Driving down any Western Illinois road this spring one can't help but notice just how many very tall weeds there are growing in field edges and along fence rows. According to University of Illinois USDA Weed Ecologist Dr. Adam Davis, every weed species has specific germination cues, or moisture and...

State and Region. According to the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service corn planting and emergence and soybean planting in Illinois have progressed faster than the running 5-year average (2011-2015, Figure). Similar to in 2015, the nine counties that make up the western...

Farmers are interested in research-based information about resource conservation and certified crop advisors (CCAs) are continually in search of opportunities to earn continuing education units (CEUs) to maintain their certification. Every two years a CCA must earn 40 CEUs. At least 20 of these...

Brian Mansfield, the Northwestern Illinois Agricultural Research and Demonstration Center's Research Agronomist, last day was today. He is leaving to take a job closer to his home farm in Greene County and will be missed.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor's June 14 report, the Northwestern Illinois Agricultural Research and Demonstration Center (NWIARDC) outside of Monmouth is part of the 36 percent of Illinois that is considered abnormally dry (Figure). This is the designation that is typically...

One commonality among people is that topics of curiosity are often shared with others. Sometimes these anecdotes can reveal topics that are in need of further study. The 2015 growing season was one that favored sudden death syndrome (SDS) in soybean, which tended to be quite severe in some areas of...

Each year personnel at the Northwestern Illinois Ag Research & Demonstration Center (NWIARDC) in Monmouth establish a corn planting date trial. In 2016 the same 110-day corn hybrid was planted at the same seeding rate (35,000 seeds/A) and planting depth (1.75 inches) at one of four planting...

After a crop-damaging weather event, it may be of interest for people to learn just exactly what took place. While recent articles detailed the potential effects of the severe weather on growth and development of corn and...

Researchers finished planting oats for Dr. Fred Kolb's research program yesterday (March 23) before the rain began (Figures). Dr. Kolb works a professor and small grains plant breeder in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of...

Scouting from the Cab. While crop producers are encouraged to scout their corn and soybean fields throughout the entire growing season, the view of a field from the vantage point of a combine cab can be eye-opening, particularly when harvesting corn. One thing that can become...

From reports of soybean fields near St. Louis destined for mowing rather than harvest to thick lawns of waterhemp beginning to emerge from soybean fields nearer to the Northwestern Illinois Ag R&D Center, weeds are a major problem in many Illinois farm fields in 2016. What in the world is...

An hour-long webinar, scheduled to begin at 9 AM on March 2, will present the results of NREC-funded research regarding how P placement may affect loss....

To provide corn producers with a method to estimate peak corn rootworm egg hatch and when to best scout for root feeding damage, the Illinois State Water Survey's Illinois Climate Network calculates accumulated pest...

On May 17, Ryan Farmer, a student hourly worker at the Northwestern Illinois Agricultural Research and Demonstration Center (NWIARDC) collected stand count data from a demonstration trial that had been planted more than 2 months earlier. On an unseasonably warm March 8 day NWIARDC personnel decided...

Webinar: Putting a Value on Sweat Equity On Tuesday, August 23 at 9 a.m. (CDT) the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture will host a webinar focused on farm succession planning entitled Putting a Value on Sweat Equity in the Farm Business, which will be presented by...

Symptoms and signs of Diplodia ear mold. In the past couple of weeks, symptoms of ear mold have popped up at the Northwestern Illinois Ag R&D Center. While most fields have rows upon rows of healthy-looking husk leaves enveloping plump ears, in some fields individual ears stand...

When walking along the edges of corn and soybean fields the last couple of days, I noticed many Japanese beetles feeding on both corn and soybean. A lot of Japanese beetles (Figures). Japanese beetle ID. Japanese beetles are oval shaped and have an iridescent...

To celebrate National Farm Safety Week a series of seven webinars health and safety-related webinars will be offered by the AgriSafe™ Network, a non-profit national membership organization, represents health professionals and educators who are concerned about the health and safety of farm families...

Diplodia Symptoms and Machinery Adjustments at Harvest. Diplodia ear mold can cause lightweight kernels with a dull grey to brownish color and sometimes small black structures call pycnidia (Figure). The infected kernels are prone to breakage and can result in poor...

This article was also submitted to the Illinois AgriNews by Angie Peltier and Russ Higgins, University of Illinois Extension Educators: Last September tar spot, a corn disease that had not been previously found in the continental US, was confirmed in corn samples collected in Indiana and in...