On January 14th, University of Illinois Extension hosted its annual “Northwest Illinois Agronomy Summit” at Highland Community College in Freeport. The theme for this year’s conference was “Updates in Nutrient and Pest Management” and hosted specialists from University of Illinois and University of Wisconsin-Madison to discuss strategies for weed, pest, disease, and nutrient management. This event, which brought together producers, agriculture students, and agribusiness professionals acted as a forum for attendees to learn about the most up to date research pertaining to agricultural production in the region. All of the presentations are available to access in PDF form here: go.illinois.edu/AgSummit           

Topics addressed at the summit included many hot button issues we have been hearing more about over the last few years including waterhemp, tar spot, and nutrient management. For example, due to the dramatic increase in incidence and severity of water hemp across the state, Dr. Rodrigo Werle, Weed Scientist from the University of Wisconsin Madison discussed strategies for controlling this problematic weed. In addition, Daniel Smith, Nutrient and Pest Management Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will discussed nutrient management in a challenging year and how these decisions impact future growing seasons.

In addition, University of Illinois specialists Nathan Kleczewski and Nick Seiter discussed some of the results of the applied research report titled“2019 Applied Research Results: Field Crop Disease and Insect Management.” The report serves as a one-stop shop for relevant applied research and includes evaluations of plant varieties, management practices, and insecticide/fungicide applications on corn and soybean. The report is currently available online here: go.illinois.edu/AppliedResearch. “These reports are very useful to our educators and to our producers,” Extension Educator Phillip Alberti said. “They provide local, relevant information and if I get a question about fungicide or insecticide efficacy, this is the first place I am going to look, and I hope others do to.”