As the 2026 planting season approaches, the focus for every row crop farmer in Iowa is clear: emergence is the name of the game. Uniform germination and consistent spacing are the foundation of a high-yielding crop, ensuring every plant has equal access to the sunlight, water, and nutrients it needs to thrive. To achieve this, your planter must be precision-tuned.

AMES, Iowa – Members, farmers and ag business professionals are invited to attend the North Central Iowa Research Association annual meeting on Wednesday, March 25, at the Northern Research Farm, located at 310 South Main Street, Kanawha.  

The association, in partnership with Iowa State University, oversees the Northern Research Farm and works with ISU Extension and Outreach to provide agronomic research, demonstrations and educational events.  

Southern rust is a leaf disease of corn that is caused by the fungal pathogen, Puccinia polysora. The disease is recognized as clusters of small, circular (1/16” diameter) spots that produce thousands of bright orange urediniospores on the upper side of the leaf (Fig. 1). With southern rust, there are multiple disease cycles during the growing season.

In 2025, the effect of commercial fungicides on foliar diseases of corn were evaluated at six ISU Research and Demonstration Farms: Northwest Research Farm (NWRF), Northern Research Farm (NRF), Northeast Research Farm (NERF), Armstrong Memorial Research Farm (lost due to wind damage before tasseling), Ag Engineering and Agronomy Farm (AEA), and Southeast Research Farm (SERF). Fungicide products evaluated and timing of application are shown in Table 1.

Iowa State University’s extension entomologists have monitored field crop pests for a long time. The pests have changed over the years, but the goal is the same: to help inform farmers about pest activity in Iowa. Our moth trapping effort targets black cutworm, which is a migratory moth. Since timing of arrival is variable between growing seasons, trapping black cutworm helps us predict when injury will occur.