Disease
Many seed beans were hammered by heat and drought at harvest last year, leading to variable seed quality this season. Knowing your warm/cold germ scores and using seed treatments at planting can help you get the crop off to a stronger start, especially early soybeans.
Data — a word that packs a punch but can be hard to define. From planting to irrigation, it’s necessary to have a digital record of these field activities to participate in sustainability and crop traceability programs.
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Soybean growers lost nearly 6 million bushels to seedling diseases in 2023. Learn how to identify pythium, phytophthora and rhizoctonia to protect your crop.
Growers are trying to figure out what caused missing plants in their corn stands last season and what solutions they can use this spring.
A new map from the SCN Coalition can give you an idea of whether the pest is in your county. Soil testing this spring will confirm whether the pest is in your fields, dinging yields and dollars.
Outgoing USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack sent a letter to Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture acknowledging the progress made in reopening cattle trade between the two countries following the detection of New World Screwworm, but says more action is needed to resume trade.
Our brief video takes you through evaluating stand losses from pest pressure, disease issues and dry conditions in a central Illinois cornfield. These insights can help you plan for next season’s bumper yields.
There’s a big crop in the field for many Midwest growers, and it requires fuel. N supplies ears with the energy they need to add kernels all the way to their tips and to pack on weight.
Severely bruised corn stalks can limit the plants’ ability to translocate water and nutrients and even cause the growing point region to die.
When average daily humidity levels reach and stay at 75% or above, that’s a signal your crop could be at high risk from the disease.
Ken Ferrie outlines various treatment scenarios, depending on what farmers find in their fields. He cautions that severe infections can easily cause 60-bu.-per-acre yield losses.
As of mid-June, nearly 20 counties across four states have already reported fields with tar spot. Timing fungicide applications will be critical to keep the disease from getting out of control.
Abiotic stressors can trigger a response in plants called reactive oxidative species that can impair cellular function and growth. Biological products have shown significant promise in mitigating these challenges.
There are at least 30 fungicides labeled for suppression or control of tar spot in corn with a FIFRA 2(ee) recommendation.
The company is artificially inoculating tar spot in select field test plots this season to study how corn responds. Researchers say the work will help them advance tar spot tolerance for DEKALB and Channel products.
Just because tar spot was mostly a no-show in 2022 and 2023 doesn’t mean that will be the case in 2024. Charting humidity levels can help predict if the disease will strike.
In a year with razor-thin margins, at best, corn and soybean growers can use a variety of new technology and tried-and-true agronomic tools to score higher yields this season.
Lack of genetic diversity in crops may lead to an outcome worse than COVID-19.
As the costliest pest in the U.S. for soybeans, this breakthrough means there will finally be options to develop varieties with enhanced SCN resistance.
Scientists from the Agricultural Research Service have identified several different species of fungi and bacteria that can stop tar spot from developing.
The online tool from the SCN Coalition is free and easy to use. It’s backed by research done on more than 25,000 university soybean research plots across the U.S.
Now’s the time to start making notes of tar spot pressure, field by field and hybrid by hybrid, says Missy Bauer, Farm Journal field agronomist.
Some farmers in central Illinois are making yield estimates of 250 to 270 bushels per acre. Ken Ferrie says in many of those cases a more realistic estimate, though disappointing, would be in the 170 to 220 range.
Corteva Agriscience introduces Viatude and LumiTreo to address tough disease issues and protect soybean yield potential. Both will be available for use in 2024. There are limited supplies of Viatude this season, as well.
Conditions are right for the disease to break loose in parts of the Midwest. If it does, agronomists recommend three steps farmers can take to prioritize affected cornfields for harvest to minimize yield loss.
Corn growers in 13 states have confirmed tar spot outbreaks now. Iowa leads the pack with the disease reported in at least 36 counties. Indiana is a close second. “It’s starting to explode,” one agronomist says.
Farmers can use humidity charts for their area to assess when the disease could hit their corn crop as well as the optimum time to make a fungicide application, says Missy Bauer, Farm Journal Associate Field Agronomist.
In Bob Lindeman’s soybean rows, planting populations are on a general decline, and the reduction is not about saving dollars up front, but on combatting mold and rot.
“This is the earliest we’ve reported tar spot in Iowa,” says Robertson, Iowa State professor of plant pathology. She says the early detection could be due to the Tarspotter app. Here’s how it works.
Double-digit yield losses are not uncommon. To date, 14 Illinois counties have confirmed the disease, and it’s being scouted for elsewhere by seed company and Extension pathologists and agronomists.