2
Jan
2017
One of the staples for growing healthy, high-yielding crops is to maintain good soil fertility. That’s why most agronomists will suggest soil sampling every two to three years to evaluate how your fields are holding up. These tests however are not always the easiest to read and many farmers often need help interpreting the results. Here are some key tips and areas to focus on when evaluating your soil test report.
Categories: Agronomy, Kentucky, Tennessee
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, soil tests, Austin Scott, Kentucky Agronomy, Tennessee Agronomy, soil fertility, soil pH
13
Oct
2016
The time spent in the combine is perfect for scouting winter annual weeds while monitoring your harvest operations. A winter annual weed is just like it sounds… an annual weed with a life cycle that begins in the fall and may go dormant during the winter before maturing and dying in the spring. With this type of life cycle, winter annual weeds were less of a concern in past years because they weren’t considered to be competitive with a growing summer crop, and conventional tillage practices took care of them before planting.
Categories: Agronomy, Missouri
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy Update, Marestail, Missouri Agronomy, Beck's Agronomist, David Hughes, tillage, Winter Weeds, Winter Annual Weeds, chickweed, henbit, Carolina foxtail, Virginia pepperweed, purselane, sheperdspurse, field pennycress, fall herbicide program, weed resistance management, winter annual crop, cover crop
26
Sep
Categories: Agronomy, NE Illinois, NW Indiana, S. Wisconsin
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Chad Kalaher, Agronomy Update, Beck's Agronomist, indiana agronomy, Illinois Agronomy, Winter Wheat, winter kill in wheat, Wisconsin Agronomy, MIDWEST WHEAT, Hessian fly-free date
21
Jul
Most parts of Iowa experienced conditions that were drier and warmer than usual throughout the month of June. Recently though, we received some much needed rain. Unfortunately, in some instances, these rains were accompanied by high winds and thunderstorms which occurred just prior to corn tasseling in many fields. High winds just prior to tassel can cause green snap (brittle snap) in corn.
Categories: Agronomy, Western Iowa
Tags: Beck's Blog, corn, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, Iowa Agronomy, PAT HOLLOWAY, GREEN SNAP
20
I have received a number of calls from customers over the past few weeks, so I wanted to provide some updates on a few of the hot topics as we continue to monitor the development of our corn and soybean crops.
Categories: NE Illinois, NW Indiana
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Chad Kalaher, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, indiana agronomy, Illinois Agronomy, Fungicide, Insecticide, Disease Development, Nitrogen Uptake
The stressful growing conditions we experienced over the last month are in the rear view and we are wrapping up what has been an ideal period of weather during pollination. But many are wondering how does drought and extreme heat (similar to what we’ve experienced) affect corn during its vegetative growth stages? For the sake of being objective, let’s take a look at a reliable resource to determine how critical the hot, dry conditions were to your area.
Categories: Agronomy, Eastern Iowa
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, Iowa Agronomy, Greg Shepherd, CORN STRESS
5
At the moment, Liberty® (glufosinate) is the only post-emergence herbicide available to control glyphosate and PPO-resistant Palmer amaranth and waterhemp. So naturally, we need this herbicide to perform to the best of its ability. There are a few things you can do to enhance the efficacy of your LibertyLink® herbicide program. Below I have outlined the best management practices for post-emergence Liberty applications.
Tags: Beck's Blog, corn, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, LibertyLink, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, Waterhemp, Palmer amaranth, Austin Scott, Kentucky Agronomy, Tennessee Agronomy, Liberty
30
Jun
Over the last few days, many farmers in Ohio and eastern Indiana have noticed some patches or large areas that appear to be wilting, turning yellow or brown, and dying. Below are just a few photos of the symptoms we are seeing.
Categories: Agronomy, E Indiana, Ohio
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, Mark Apelt, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, Ohio corn, Phytophthora root rot
24
A lot of our early planted corn is already in the reproductive stage, or will be within the next week. A majority of the phone calls I’ve recently received are from farmers asking “should I spray a fungicide?” This is a tricky question. On one hand, you don’t want to throw money at a corn crop when it’s not warranted, but on the other hand you don’t want to lose potential yield by not protecting your crop. So the million-dollar question is, “what should I do?”
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, Austin Scott, Kentucky Agronomy, Tennessee Agronomy, FUNGICIDE APPLICATIONS ON CORN
22
We received high storm winds with rainfall Monday night in much of Northern Missouri and there are a lot of acres with corn blown over or down (root lodging). I have not heard of any significant greensnap which is good.
Here are a few key points to remember...
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Missouri Agronomy, Beck's Agronomist, David Hughes, Root Lodging, greensnap
With wheat harvest officially underway across southern Indiana, I wanted to offer you a few tips about harvest and planting double crop soybeans.
When preparing to harvest wheat, the ideal moisture is between 14 to 20 percent. Below 14 percent moisture we start to see yield loss and we could also run the risk of a rain lowering test weight and quality. Air drying wheat will give you the best quality. For long-term storage, make sure to dry your wheat to 12.5 percent moisture.
Categories: Agronomy, S Indiana
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, Wheat Harvest, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, indiana agronomy, Indiana wheat, Steve Gauck Agronomy, Head Scab, double crop soybeans, vomitoxin
8
A large percentage of Ohio’s corn acres were put in the ground over the last few weeks. Since then, the warm temperatures have caused corn to emerge rather quickly, in approximately five days vs. the April planted corn which, in some cases, took up to three weeks! As our customers are out scouting their fields, several of them have noticed a reduced stand and wondering what the causes might have been...
Categories: Agronomy, Ohio
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, Mark Apelt, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, Ohio corn, OHIO Field Observation, Fertlizer Burn
7
As the southernmost agronomist for Beck’s, I’m usually the first one to see which pest(s) will be the worst, and this year is no exception. Although I haven’t seen much disease or insect pressure (up to this point), I have received numerous calls about yellow tops, white spots, or purpling in corn. With that, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to explain some of these “corn syndromes.”
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, Kentucky PFR, Rapid Growth Syndrome, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, Austin Scott, Kentucky Agronomy, Tennessee Agronomy, Corn Syndromes, Silverleaf Syndrome, Purple Corn Syndrome
23
May
In some areas, the window of opportunity for planting corn, and environmental conditions that followed, were not ideal for rapid germination and emergence. The cold soils and excessive rainfall we experienced shortly after planting has led to uneven emergence, delayed emergence, and an onset of seedling blights. We have also seen the use of rotary hoes in some areas with crusted soils.
Categories: Agronomy, NE Illinois, NW Indiana
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Chad Kalaher, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, indiana agronomy, Illinois Agronomy, Replant, Delayed planting, seeding rate recommendations
19
Over the past week I have been called to numerous fields to evaluate emerging soybeans that are weak, injured by feeding or herbicides, or were impacted by seedling disease, primarily Pythium (root rot/damping off). I wanted to take a minute to discuss PPO-herbicide injury.
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Missouri Agronomy, Beck's Agronomist, David Hughes, Replant, PPO Herbicide injury
17
The cool temperatures we have experienced over the last several nights have led to questions regarding frost damage. We are seeing some signs of frost damage here at our Ohio Practical Farm Research (PFR)® location, however we won’t know the severity of this damage until three to five days following the frost event. With the low temperatures leading up to this recent frost event, the hardening off process had started making our crops more tolerant of cool temperatures. Wet soils and dew present helps to maintain soil temperatures, thereby decreasing the risk of injury.
Tags: Beck's Blog, corn, AgTalk, soybeans, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, Alex Johnson, Wheat, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, Ohio Agronomy, Alexandra Knight, FROST DAMAGE
Given the cool, wet conditions we have been experiencing, I wanted to take the opportunity to send a timely update. Now is a great time to evaluate fields we have already planted. Chances are, some of your fields are up while others are taking a bit longer.
Categories: Agronomy Talk
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, Iowa Agronomy, corn emergence, GDUS, Greg Shepherd
12
The cool, wet weather we have been experiencing has lead to increased concern for various threats to our wheat crops. This article includes my updates on what I have been seeing in wheat fields across Ohio over the past few days.
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, Mark Apelt, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, Ohio wheat, wheat fields, Ohio agornomy, Fungicide, Stripe rust, Armyworms, Wheat Spindle Streak, Head Scab
10
May can be a busy month. Most of us are planting soybeans, post-spraying corn, spraying burndown ahead of beans, and/or checking on maturing wheat. We have a lot happening all at the same time. With that in mind, I thought I’d share some of the things I keep an eye on and field scout for during this busy month. My intent with this article is not to give you a “how-to” for each of these, but rather to let you know what you should be looking for and thinking about from a crop diagnostic perspective.
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, Nitrogen Loss, Scouting, agronomist, Missouri Agronomy, Beck's Agronomist, David Hughes, Missouri agornomy, insect pressure, stand assessment, root growth, burndown, herbicide injury
9
My name is Greg Shepherd and I am your new field agronomist in eastern Iowa. I am an Iowa boy, born and raised on a farm in west central Iowa. Nearly 12 years ago, we made our way to southeast Iowa and have put down roots on a family farm near Mt. Pleasant. My wife, Aimee and I have been richly blessed with our wonderful boys; Caleb (6), Silas (4), and Ethan (2).
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, Iowa Agronomy, Greg Shepherd