The Ag PhD Crop Scouting Reports are supplied by contributors to Hefty Seed Co., based in Baltic, South Dakota. Find more online at www.agphd.com and www.heftyseed.com.
ILLINOIS
Georgetown, IL
Fusarium head blight, also called head scab, is caused mainly by the fusarium fungus. Head scab decreases yield and test weight and can also lead to the production of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol, also known as vomitoxin. Talk with your agronomist if a fungicide application is needed. — Tyler Smith
Princeton, IL
Now is a great time to look at your in-season plant health needs for this season’s crop. There are so many products to choose from, it can become overwhelming at times to figure out what will work or work the best. As you use different products, make sure to document what you learn so each year going forward you will have a reference guide on what worked best that year. — Nate Ihnen
IOWA
Rockwell, IA
Crops are ready for some foliar feeding, especially the first planted crops to help alleviate stresses. The timing is now for side-dress injected liquids, top-dress dry spreading, and foliar spray. — Paul Helland
Sheldon, IA
Having the correct additives on post-applied herbicides is very critical. When applying Impact alone, always use methylated seed oil, not crop oil concentrate, with 2 pounds of AMS and 1 pint of atrazine. — Adam Sauer
KANSAS
Garden City, KS
This picture shows the effect high pH + high lime can have on a soybean crop. As you can see, the proper chelated iron product can make a dramatic difference. Soygreen at 4 quarts/acre on the left and nothing in the check strip on the right. The pH is about 8.0. — Chris Lobmeyer
MINNESOTA
Breckenridge, MN
We’ve already started seeing some bean leaf beetle damage in soybean fields. A heavy infestation can cause serious leaf damage. At this early crop stage, if the defoliation is approaching 30-40%, consider applying a pyrethroid insecticide such as Silencer or Kendo at 3.2 oz/acre. — Conor Swenson
Hancock, MN
We are starting to see some black cutworm damage on some sugar beets in the area. Make sure you are scouting for these bugs. I would recommend Asana at 6 oz/acre to take them out. — Nathan DuHoux
LeRoy, MN
This is the advantage of using a good pre-emerge herbicide. The soybeans were sprayed with Fierce + Sencor. By using this, we had 3 effective modes of action on waterhemp. To the left of the last row of soybeans is all waterhemp. I would not want to try and kill that with just Roundup. — Grant Lunning
Olivia, MN
A good rule a thumb is that if the temperature and humidity add up to 150, cut your adjuvant rate in half to help avoid leaf burn with certain products. However, make sure you are still on label with your spray application. — John Scheibel
If you have conventional corn this year, I am seeing a great response out of Capreno at a 3 oz rate + 1 pt of atrazine. If you are a sugar beet grower, be aware of the 18-month rotational crop restriction on your beets. — Brandon Howard
Thief River Falls, MN
Sugar beet stands in the area are looking really good, with many of the beets from 4-6 leaf. Now is a good time to be killing off any cover crops with the first post-emerge spray of glyphosate as the beets have established good root growth. — Jordan Swanson
Winthrop, MN
If you are spraying your soybean acres and you have volunteer corn, add in a product such as Fusilade, Se-Cure, or Clethodim to clean up these acres. Volunteer corn can be worse than many broadleaf weeds in lowering yield. Also, when spraying these products, add in the proper adjuvant such as crop oil and AMS (only when NOT spraying dicamba products) for best results. — Dean Christiansen
For lambsquarters problems in soybeans, guys like adding 1/16 oz per acre of Treaty to the spray mixture as it does a great job of controlling lambsquarters and is pretty cheap. You will get a little crop burn from it, but it’s better to spray products that will burn your beans early instead of later on in the season. — Tyler Gasow
If you have thistles and giant ragweed in your corn, a great option right now is to put some Stinger in with your post chemical application. Spiking in 4 oz/acre should do a great job. Also, there is a generic Stinger available this year so don’t forget to ask your retailer about that. — Matt Vogel
MISSOURI
Bertrand, MO
Some area farmers will begin harvesting wheat this week. I will report some yields as I receive them later in the week. — Albert Duenne
Hayti, MO
With the sun and warm growing temperatures following recent rains, I’m seeing rapid weed growth. Combined with the upcoming June 10th dicamba cutoff, make full use of this time frame to get weeds while they are still easy to control. In a few days, that 2 to 3-inch weed can be 5 to 6 inches tall with an aggressive root structure. For those signed up for Farmers Edge aerial imaging, don’t forget to scan through your daily images to look for breakouts as well as any problem areas with stand and emergence. — Danny Stevens
MONTANA
Great Falls, MT
The Golden Triangle area Bayer Representative, Justin Nielson, found several cases of ascochyta in fields of chickpeas with node stages varying between 4 to 10 nodes. Regardless of how many nodes there are on a particular crop, you need to be spraying at or before the first sign of diseases. Justin recommends a tankmix of Delaro at 12 oz/acre with Clethodim and NIS (not crop oil) will help prevent this disease. — Ryan Casillas
Sidney, MT
I am getting questions on controlling marestail in what is going to be chem-fallow. There are a few options to add to glyphosate,including Panoflex, Sharpen, 2,4-D, Banvel, and Quelex. The least expensive is going with 1 pt/acre of 2,4-D in with your 1 qt/acre of glyphosate, but it will have little to no residual control. — Chet Hill
NEBRASKA
Seward, NE
When using products like Flexstar and Cobra, one of the major concerns is the crop speckling or burn. This does look like crop damage, but soybeans will grow out of these visual symptoms. One way to help get your soybeans growing again and looking green is to use a micronutrient package foliar product. Some good products that can help alleviate this are Versa Max and Micro EX. — Brad Meusch
West Point, NE
Corn is growing fast and most fields are looking clean from the pre’s put on earlier, but now is the time to post spray if you haven’t done it yet. Even with little weed pressure, a timely post spray will allow you to stay in front of the weeds and keep the weed seed bank lower for the future. Include a product like Cavallo for some additional residual to keep things clean through canopy. — Mike Wiese
NORTH DAKOTA
Hurdsfield, ND
It’s about time to spray peas. A tankmix of Basagran 5L and Varisto will clean up your broadleaves. Add something like Se-Cure to get grasses. Be sure to add an MSO and a nitrogen source such as AMS. — Emily Kline
Mohall, ND
Make sure you are doing a good job getting your sprayers cleaned out and consult product labels to avoid contamination in future mixes. For Extreme and Roundup, farmers generally triple rinse with water to clean the tank. They prefer to use ammonia or a commercial tank cleaner for 2,4-D, dicamba, Stinger, Treflan, and Pursuit. Flush booms, clean filters, and rinse again with clean water. Remember, dilution is the cure for pollution. — Ron Hefta
SOUTH DAKOTA
Baltic, SD
I was over in Hendricks MN today and the beans are looking pretty good. If you get out and scout your fields, you will notice that the pre is starting to break. In low, wet areas, waterhemp is coming in fast. You might need to start spraying soybean fields this week. — Tyler Koenig
Gettysburg, SD
Make sure you are scouting your alfalfa fields for alfalfa weevil larvae. You can control them with a generic Warrior at 3.84oz/acre for less than $2.00/acre. — Eric Butz
Huron, SD
I was in a farmer’s field yesterday that was questioning whether he should replant based on the stand that he had in a few fields. After a closer look, the soybeans that were planted relatively close to moisture germinated and came up great, but quite a few of the soybeans had yet to even swell up due to a lack of moisture. Keep this in mind before considering replanting. — Kyle Wiese
Watertown, SD
The winter wheat is starting to head. Consider using Folicur fungicide at a rate of 4 oz/acre to protect against head scab. — Russ Werning
WASHINGTON
Quincy, WA
Morningglory is showing up now in summer fallow. Avoid simply rod weeding through these areas. Instead, spray these areas 5 days in advance with glyphosate at 32-48 oz of a 6 lb material, plus 14 oz of a compatible 2,4-D ester such as D-638. Then continue with your normal weeding. — Dave Dye
