Fighting Drought Stress

In Nebraska, we are still in the grips of a dry weather pattern. See below for a mid-winter look at the drought monitor: VIEW DROUGHT MONITOR >   Currently, parts of Nebraska are some of the driest areas in the country. We have had some precipitation as rain...

Does Seed Size Matter? 

As you select grades and weights of seed corn for the 2022 season, you may have heard at the coffee shop, chat room, or implement dealership, that certain grades and seed weight makes a difference in seed spacing, seed depth, stand establishment, and in the...

Corn Stalk Lodging Management and What You Can Do

What was the cause?  Easy—3-4 days of 40+ mph winds!  Yes, this was certainly a big part of it.  But, other factors such as Lower fertility levels in certain areas of the fields likely had more lodging than others. Soil compaction—high-traffic areas or areas where...

Six Common Stalk Rots

Stalk rot development happens most years to some degree and this year it will follow a “vulture on the carcass” analogy as the plant had already pre-maturely died from this year’s weather pattern and then the disease infections began.   Following is a brief...

How Fast Will This Year’s Corn Dry?

Drydown after black layer formation varies greatly from hybrid to hybrid. Hybrid characteristics such as husk coverage and heavy test weight can have a significant impact on field drying. A general rule of thumb is that 30 GDUs are needed to lower the grain moisture...

August Soybean Update

The news is somewhat better in soybeans in that they have some time on their side in hopes of receiving rainfall.  Most soybeans are in full bloom (R1) to pod set (R2) stage of development.  They have begun to show dramatic signs of moisture stress in that they are...