Upcoming Events:
April 28: Youth Virtual Field Tour: Meat Science Lab featuring Diller Meat Locker, https://4h.unl.edu/virtual-field-trips
April 28: Streaming On-Farm Research Webinar:”Interseeding Cover Crops in Corn: Key Considerations for Success”, 7 p.m., https://cropwatch.unl.edu/streaming-farm-research
Apr. 30: Farm & Ranch Mgmt Webinar Series: Leading Yourself, Your Workforce, and Your Business in the COVID-19 Crisis, Noon (CST), go.unl.edu/manage2020
May 2: Intro to Beekeeping Field Day, https://entomology.unl.edu/bee-lab#tab3
May 5: Youth Virtual Field Tour: Biofuels featuring Flint Hills Resources, https://4h.unl.edu/virtual-field-trips
May 5: Streaming On-Farm Research Webinar: “Using Precision Ag Technologies to Implement Seeding Rate and Nitrogen Rate On-Farm Research Studies On-the-go”, 7p.m., https://cropwatch.unl.edu/streaming-farm-research
May 7: Farm & Ranch Mgmt Webinar: Strategies for Business Success, Noon (CST), go.unl.edu/manage2020
May 12: Youth Virtual Field Tour: Water Erosion featuring Chuck Burr, https://4h.unl.edu/virtual-field-trips
May 13: Field Scout Training, ENREC (former ARDC near Mead)
June 24: Weed Management Field Day, SCAL near Clay Center
July 8: Palmer Amaranth Mgmt Field Day, near Carleton
Aug. 11: Soybean Management Field Days, Hildreth
Aug. 12: Soybean Management Field Days, Elgin
Aug. 13: Soybean Management Field Days, Shelby
Aug. 14: Soybean Management Field Days, Arlington
Aug. 20: Midwest Soil Health Clinic, ENREC
Aug. 25: SCAL Field Day, Clay Center
Aug. 26: Midwest Soybean Production Clinic, ENREC
Aug. 27: Midwest Corn Production Clinic, ENREC
Crabgrass Preventer: Warm season annual grasses such as crabgrass and foxtail germinate when soil temperature at the 0-2” depth is consistently between 60-70F. Thus, we often say that reasonably, crabgrass preventer can be applied when soil temps at the 0-2” depth are consistently around 55F. Our CropWatch soil temperatures are measured at a 0-4” depth (https://cropwatch.unl.edu/soiltemperature). Based on them, it may be time to apply or at least getting close in the York area. If you’d like to determine the soil temp of your site locally, you can use a temperature probe or a meat thermometer (that you won’t use for cooking). Make a mark at 2” from the base and it will give you an idea. Remember to blow off or sweep lawn clippings and fertilizer from the sidewalks back onto lawns!
Moths: Our Extension entomologists are also starting to see black cutworm, variegated cutworm, and true armyworm moths in pheromone traps throughout Nebraska. You can see pictures and the counts (which will be updated) in CropWatch at https://go.unl.edu/jdd3.
Planting Green: Been receiving a number of questions throughout the state on this. We wrote a planting green article for CropWatch this week https://go.unl.edu/ysyi. We have minimal research but in the article, we explain more regarding herbicide considerations, what the research shows regarding allelopathy, and considerations based on growers’ and our observations and experiences. We haven’t found any wheat stem maggot flies in rye yet in Clay, York, or Seward counties. The flies we’re getting questions on are small brown flies and also seed corn maggot flies. Having an insecticide seed treatment on corn and beans will help against seed corn maggots. More info. from Iowa State: https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/cropnews/2020/04/seedcorn-maggots-flying-iowa
Seed Treatments for SDS: Continuing from last week, the summary is that ILeVO is an effective seed treatment in fields with high sudden death syndrome (SDS) pressure. However, not all areas of the field have the same amount of pressure, making it difficult to justify the cost field-wide. Three Nebraska on-farm research studies were conducted in soybeans in 2017 with a multi-hybrid planter. Soybeans with a farmer’s choice base seed treatment (check) were compared to the base seed treatment plus ILeVO. The goal was to look at site-specific application of ILeVO to reduce input costs while still effectively managing sudden death syndrome (SDS) pressure. Management zones were created using historical yield maps to show which zones were conducive to SDS pressure (SDS zone) and which weren’t (standard zone). Check strips and ILeVO treated strips were compared in both zones. Two of the locations showed no difference between the base treatment and base treatment + ILeVO in the SDS or the standard zones. At one location, SDS was not present in the field. In the other, the ILeVO treatment had significantly lower disease levels than the standard treatment and overall disease incidence was considered low. At the third site, the standard + ILeVO treatment yielded higher than the standard treated seed in the SDS zone. There was no difference in treatments in the standard zone. The SDS zone was around 50 acres and along a creek that ran through the field (Figure 1). Additional ILeVO studies were conducted in 2015-2016 via on-farm research in Dodge, Clay, and Nemaha Counties where an untreated check, base seed treatment, and base + ILeVO were compared. SDS incidence ratings were taken in addition to soybean cyst nematode samples. In two of the six fields, there was a yield difference between the base + ILeVO and other treatments, even though disease incidence was low. Two sites also had a significant decrease in SDS pressure with the ILeVO treatment, but it didn’t correlate in increased yield. These studies found ILeVO to be effective in reducing SDS pressure, but yield response and profitability depends on disease development and how widespread in the field. SDS pressure was found to be higher in frequently ponded soils or areas of the field with creeks or intermittent streams. We have no on-farm research data on Saltro although we have a York Co. study on it this year.
