May 4, 2012

Jennifer Rees, Extension Educator in Clay County: Much of the corn and over half the soybeans have been planted. Corn has been emerged in various fields for several weeks. Wednesday night storms caused plant damage due to washing, flooding, and hail and fields will need to be evaluated for replanting. The storms also overturned some pivots. Wheat is beginning heading to fully headed with stripe rust and now barley yellow dwarf the major disease issues. Some fungicide is going on wheat and some growers south of us have switched to products that also prevent scab. First cutting alfalfa has occurred in some fields. (Listen to an in-field wheat report from Rees.)

Gary Zoubek, Extension Educator in York County: We had a little hail Wednesday night near Henderson and very spotted rain in York and not much I York county! This week producers made great progress planting field corn and are getting started with soybean and seed corn planting. Early in the week we received 0.40 inch of rain.

Drew Lyon, Extension Dryland Cropping Systems Specialist at the Panhandle REC: Wheat here is remarkably far along in its development. Many years our wheat is just starting to joint during the first week of May and this year it is starting to head. I hope the freezing temperatures stay away.

Doug Anderson, Extension Educator in Keith, Arthur, and Perkins counties:  We are getting some wheat samples with tan spot and other leaf spots, as well as some with a virus.  While the virus hasn't been verified yet, it appears to be wheat soilborne mosaic virus.

Jeff Bradshaw, Extension Entomologist at the Panhandle REC: We received much needed precipitation last week, in some places more than 2 inches in a short time. Wheat is starting to head. We’ve received a couple calls on leafhoppers in wheat and Keith Glewen had one report for a field northeast of Lincoln. South Dakota has reported leafhoppers on spring wheat. We’ve scouted for aphids, but haven’t found many.

Karen DeBoer, Extension Educator in Cheyenne County: We received a big rain over the weekend with many reports of over an inch across the southern Panhandle. Up to then the wheat crop had been pretty stressed, but this will help a lot. We have pretty good subsoil moisture, something we didn’t have during the drought years of the early 2000s. Wheat here is a good two weeks ahead of normal. We could be harvesting in June.

Robert Tigner, Extension Educator in Chase, Dundy, Hayes, and Hitchcock Counties: Depending on location in the county, we received from 1.74 to 4.53 inches of precipitation in the last month. Our soil moisture is in good shape now. Wheat heads are showing ahead of schedule. We’ll probably be done planting by next week.

Greg Kruger, Extension Crops Specialist at the West Central REC: Everyone is in the field here and busy with planting. Wheat is close to heading out.

Chuck Burr, Extension Educator in Phelps County: Corn planting is about 70% done and soybean planting is getting underway.

Wayne Ohnesorg, Extension Educator in Madison County: We received around an inch of precipitation last weekend, but it wasn’t enough to hold anyone up too much. Some early planted beans in the area were up quite a while ago.

Charles Shapiro, Extension Soil Nutrient Specialist at the Haskell Ag Laboratory: We received about 1 inch of rain last weekend, but could use more. Some corn is up, but I haven’t seen any emerged soybeans yet.

Keith Jarvi, Extension Educator for Dakota, Dixon, and Thurston Counties: We received scattered rains of 1-1.25 inches last weekend. We’re getting a lot of calls about miller moths and whether that means they’ll be more cutworms in corn. (It doesn’t. See Entomologist Bob Wright’s CW story this week.) About 50% of the corn has been planted and planting could be complete by the end of the week if conditions stay dry.

Brandy VanDeWalle, Extension Educator in Fillmore County: Most corn has been planted and quite a few fields have emerged. Soybean planting is in full swing. We received about 0.45 inches of rain last weekend.

Thomas Dorn, Extension Educator in Lancaster County: We received 1 inch of rain from three showers over three days. At least half the corn is planted.

Thomas Hunt, Extension Entomologist at the Haskell Ag Lab: At the start of the week, conditions were very wet here and planting was delayed. Like others, we’re seeing a lot of army cutworm “miller” moths. We’ve been on the lookout for bean leaf beetles in alfalfa, but haven’t found many. There is a fairly high penetration of Cruiser Max on beans up here, which may have contributed to lower general populations.