Kansas State Plant Pathologist Erick De DeWolf has put out, in my opinion, the most accurate winter wheat fungicide efficacy ratings. You can review it here. In it, he summarizes performance ratings and also provides insight we can utilize as we make plans for fungicide applications on our wheat this year.

In addition to these ratings, I wanted to share with you a few thoughts I had looking back on the 2016 season.

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.

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.

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.

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... 

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...

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. 

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.

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.

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).