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Out of the past Earlier this summer about 60 head of touring longhorn cattle were at the Farm and Ranch Museum in Gering and were herded down Main Street for the Oregon Trails Parade. The museum features artifacts of sugarbeet and dry bean production, dryland conservation, irrigation and haying. Plan to stop by September 16-17 for the annual Fall Festival. (Photos by Bill Booker) |
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Soybeans are looking great. There was some damage from the heat, but the top pods will produce some beans and increase the test weight. Yields will be better than most producers think. Weeds have responded to the rains too and some bean fields are showing water hemp problems. Alfalfa is also looking good. Many producers can expect another cutting, especially those who harvested earlier than normal this spring and took advantage of the early moisture. Cattle producers will be returning the cattle to grass as soon as there is enough growth to support grazing.
Paul Hay, Extension Educator in Gage County: As we approach harvest and planting, we have some sad reminders of what erosion is like and why more farmers should convert to no-till systems. Several fields tilled in preparation for wheat or alfalfa planting show losses in excess of 12 tons of soil per acre from the recent rains. Our soybeans sure look good.
Ralph Kulm, Extension Educator in Holt and Boyd counties: The number of producers considering seeding winter wheat this fall is still increasing. It looks like an early harvest for the area which will easily allow seeding wheat into harvested soybeans. Irrigated corn is well into the dent stage and soybeans are at R-6 and developing rapidly. Irrigated corn shows a lot of "tipping" and there also is some concern over ear size. Soybean aphids are a problem in some fields. Dry bean producers are preparing for harvest. Pastures are greening up, but there's been little growth.
Dave Stenberg, Extension Educator in Dawson County: We’ve had limited moisture this week and the corn crop is maturing quickly. High moisture corn harvest will begin in a couple weeks. Soybeans are tall this year, but I’m not sure we are going to have much more yield. Corn yields will be good. No-till fields have been better off than conventional till fields. Some producers may have irrigated too often, probably losing a lot to evaporation.
Bob Klein, Extension crops specialist at the West Central REC: Crops are maturing quickly – growing degree day accumulations are ahead of normal in some areas and average in other areas. In general, things are ahead. There are pollination problems in some of the corn and there may have been some kernel abortion due to high temperatures. Dryland corn condition varies greatly – even skip row corn was affected by the drought in areas. Skip row sorghum is a couple weeks ahead of solid planted sorghum. Wheat seed bed preparations are underway. With dry conditions, we may have trouble getting a stand. Producers are looking at long coleoptile varieties to get deep to moisture. Dryland soybeans west of North Platte are still not recommended.
Drew Lyon, Extension Dryland Crops Specialist, Panhandle REC: We haven’t caught many showers and fields are mostly dry. Lightning strikes have caused a few fires. Proso millet swathing has begun. Early planted millet looks okay, but late planted millet looks poor. Dryland corn in most places is burning up. We are going to need some heavy rains to get wheat into the ground. Early dry beans are starting to come in and harvest will start full scale in 7-10 days.
Tom Hunt, Extension Entomologist at the Northeast REC: Corn is really variable, ranging from pollination problems to drought damage to fields that appear okay. Soybean aphids are leveling off and declining in most places. It is starting to look like 2003 when populations peaked in mid-August. The second generation of bean leaf beetles is coming out. Populations are a little higher than in previous years. The most sensitive time for soybeans is R6 when bean leaf beetles chew on the outside of pods. We’ve seen plenty of western bean cutworm and corn root worm beetles in corn. We saw more extended diapause beetles than expected, but have seen little damage. Aphid populations have been variable. In northeast Nebraska about 10% of fields have been treated for aphids.
Paul Jasa, Extension Agricultural Engineer, Lincoln: Rains have been spotty so some corn fields look good while others don’t look as good. Soybeans generally look very good. Grain sorghum is turning color already and will probably be ready for harvesting before corn and soybeans. Late season weeds (velvetleaf and waterhemp) are popping up above the canopy in dryland fields where the canopy did not close completely.
Bob Wright, Extension Entomologist, Lincoln: We’ve seen lots of woolly bear caterpillars this year. At Clay Center we had 300 moths some nights, but at the Northeast REC we saw just 10-12 moths per night. There are two types of woolly bear caterpillars – yellow and banded. They are an economic problem once every 10-15 years. Most years there is an upsurge in the population late in the summer, but they are usually controlled naturally by fungi. They become a problem, however, when they arrive in high enough populations to defoliate beans.
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