When is the best time to apply fungicides on wheat? Check out this video to find out! 

Friends and family gathered by the pool on a hot July day. Kids played and splashed while the adults laughed and shared stories. It was your average Midwest get together until the unthinkable happened.

Often, when farmers hear the word nematodes, their minds gravitate towards soybeans; however, there are multiple plant-parasitic nematodes that cause serious damage to the corn plant. The level of injury and yield reduction to the corn crop will depend on the species of nematode present as well as the population of those nematodes; other in-season plant stresses exacerbate nematode pressure. Over the past decade, we have seen a shift to more corn acres, which ultimately makes these nematodes even more important to understand.

Every day, we swim through a soup of gases, and nearly 80% is elemental nitrogen, N₂. This nitrogen (N) gas is two molecules of N connected by an incredibly strong triple bond. Humans have only had the technology to transform atmospheric N into biologically-available forms for less than 80 years, and it comes at enormous costs. So, despite that 80% of the air the plant encounters, in the stomata of the leaf or the pore spaces in the soil, is pure N, plants have no way to tap into the infinite supply of N₂.

Soil microbial health has been a hot agronomic topic of discussion lately. What can we learn and implement from sampling the microbial communities of our soils? Deatra Gremaux, the Practical Farm Research Data and Logistics Manager, from Beck’s Hybrids is working with Casey McGuire, Regional Pattern Ag Manager, to uncover the answers to that very question.

Clayton Stufflebeam, Practical Farm Research (PFR) Location Lead from the El Paso, IL, location takes a minute to explain our Closing Wheel Systems Study before testing the closing wheels.

Beck’s has six Practical Farm Research (PFR)® sites spread throughout the Midwest in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and Iowa. Although Beck’s PFR sites don’t exist yet in Michigan, Minnesota, and Missouri, customers and dealers alike are implementing PFR Proven™ strategies on their farms. Follow along throughout the 2020 growing season to see how they put Beck’s PFR into practice.

In the weed science world, we spend a lot of time discussing soybean herbicide programs, but very little time talking about corn programs. Why is so little time spent on corn? One reason is the fact that we can use Group 27 or HPPD herbicides in corn to achieve effective weed control. HPPDs were approved in the late ‘90s, making them the most recently approved herbicide group to come to market. Therefore, there are fewer resistant weeds reported compared to many other herbicide groups. Today, Group 27 herbicides are the foundation to many successful corn herbicide program. However, in 2020, farmers in approved states/counties will have the option to use Alite™ 27 (isoxafl utole) for residual on tough-tocontrol small-seeded broadleaf weeds, such as pigweeds and marestail. Alite 27 has greater activity on smaller-seeded broadleaf weeds versus larger-seeded weeds like giant ragweed.

Did you know that around 10% of the total estimated corn and soybean bushels are lost yearly to various diseases? According to the Crop Protection Network, 10% has been the average yearly loss since the group of extension specialists across the country started summarizing their data at the end of each year. With that being said, the fungicide market has exploded over the last 10 to 15 years as the industry and farmers alike try to maximize bushels on the farm and fi ght off disease. One of the best parts of my job is getting to have a hand in our Practical Farm Research (PFR)®, which is a tool to help farmers make decisions on products and practices each year. As new products come onto the market, we have an opportunity with PFR to put them to the test against products that have already proven to be profitable.

Every year, Beck’s Practical Farm Research (PFR)® team tests new products, practices, and equipment to help farmers make better decisions and improve profitability. Two new products that PFR is testing in 2020 are Pivot Bio PROVEN™ and Envita™ from Azotic North America.