This year we are offering on-site registration for the Integrated Crop Management Conference! Join us on December 10-11 at the Meadows Events and Conference Center in Altoona, IA for two days jam-packed with networking, continuing education, and insight for 2026 and beyond. 

Highlights of this year’s event include:

Currently, soybean gall midge is known to occur in 185 counties across seven states in the Midwest (go to https://soybeangallmidge.org/soybean-gall-midge-distribution to see the full distribution). Eight new counties have been confirmed in 2025, with five of those being in Iowa. The Hodgson lab, agronomists, and farmers found soybean gall midge larvae in Union and Clarke counties in southern Iowa and Tama, Poweshiek, and Grundy counties in central Iowa.

Many reports of caterpillars feeding at the tips of corn ears have prompted discussions about how to distinguish between common ear-feeding caterpillars. In particular, western bean cutworm infestations across the state have been misidentified as corn earworm, probably because of the location of feeding and western bean cutworm being an infrequent pest in Iowa. Here are some tips to help you distinguish the two caterpillars.

Iowa and other Midwestern states are reporting very high levels of West Nile virus (WNV) this month. Data is generated from ongoing mosquito surveillance efforts coordinated by Dr. Ryan Smith at Iowa State University. This week had the highest observed WNV activity at this point in the summer observed in over 20 years. This trend is of serious concern for the next 8 weeks when WNV transmission risks are the highest.