It finally feels like fall here in Nebraska! The past couple of days have brought beautiful weather to many of us in the state. From around the three counties, soybeans continue to be harvested, some shelling is occurring for corn, corn chopping is wrapping up, and some are sneaking a last alfalfa cutting out. For all growers in the area, be sure to check equipment throughout harvest, remove as much residue as possible between fields, and prioritize fields with damage or late season issues. Removing residue between fields and cleaning equipment can reduce the disease, insect, and weed issues of one field from moving to another. This will be very important this year, with all of the late season disease pressure we are seeing. Stalk rots in corn and lodging in soybeans may drive your harvest decisions. Fields with stalk rot, soybean lodging, dectes stem borer damage, or at risk fields need to take priority when harvesting. In our area especially, Anthracnose is wreaking havoc in both our soybeans and corn fields. Prioritizing these fields that have stalk or stem issues can save yield in the end.
These week I don’t have a dedicated topic like I usually do, but I wanted to report some of the issues I am seeing around the counties. I have seen Fusarium in damaged corn ears (whether by hail or western bean cutworm), look for firework/starburst patterns in the kernels. If you are seeing this in your corn ears please contact me. I am trying to track the number of cases we have in the area. I am also seeing northern leaf blight, in cover crop sorghum that has been planted in Nance County. It is important to mark these fields as northern blight also affects corn and timothy grass, so planting beans into those fields with cover crop sorghum may be a better option. In alfalfa there are a slew of fungal diseases. This will not hurt the quality of the alfalfa (expect possibly less leaf area), but harvesting the alfalfa and allowing adequate time for hardening will see the diseases not be a habitual issue. Lastly, I have been seeing more soybean pods with Cercaposora and purple seed stain issues. Look out for these as we continue through harvest.
A reminder the Syngenta settlement papers are due on October 12th and can be found at Crop Watch.
Also visit CropWatch at UNL extension for weekly articles about current issues and view scouting reports from across the state. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at 402-563-4901 or email me at mtaylor42@unl.edu. For up to date information follow me on twitter @CropTalkMegan. Tune in next week for more Crop Talk from Nebraska extension. Thanks for listening in and have a great and safe weekend. This week Purdue faces Nebraska, we will see who wins this big ten showdown. Hail Purdue and Go Big Red!
Crop Talk Megan 