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...

A webinar will be held live, from 1 to 3 pm on Thursday, February 11.See the results of a five-year, multi-state research project focused on farm management practices and their potential for making corn-based agriculture more resilient. The practices provide resiliency in times of drought, reduce...

What are we seeing in the field? At the Northwestern Illinois Ag Research & Demonstration Center we are beginning to see some of the residual herbicide activity break, with weeds like giant foxtail and morning glory popping up in some fields. We are also seeing quite a bit of...

Many may remember the 2015 growing season as the one in which the weeds took over in many Western Illinois soybean (and some corn) fields. Abnormally wet weather led to saturated soils that were impassible for long periods of time before post-emergence herbicides were applied. Weeds were extra...

Join University of Illinois Extension agricultural economists for a free risk management webinar next Tuesday, February 23rd from 8 to 9 AM. This webinar will focus on: crop insurance decisions, 2015 county-level ARC payment forecasts and managing risk in 2016. Preregistration is required to...

Registration is open for the 2017 Crop Management Conferences. These regional conferences provide a forum for discussion and interaction between participants and university researchers and are designed to address a wide array of topics pertinent to crop production in Illinois: crop management, pest...

This past growing season, as part of a United Soybean Board-funded effort, personnel from Southern Illinois University, Iowa State University and University of Illinois evaluated more than 580 soybean varieties from 22 seed companies in sudden death syndrome (SDS) variety trials. The varieties that...

Western corn rootworm larvae feed on corn roots. This feeding injures corn roots, which can result in lost yield. Research has shown that for every one node of root pruned, there is an average of 15 percent yield loss. Research over the years has led to the development of multiple strategies to...

Monitoring insect populations. Insect pheromone traps are monitored throughout the growing season at the Northwestern Illinois Ag R & D Center in Monmouth. Pheromones are insect hormones that attract individuals of the opposite sex for mating purposes. In our traps a small...

Crop plants have needs that must be met in order for them to grow and reproduce. They need water, sunlight, CO2, above-ground space and some sort of matrix into which to extend their roots. Additionally, to meet the needs that are above and beyond what is provided by the seed, plants require...

Stalk rots can reduce yields. Stalk rots can decrease harvestable yield - literally leaving some ears on the ground. Corn plants are top-heavy and stalk rots increase the chance that plants will fall over (lodge) due to a combination of gravity and weather. Conditions that...

A lone symptomatic plant. Nearly every growing year in at least one corn field at the Northwestern Illinois Agricultural R & D Center, a lone plant can be observed exhibiting symptoms that look like those in the photo above (Figure). Round-ish, tan spots...

While my inclination is to joke and say that the obvious difference must be that the larger ear was grown in Illinois while the smaller ear was grown in another state (four letters, also starts with an 'I'…..), this isn't it. A estimate of yields in a field full of the more moderate-sized ear (612...

Corn survey reveals positive sample in DeKalb County. Several weeks ago in cooperation with the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), personnel from University of Illinois Extension, the Illinois Natural History Survey's Coordinated Agricultural Pest Survey and...

From soil erosion to compaction to weed management struggles, farmers know best what is may be limiting crop production or long-term sustainability in the fields that they farm. However during this period of razor-thin margins farmers may be unwilling or unable to fit the costs of experimenting...

Field agronomists, farmers and others interested in soil health are encourage to join the soil health webinar on Aug. 24 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. The webinar will be presented by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture Natural...