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This article explains why spring sampling for most nematodes that feed on corn is not recommended, unless fields have soil with at least 70 percent sand content. Guidelines for checking sandy fields for needle and sting nematodes in the spring are given.
The ISU Plant and Insect Diagnostic Clinic and IPM program are coordinating the annual black cutworm monitoring network in Iowa. Farmers and agribusiness personnel are needed to monitor traps for the arrival of cutworm moths this spring.
By Matt Darr, Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
The use of precision farming products continues to increase. With increasing input costs, producers are often looking for ways to adopt technology to make farming operations more efficient and productive. Two precision ag products, auto guidance and automatic section control, lead the way in cost savings while also enhancing the productivity of machinery operations.
By William Edwards, Department of Economics
Even the best crop insurance plan is of little use if the right information is not collected and submitted on time. Likewise, if certain actions are not completed by the necessary date, producers may not receive full benefit from the risk protection that they have selected.
A 2011 field study, funded with check off dollars from the Iowa Soybean Association, evaluated the effect of commercially available fungicide and insecticide seed treatments on seedling disease, insect pests and soybean yield at three Iowa locations.
There is still time this spring to collect soil samples from fields to check for the presence of the soybean cyst nematode. How to collect a good SCN soil sample and where to send the samples to be processed are reviewed in this article.
By Greg Tylka, Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology
The soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is one of Iowa's most serious and persistent soybean pests. The nematode has the potential to cause devastating yield losses, population densities can increase very rapidly within a single growing season, and dormant eggs can survive for more than a decade in infested soils in the absence of soybeans. Random surveys funded by the soybean checkoff in 1995-1996 and again in 2006-2007 revealed that 70 to 75 percent of fields in Iowa are infested with the nematode.
There are many factors that influence successful overwintering of insects and are worth strong consideration when speculating what a warm winter means to chances of increased insect survival.
Farmers are asking, How does strip-tillage fit with no-till? and How do the yields differ between no-till and strip-till? Concepts and management guides provide answers to these questions.
There is interest in Iowa in using new and traditional nematode management products for corn. Five coordinated experiments were conducted at ISU research farms in 2011 to assess the effects of seed treatments and a soil-applied nematicide on corn yields and numbers of nematodes that feed on corn.
