Field Updates

Field Updates

June 8, 2007

Photo of loose smut in wheat in Lancaster County, June 2007
Figure 1. Loose smut in wheat in Lancaster County.

Paul Hay, Extension Educator in Gage County: Last week I drove through rural Gage County to ground truth a project using aerial photography to estimate residue cover after planting and made several observations:

  • The ability of no-till to protect soil even with recent heavy rains is impressive. In the 22% still tilling, the picture was less positive.
  • In wheat 70% was no-tilled and half of the tilled was wheat on wheat.
  • Corn is from just emerging to knee high and looks good
  • The last beans are being planted between showers
  • Wheat yields will be variable - 20+ to a few 50+ bu/ac yields.

Delroy Hemsath, Extension Educator in Dakota, Dixon and Thurston counties: Rain has made alfalfa harvest difficult as the drying time is not adequate. Some fields have been cut for a week with no chance of baling. Quality is going to be very poor.

Some low areas in fields are too wet to plant due to flooding or areas where springs are active due to a rising water table. Corn is rapidly growing with some fields over 18 inches tall; other fields are in the 2- to 3-leaf stage. Soybeans are mostly planted, however a few fields are yet untouched and may be planted to another crop. What little wheat is found is heading and looking good; rust is common. Oats is close to heading out. Pastures are very lush and brome is heading - there's going to be a lot of wasted grass in some areas. There haven't been any major outbreaks of insects except for alfalfa weevils feeding on the first cutting. This caused some producers to cut alfalfa early, which will be to their advantage given the recent rains.

Corn is showing 3 to 8 leaf collars and most corn is looking good although some needs nitrogen. Many fields need immediate broadleaf weed control treatment.

Figure 2. Continuing rains have complicated timely control of weeds in crops. Photo of a field in need of broadleaf weed control
Figures 2-3. Continuing rains have complicated weed control in crops this year. Many fields need immediate broadleaf weed control.
Tom Dorn, Extension Educator in Lancaster County: Corn is showing 3 to 8 leaf collars and most corn is looking good although some needs nitrogen. Many fields need immediate broadleaf weed control treatment (Figures 2-3).

Soybean planting was strung out between rains. Some fields are just coming up while others have two sets of trifoliate leaves. Weed control measures will need to be done soon unless a soil-applied herbicide was used.

Wheat recovered from the Easter freeze and headed well but was stunted in height and had fewer basal leaves. A very few white heads can be found in some fields which might be the result of freeze injury, but the incidence is low and of no economic importance. The big story with wheat this year is disease. It is not hard to find fields with a significant incidence of loose smut (Figure 1). Spores from this year will infect seed from healthy plants. Plants grown from infected seed will produce smutted heads next spring. If you have loose smut in your field, don't save your seed to plant this fall. Barley yellow dwarf (BYD) is widespread in Lancaster County. Many fields had powdery mildew in the lower canopy and leaf rust has taken a toll on the leaf area on the upper canopy leaving much reduced green tissue to fill the heads. Some fields of wheat were sprayed out after the freeze and others were planted to corn or soybeans when the one-two punch of barley yellow dwarf and leaf rust hit in mid May. It will be interesting to hear the yield results on the fields left for harvest. The question is, how much yield loss from the freeze and disease will be compensated for by the cool May and plenty of soil moisture during grain fill.

The early spring growth of alfalfa was killed back to the crown by the Easter freeze. It took quite a while for some fields to initiate new growth but all fields surveyed now have a full canopy and I am beginning to see blooms. The yield in many fields will be about half of what one usually would expect from a first cutting.

Photo of soybean plants chewed by deer Photo of deer tracks
Figure 4. Soybean plants chewed to within inches of the soil by deer. Millipedes in the same field also clipped off plants. Figure 5. Initially, a heavy residue cover may it difficult to identify the deer tracks in the area of damaged plants.
Photo of millepedes
Figure 6. While not a common pest in Nebraska, millipedes can damage plants by clipping them off at the soil line.

Keith Jarvi, IPM Specialists at the Northeast Research and Extension Center, Norfolk: Sometimes pest diagnostics takes a little sleuthing. On closer examination of a soybean field near Pilger where millipedes were reported to have been feeding, I found many areas of clipped plants. Some millipedes were near clipped plants and it is possible they did some feeding, but I did not see any cut plants on the ground nearby, which leads me to think deer consumed the leaves. Usually I could find deer tracks in the area of feeding, although they weren't quickly visible due to the heavy corn residue (Figures 4-6).

 

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A field of corn.