Wisconsin
Steve Bailie reports that beans are starting to canopy in the lower part of the state. In mid-Wisconsin, beans are about one week away from canopy. Aphid numbers have dropped due to temperature and weather changes.
Corn in the southern part of the state has had a hard few days. Thursday night, July 9, produced high winds that tipped over corn on the edges of the field. Shallow root systems, due to high amounts of spring rain, made the corn in these areas more susceptible to tipping.
Any alfalfa and oats that wasn’t harvested in the past two weeks was also pushed over by the winds. Potato leaf hopper numbers have dropped from where they were a few weeks ago.
Minnesota
Jason Obermeyer reports that corn has grown out of its “twisted ” state with cooler temperatures and slower growth the last week and a half. Plants are approximately 7 to 10 days away from tasseling, depending on planting date. His area is catching sporadic rains, though areas north of Highway 19 are in dire need of rain. Some aphids have been located in isolated areas, but counts are low and there are no widespread breakouts. Remember: Start scouting your fields every three days from now on!
Nebraska
Brian Banks reports that Nebraska weather has been excellent for crop development. Both corn and beans are doing very well. Some corn is tasseling this week, and the majority of corn is about a week away from tassel. Gray Leaf Spot has been found across all parts his territory; only seeing a few lesions on the bottom couple of leaves so far. Soybeans are starting to flower and are beginning to canopy. So far, there have not been any bean leaf beetle problems.
South Dakota
Bill Eichacker reports that rains in south eastern South Dakota have been occurring 2 to 3 times a week this past month. This is making alfalfa harvesting a challenge. The second crop is looking really good, but the rain needs to stop in time for cutting. Corn has really pushed this past week, with tassels starting to emerge. Soybeans are looking good, but spraying is lagging due to the wet field conditions.
Northwest Iowa
Bruce Anderson reports that crops look good this week in northwest Iowa. Visits at co-ops this week confirm that crops are looking as good as can be. Corn will soon be tasseling. Rains have been timely. Field signs are also going up at a rapid pace. It’s hard to find a blank spot in any corn fields due to great emergence. Yields look like they’re going to be fantastic.
West Central Iowa
Travis Slusher reports that they have seen anywhere from 1.5 inches to more than 2 inches of rain throughout his area since Saturday; rainfall was slow and steady. Crops look excellent other than a stretch through the middle of the area that saw high winds and hail in the storm a couple of weeks ago. This area had significant stalk breakage along with hail damage and heavy rainfall. He has seen some signs of aphids in areas with producers considering spraying if the populations continue to increase. Haying is still a struggle with areas still trying to finish first cutting.
Central Iowa
Bob Collins reports that both the corn and beans are looking good in central Iowa. The only spraying activity has been some herbicide control on beans. Some early planted corn is starting to tassel. When whole fields get tasseled out, he thinks farmers will see corn in wet spots that is behind. A few fields look like they are running out of Nitrogen because of all the rain. Some bean fields are about to shade the row now.
North Central and Northeast Iowa
Tom Larson reports another diverse growing week in North Iowa. Temperatures have felt more like early May than July, and then storms toward the week’s end virtually affected everyone in the area.
In high pH areas, “yellow flashing” has started to occur. It really seems that planting date has a major impact on the severity of yellowing with the early planted soybeans looking much better that the latter. While we still have a lot to understand about this issue, the more mature soybeans with a better established root system seems to withstand the chlorosis much better.
Tassels set is one to two leaves away. The corn has gone through tremendous growth with Thursday’s storm damage yet to be determined. Now is the time to start digging corn roots to see the damage that rootworms are inflicting on your roots. Early reports are population levels are much higher than expected and significant feeding with entire nodes affected. Planting a rootworm resistant corn (TS or VT3) will greatly reduce this risk and speed up harvest without the lodged corn to creep through.
We are starting to sign our Latham fields. If you have a field that you would like signed, please contact your local sales representative or dealer.
East Central Iowa
Wayde McNeil reports that most corn is just starting to tassel, finding some brown spot and common rust in corn. The local corn crop is good to excellent. The bean crop is good. He’s finding leaf hopper, bean leaf beetle, brown spot, downy mildew, bacterial blight and bacterial pustule in soybean fields. The alfalfa crop is average to bad. Alfalfa is taking a real beating from leafhopper and a lot of foliar diseases; you can find almost all of them in a field. With that in mind, stunted alfalfa is everywhere. His areas has missed hard winds but received more rain than needed in some spots.
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