With older tools like Tarspotter and Sporecaster no longer supported, the Crop Protection Network (CPN) has introduced the Crop Disease Forecasting Tool, a new free web-based tool to assess risk for diseases in corn and soybeans. This tool builds on years of university-led field data collection and modeling to provide field-specific risk forecasts for foliar diseases.

July typically brings a lull in soybean diseases. By this time, plants have grown out of early-season issues, and late-season diseases usually haven’t arrived yet. But every season brings its own challenges. With the frequent rains this year, some of the typical “August diseases” are starting to show up earlier than expected.

Are you seeing Japanese beetles in field crops? Watch this 4-minute video to learn more about how to estimate Japanese beetle defoliation and use economic thresholds in soybean: 

 CPN: Soybean insect defoliation training tool link

Agronomists have discovered several new populations of Palmer amaranth across Iowa in the past couple years. These finds have again reminded us the importance of paying attention to those weeds and making sure you know for a fact that the waterhemp is just waterhemp. 

Asian copperleaf (Acalypha australis) remains a new species of concern in Iowa. Currently, we’re aware of infestations in eight Iowa counties: Calhoun, Humboldt, Wright, Boone, Franklin, Hardin, Grundy, and Black Hawk (Figure 1). This species is often first detected at harvest, where farmers discover a carpet of green plants under corn and soybean canopies. Now is a great time to look for this species and other new weeds (like Palmer amaranth) when scouting fields.