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By Palle Pedersen, Department of Agronomy
The excessive amount of rainfall that we have received in Iowa over the last 2 months, and particularly the last week, has caused excessive flooding in many areas. River bottoms are completely flooded and will probably not be able to be planted now for the next 2 to 3 weeks or at all this year. For the majority of the fields the water should drain and dry quickly, barring no more excessive rainfall.
By Roger Elmore and Lori Abendroth, Department of Agronomy
The storms last Sunday, May 25, and again on the May 29 and 30 have unloaded extraordinary amounts of rain in many parts of Iowa. Soils in the majority of the state are likely saturated. Low lying areas of fields whether they are tiled or not, are covered with ponds and areas along streams and rivers are flooded. It is not an attractive sight for producers!
By Elwynn Taylor, Department of Agronomy
There are several sources of weather information available to help farmers make informed crop production decisions.
To see the forecast for your ZIP code go to www.weather.gov. Click the general location of interest within the U.S. map. Now click your “exact” location (if you miss it a bit you get a chance to put in your ZIP code.)
By Elwynn Taylor, Department of Agronomy
The La Nina of the past several months as determined by the 90-day average Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) has ended. The SOI is a measure of the atmospheric pressure deviation from normal and directly influences meteorological conditions in numerous distant locations. The SOI diminished to 0.8 standard deviations on May 19, 2008.
By Roger Elmore, Elwynn Taylor, and Lori Abendroth, Department of Agronomy
By John Sawyer, Department of Agronomy and Matt Helmers, Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
By Mark Hanna, Department of Agricultural and BioSystems Engineering, and Mahdi Al-Kaisi, Department of Agronomy
The current weather conditions of frequent rain caused saturated conditions in most Iowa soils. Tilling soil for drying the soil surface or weed control at this time may have significant negative impacts on creating proper seedbed conditions and increase soil compaction.
By Mike Owen, Department of Agronomy
Upon further investigation about the location of “local” infestations of the highly invasive giant hogweed, it was determined that the Wisconsin location is in Iron County which is located at the northern boundary between Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (see colored area on the map). Gogebic County, Michigan also has or had infestations of giant hogweed. The U.S. Forest Service is working diligently to eradicate these populations.
By Roger Elmore and Lori Abendroth, Department of Agronomy
Increased seeding rates have ignited corn yield increases over the years. If seeding rates are the spark, hybrid genetics fuel the increase. It takes both high seeding rates and high-yielding hybrids that can tolerate increased plant-to-plant competition to maximize yields. If hybrids were not bred to tolerate increased seeding rates, we would have fields of flat corn at harvest. Older hybrids simply cannot tolerate today’s seeding rates without severe lodging and/or barrenness.
By John Sawyer and Roger Elmore, Department of Agronomy
Our best information from planting date experiments show that corn yields are reduced as we plant into the second half of May. However, looking at planting progress and corn yields over the years, we see that although yields are increasing and in general we are planting earlier every year, above average yields can occur with delayed planting and below average yields can occur with early planting (see Sidebar article ‘Corn Planting Progress‘ from Wisconsin).
