield forecasting tool, FACTS.

Featured presenters at the field day are: 

A new FACTS (Forecast and Assessment of Cropping sysTemS) forecast occurred on August 11, 2016. The forecast can be found here.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach field agronomists report crop conditions in your area of the state:

Northwest
Paul Kassel: There was not much rainfall this past week, and it has been about three weeks since we have had any major rainfall in most of my area. Corn is in the late milk stage to early dough stage. I saw my first field of corn that was in the early dent stage today.  

Several soybean diseases have become noticeable after recent rainfall across the state.

The following diseases are currently showing up regularly across Iowa soybean fields, depending on your location in the state:

On Tuesday, Aug.2, eight teams of Iowa youth (grades 9-12) participated in the sixth annual Crop Scouting Competition. The teams were scored on their knowledge of crop insects, diseases, growth and development, and weed identification with a written test and field stations located throughout the Field Extension Education Lab in Boone, Iowa. The teams prepared months in advance for a chance to win cash prizes and an opportunity to compete at the Regional Crop Scouting Competition on Aug.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach field agronomists report crop conditions in your area of the state.

Northwest
Joel DeJong: It’s been pretty dry in the very western edge of the area, with less than 2 inches of rain in the last six weeks. Corn has been rolling every day the last 10 days in that area. However, conditions improve as you head east from there. Corn is R3 and soybean is probably R3-R4. Aphid numbers remain low.

Typically anthracnose is a disease associated with corn as a leaf blight or stalk rot, or top-tie back, but there is also a soybean disease called Anthracnose Stem Blight. 

Although both diseases are caused by a fungus they are not caused by the same fungus pathogen. Anthracnose in corn is caused by the fungus, Colletotrichum graminicola, and in soybeans it is caused by Colletotrichum truncatum.