Summer Crop Tour Next Week, August 8
The New York Corn & Soybean Growers Association Summer Crop Tour featuring keynote speaker Mitchell Hora of Continuum Ag is next week. The crop tour will be held on Thursday, August 8th at Rodman Lott & Son Farms in Seneca Falls. Mitchell will discuss how farmers can quantify their field level carbon intensity scores, get verified and collaborate with biofuel manufacturers. Western New York Energy LLC, will join Mitchell to unveil their new CI Scoring Pilot Project. Other in-field demos will include a cover crop species plot, cereal grain termination alternatives matrix planting to soybean and a drone Q and A with demo flight. For the full agenda and registration visit their event site here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2024-corn-soybean-summer-crop-tour-tickets-876180779297 .
Waterhemp Herbicide Plot Tour Friday, August 9 in Waterloo
Glyphosate-resistant (GR) weeds including waterhemp are an increasing concern for NY field crops. Growers, consultants and Industry representatives will have an opportunity to tour and observe effective preemergence and postemergence applied herbicides for controlling waterhemp in Enlist soybeans. Dr. Vipan Kumar, Cornell weed scientist, will lead the tour through the small plot treatments and discuss the impact of these integrated herbicide strategies, with multiple modes of action, from a resistance management standpoint. No cost, no reservations needed. Questions? Call Mike Stanyard @ 585-764-8452.
Where: 1853 Whiskey Hill Rd., Waterloo (Behind Modern Masonry)
When Friday, August 9- 10:00 – 11:00
1.0 DEC Certified Applicator Credit will be available.
Soybean Update
Most of the fields I looked at were at R3 this week. This means glyphosate use is now off-label. Not many options left for broadleaf escapes. We have quite a few double crop soybeans following winter grains out there that look great. Still have a lot of herbicide options here as weeds are starting to grow. Below is a field planted on July 9 in wheat stubble. We just need to get timely rains to keep them going.
Some soybean diseases are starting to show up particularly in areas that were wet early on. These diseases infected the young plants but are just starting to show themselves as we are drying out with hot and humid conditions and plant stress. I started seeing dying plants from various wilt diseases (ie. Fusarium wilt has been more common the past few years). I also believe I have seen pictures of Northern stem canker and possibly Brown stem rot. At this point, there is not much we can do and hope that growing conditions improve. I haven’t seen any visual signs of white mold yet…. fingers crossed. Hope everyone was able to get a little rain on Tuesday and Wednesday and keep the beans growing.
Still not seeing soybean aphids or spider mites yet. However, there are reports out of eastern Ontario of aphid populations rapidly increasing and fields at or above the threshold of 250 per plant. We have avoided the early local aphid populations, but we are not out of the woods yet. We still could have large numbers of winged aphids fly/blow down from Ontario and cause some problems for us in August. Still need to be scouting for them as we move through the summer.
NY Soybean Yield Contest
Just another reminder that the soybean yield contest entry deadline is on August 14. I haven’t had many entries yet so start looking for your best-looking beans and get them entered. Here is the link to enter, https://nycsga.memberclicks.net/2024yieldcontest#!/.
Corn Updates
Most of the corn I have seen driving around the region looks good. The rainfall has been timely for most and we have had the heat. The USDA NASS Crop Progress and Condition report for NY on July 28 has 35% of the corn silking. This is a couple points ahead of last year. It also has corn conditions at 0% very poor, 4% poor, 8% fair, 67% good and 21% excellent. There still has not been any tar spot confirmed in NY yet, but it continues to spread in other states. This week there were three more counties in PA that were positive and one in Ohio on the PA line. I am getting reports of gray leaf spot and northern corn leaf spot and blight on the ear leaf and above. Our weather conditions have been and continue to be favorable for disease development. I have definitely seen more fungicides applied than normal on corn and soybeans.
Time to Think about Cover Crops
Hard to believe that tomorrow is August 1st! Many growers utilize a cover crop following wheat and other small grains to improve soil health, nutrient capturing and weed suppression. We recommend the first two weeks in August as the perfect window to plant cover crops. Using herbicides to start clean and keep possible marestail, waterhemp and other summer annuals from going to seed should be a goal. The major problem with utilizing burndown herbicides prior to cover crop establishment is that 2,4-D, dicamba and Sharpen all have some residual activity and that means delayed planting of cover crops particularly broadleaves (clover, radish, turnip) for 30 days or more. Planting annual ryegrass, oats or cereal rye would be a safer bet with these products. Products such as Gramoxone and Glufosinate have no soil activity and so no waiting period to plant any cover crop and could be options for immediately planting broadleaves or cereal/broadleaf cover crop mixes.
Next report will be August 7.
