Northwest Iowa is celebrating perfect growing conditions this week! Corn plants range from the 5th to 8th collar stage with little disease or insect pressure present. Soybeans are starting to flower with many in the 5th trifoliate stage. This past week we received anywhere from a couple of tenths to an inch of rain. For many areas this rain was received at the perfect time to help make nutrients readily available to our rapidly growing crop. Many growers are finishing up corn spraying and heading to the soybean fields. Giant ragweed and lambsquarter look to be the largest problem for this year along with volunteer corn. On the alfalfa front, many farmers have second crop harvested or are in the process of putting the crop up this week.
When I sit down to write articles for our blog, I feel like I'm sitting down with my family at the dinner table, ready to talk about 