Soybean Update
The summer is coming to an end. Many fields of late 0 and very early 1’s are starting to turn yellow. They have done all they can do, have raced quicker through the growth stages and are calling it quits. Later 1’s and 2 soybeans are mostly into R6. The USDA NASS Crop Progress and Condition report for NY on August 18 shows some improvement from last week. Soybeans setting pods this week was at 63%, up 21% from last year. The weekly report has soybean conditions at 0% very poor, 3% poor, 17% fair, 48% good and 32% excellent.
White mold continues to make its presence known as more infected plants are showing symptoms. I have been sent a couple of pictures of Soybean Vein Necrosis Virus. It is not new to NY and we see it more with warmer summers. It is vectored by thrips. These insects feed similarly to spider mites and are also very small, but cigar shaped. The first symptoms are a yellowing of the leaf vein. The reddish-brown legions move out from there until they meet the next vein. Everything I’ve read says that it is not considered an economic disease of soybean.
Palmer Amaranth Found in Soybeans
Last week we found some Palmer amaranth plants on three farms on the Ontario/Yates County border. All were in soybean fields and infestations were small meaning it could be the first year of establishment. Palmer is a pigweed and a cousin to the more prevalent, waterhemp. It is just as bad if not worse and we do not know where these came from or what herbicides they could be resistant to. About 30 plants were collected and will be grown to maturity in a greenhouse. Seeds will be collected and then tests will be run to find out what resistances we are dealing with. In the meantime, remaining Palmer plants will be pulled out before they can set seed. Now is the time when the long seed heads of Palmer can be easily seen and distinguished from waterhemp. Besides having no hairs on the stem, one of main distinguishing characteristic of Palmer is that if the petiole is folded up over the leaf it will be longer than the leaf. This is never the case with waterhemp. If you suspect you have found Palmer, contact Mike asap.
Corn Update
This week NY Corn & Soybean Growers Association is out on the NY Corn Yield Tour. We will be checking corn yields in 11 counties in NWNY. This is our version of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour that takes place each year out in the
Midwest. That tour is also happening this week and started in Ohio and South Dakota on Monday. The two groups will go east and west across the Midwest and end up together in Minnesota. If you would like to follow their corn and soybean tour, go to https://www.agweb.com/croptour for daily updates. I’ll talk about what we found across NWNY next week.
Corn is still looking good. The USDA NASS Crop Progress and Condition report for NY on August 18 had 27% of the corn in the dough stage and 6% at dent. The weekly report also has corn conditions improving from last week at 0% very poor, 4% poor, 8% fair, 51% good and 37%
excellent.
Tar spot was identified in two more counties this week, Erie and Chautauqua. Yesterday, I visited the tar spot fields identified last week in Niagara County. It is still proceeding upward from the bottom leaves, and I was able to find some as high as the ear leaf. I would expect to see more infections in these and other counties as more people are out inspecting their corn fields for silage harvest. Speaking of silage harvest, the team will be holding two dry-down days in Yates and Seneca Counties on the 26th and 27th next week. See more details below in this mailing.
At our TAg Team meeting in Yates County last week, we were able to see lots of corn smut infections in the field. I have had other pictures sent to me asking what this was and another that they have never seen it in their corn before.
Corn smut is a fungus that is present every year and I normally see it on the outside corn ears where deer have damaged it. It looks really nasty and grotesque, but it usually is not a concern overall. It starts out with multiple gray colored growths and turn black with spores as it matures. I did a little more digging to see what else I could find. It turns out that the corn smut fungus overwinters in the debris and soil and under the right conditions can cause infections on the ear, leaf, stalk or tassel. “Common smut is often most severe when young tissue is wounded by hail, wind, or mechanical damage. Rainy, wet weather may enhance this disease, as may poor pollination and excessive nitrogen fertilization. Dry or other conditions that interfere with pollination may also favor common smut infection of ears.” (Dean Malvick, University of Minnesota). Fungicides are not relevant as a control method. If it continues to be a problem, look at a variety with resistance, rotate to crops other than corn and avoid over fertilizing. Immature corn smut (before it turns black) is considered a delicacy in Mexico.
Next report will be August 28.
