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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 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 John Sawyer, Department of Agronomy and Matt Helmers, Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
The last week found Iowa farmers able to get to the field, and crop planting progress advanced notably. Although the week followed the seasonal temperature trend, being a bit cooler than average, the rain held off for the most part.
Emerged corn can now be found across Iowa, and soybean planting is well underway.
By Daren Mueller, Department of Plant Pathology
There have been some changes in the availability of fungicides for soybean. Here is a quick summary.
Alto® (cyproconazole, Syngenta Crop Protection) has been fully registered for use on soybean by EPA. The product will be available for use on soybean in Iowa when the new label is approved by the state. Until then, this product will only be available through its Section 18 label for soybean rust.
By Jon Tollefson and Marlin Rice, Department of Entomology
Black cutworm traps across Iowa have been capturing migrating moths for several weeks. Pheromone traps are valuable tools in integrated pest management, but they have limitations. The traps only tell you that the insects are in your area; they do not report in which fields the insects have laid their eggs.
By Marlin E. Rice, Rich Pope, and Jon Tollefson, Department of Entomology
A significant flight of black cutworm adults (moths) arrived in Iowa the weekend of April 18, based on pheromone trap capture data across the state.
By Palle Pedersen, Department of Agronomy
Soybean responds significantly to early planting. Despite cold soil temperatures and slow plant growth during the seedling phase, there is a yield benefit from early planting, which seems to be influenced by field yield potential.
By Rich Pope, Department of Entomology
The second week of May continued the 2008 pattern of cool and wet spring weather across Iowa. in spite of a band of locally heavy rain the evening of May 7 that brought over 6 inches of rain to Alden and neighboring areas, corn planting progressed slowly but steadily.
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.
