Wheat Harvest Has Begun

Many growers started wheat harvest around the region on Monday. The western half of our NWNY region has been drier and moistures were running 14.5 -18%. South and east had more rain in the last 10 days and moistures are running over 20%. Early yields have been excellent with some hitting triple digits. I’m sure many combines will be running hard today as there is a high possibility of thunderstorms tomorrow. Pre-harvest sprouting will be a big concern moving forward as grain moistures decrease. Best to take wheat off at higher moistures and dry down to maintain quality.

Soybean Aphids Still Hanging Around

Soybean aphids are still multiplying out there despite an increase in predators, primarily ladybugs and their larvae. Right now, I am only seeing problems in fields that did not have a seed insecticide. As we move forward, aphids will

begin to move out to other fields. I have had a question about spraying and killing natural enemies. Of course, we do not want to eliminate them but sometimes the aphids populations multiply too fast for the predators to catch up. I know of at least one farm that has sprayed an insecticide product that has shown to be softer on ladybug larvae. Sefina is an insecticide from BASF that has a unique mode of action. It disrupts their sensory organs and causes the aphids to remove their mouthparts, become disoriented and fall off the plant. I would be interested if others are using this product and results.

Are You at Risk for White Mold?

As soybean growth has exploded this last week, flowers are now easy to find. The plants are now moving into the reproductive phase and moving more energy into flowering and pollination. This is a very important stage if your farm has a history of white mold. The current warm, wet, and humid, conditions are perfect for white mold to become an issue this year. The tiny white mold mushrooms emerge and release their spores up into the canopy. These spores land on flowers and feed on the decaying petals and gain access and infect the rest of the plant. If you have a history of white mold, what can you do now?  We have many fungicides that are now labeled for suppression of white mold. The challenge is that a fungicide needs to protect every flower. Soybean plants continuously flower. White mold only needs to get on one unprotected flower and the game is over. So, now R1-R2, is the time to make these applications. Please let me know if you have plans to do any fungicide spraying so we can follow up with any results, good or bad.

Next report will be July 19.