About Rachel Norby, Summer Seed-2-Soil Intern

Rachel Norby grew up on a farm in Osage, Iowa, where her family raises corn, soybeans and Morgan horses. She was active in 4-H and FFA and credits these organizations, as well as her experiences on the family farm, for paving her path to a career in agriculture. As an Iowa State University student, Rachel just completed her junior year. She’s majoring in Agricultural Studies with a minor in Agronomy. Her favorite coursework includes all agronomy classes as she enjoys learning about the science behind crop production. Rachel is also active in College of Agriculture events and activities. She serves on the officer team for ISU’s Farm Operations Club. Earlier this spring, she travelled to Costa Rica for an agricultural study abroad course. She shared her travel experiences with us on TheFieldPosition.com. Simply scan the QR code in the side panel to read about her adventures! Rachel’s past intern experiences include working for the Mitchell County Extension office and serving as a crop scout for BMP Agronomics in Charles City. She’s looking forward to learning about the seed industry and building on her agronomy skills while working with the Latham and our Seed-2-Soil® program this summer. In the future, Rachel hopes to land a job in agronomy sales or communications. She also would like to continue farming with her family.

Genetic Garden Shows How Different Types of Corn React to Drought

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Rachel Norby, Summer Seed-2-Soil Intern

by Rachel Norby, Seed-2-Soil® Summer Intern

As you drive through the countryside, it’s evident that different corn hybrids are handling the drought stress differently. Some hybrids have stronger roots and stalks, so they’re holding up better in these dry conditions. Other hybrids have weaker stalks and are lodging.

Latham Hi-Tech Seeds’ Genetic Garden shows how corn from many different eras is reacting to the drought conditions. You can see how much better today’s hybrids can withstand the high heat and low moisture than their early ancestors.

Genetic Garden Shows Drought Stress

Although minimal irrigation was used to keep our “living museum of corn” alive for the Latham Country Fair on August 25, many varieties still reacted to the drought. You’ll see lodging in many early varieties. (NOTE: “Early” is being used here to reference the chronological history corn of varieties, not as in the relative maturity of hybrids.)

Open-pollinated corn varieties grown during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s didn’t pollinate then, and you’ll see the same thing happened in our Genetic Garden. A corn variety found in the Genetic Garden from around the time of the 1988 drought is also showing signs of stress. One of the differences in the droughts of 1988 and 2012, however, is there was less rainfall during the months of April to June in 1988 than we received in 2012. This lack of rain during that quarter of the year meant more stress on crops during early season growth compared to this year when the majority of the stress happened around the time of pollination.

We’d like to invite you to see the differences for yourself! Take a walk through our “living museum of corn” on Saturday, Aug. 25, during the Latham Country Fair. We’ll be hosting tours between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

From the Field Updates for July 30, 2012

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Rachel Norby, Summer Seed-2-Soil Intern

It’s no wonder that the four fields we’re watching “From the Field” are facing similar challenges this season since drought is affecting 29 contiguous states this growing season. Given the lack of moisture combined with extremely high temperatures, these fields are holding together quite well. Click below to see how fields are doing in the following locations:

1040 WHO Radio plot at Beau and Nick Dawes’ Farm: July 30, 2012

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Rachel Norby, Summer Seed-2-Soil Intern

A sure sign that we need rain… Is that a new fault line?

Nick and Beau Dawes WHO corn and soybean plots near Adel, Iowa, are maturing very well despite the slight 0.2” rain received so far in July. Corn is at growth stage R2 to R3. Due to the extreme heat and lack of mositure kernel abortion is occurring in all hybrids. The average high temperature in July, thus far is 96º and average low only reaching 73º. Soybeans are at R2 to R3 growth stage. There is no severe weed or disease pressure at this time.