For most of west-central Iowa the 1 to 2 inches of rain last week was much appreciated. However, did the rain come in time?

Scouting fields it appears to me that the early planted corn pollinated fairly well and has good yield potential. The mid-planted corn looks a little shoddy. And the late planted corn got rain and cooler temperatures just in time for pollination but is too early to tell on how well pollination went. This is not to say that the next couple of weeks are not crucial. The rain last week will also help with soybeans since we are in the full pod growth stage and soon beginning the more critical time of the beginning to full seed growth stages.

Diseases and insect pressure seems to be low to this point. I have talked with many field agronomist and consultants in the area and they tell me the same things. Yet we hear the buzz of airplanes applying what I can only assume as fungicides on corn and insecticides on soybean. Clarke, Roger and Amy have posted useful blogs regarding fungicide use on corn. Soybean aphids are still low right now reaching only 50 – 70 per plant. Remember the threshold for control is 250 per plant with injury not occurring until 1,000 per plant. The bean leaf beetles for another week have not gotten out of control. On the corn side, it’s been hard to find enough western bean cutworm egg masses to reach the 8% of the plants threshold. Some fields have an infestation of corn leave aphids which is most problematic if most of the tassel is infested during pollination. A good article on economic damages and thresholds can be found here.

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