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Much needed rain came early last week in most areas of the mid-south, giving growers some welcome moisture to finish soybean planting. Soybean growth stages range from just being planted to R6 (Full Seed). Early planted dryland beans benefited from the rain as more blooms should allow for more pod set. Many growers I visited with in eastern Arkansas are battling resistant pigweeds; many have post sprayed at least twice, adding different herbicides to their glyphosate in hopes of getting some control. It has not always worked. Many growers are already asking to plant LibertyLink soybeans in 2011 to help with this resistance problem.

Stine corn hybrids are looking very good with high expectations for this coming harvest. Most corn is at full dent and will reach black layer shortly. Expect harvest to begin by the third week of August. Noticed a benefit from new VT3Pro hybrids as compared to VT3 in helping control corn earworm, allowing for better tip fill. Hot dry weather could affect grain fill on some later planted fields, but I expect a very good corn crop overall.

East central Illinois crop conditions are widely varied, with most corn pollinated and grain fill just beginning to nearly done.  I am expecting wide variations in yield due to ponding and nitrogen deficiency. Highest yields will more than likely come from best drained fields and be directly related to root development. Many fields look to have poor root development due to excessive moisture in June. We will just have to see if this could cause harvest issues this fall. Proper hybrid selection for soil type will pay big dividends this fall!

I was out in a soybean field in central Iowa last week and saw my first soybean aphids of the season.  The numbers were low, and they were still hard to spot, but they were there.   For the most part, corn is looking good.  From what I last calculated, we were 200 growing degree units ahead of last year at this time, so for those of you who have kept your maturity diversification and not gone to all shorter season corn it will pay out this year.

Soybean Aphid resistant update

The new soybean aphid resistant soybeans that are out on the market are resistant to aphid biotype 1 and some have resistance to biotype 2.  This resistance comes from the source of Rag 1 and Rag 2 genes.  Researchers have already found that there are 3 biotypes of aphids, so having an aphid-resistant soybean may not be the answer to all of our problems with this pest.   

Conditions here in southwest Iowa and northwest Missouri have been WET, to say the very least!  We seem to be getting rain about every other day, along with strong winds.  For the most part, crops look good but in the bottom and side hills, they are struggling.  Guys are having a hard time getting beans sprayed and hay cut.  There has been a fair amount of fungicide being put on the corn when time is allowed.  I was down by Creston last week and saw some corn just coming up.  There are also a few guys that are still replanting beans.  It seems like every year it is something new and this year is no change.