Good evening,
Rains continued this past week to provide moisture for soybean and corn crops. According to the attached August 20 Ohio Crop Weather Report, Findlay received 1.37 inches and Lima/Allen County received 0.93 inches for the week. Although this will help the soybeans fill their pods, it can also bring about possible disease. Now is a good time to check soybeans for root rot, white mold, and frogeye if you have a history of these diseases in your field. There have been some reports of sudden death syndrome in soybean as well. If you have a susceptible variety, you may want to take a look at your seed line-up for disease resistance packages in 2019. Scouting corn this past week, I did notice some stalk rot in a field that I was checking. Previously, we have noticed gray leaf spot and northern corn leaf blight in several area corn fields. This can be expected with the weather we have been receiving this summer.
Ohio Crop Weather Report August 20
Waterhemp and Palmer amaranth continue to be a major concern in western Ohio. I have noticed the spread of waterhemp in Hardin County. This past year I estimated it was infesting 4% of the soybean fields in the county, but this year I believe that number will be higher. If you see waterhemp in your fields now, the only thing you can do at this point is hand pull it or cut it before the seeds become viable. See the attached articles written by Dr. Mark Loux, OSU Extension Weed Scientist for information about scouting and what to do if you have these weeds. I have also included an article written by Dr. Jeff Stachler, OSU Extension Educator-Auglaize County for information regarding the number of seeds that each type of weed produces and how long they stay viable in the soil. The main point is that you want to do everything possible to prevent seed dispersal and prevent infestation with a well thought out herbicide management program in 2019. If not, these weeds can take over a field and reduce profitability quickly. If you are not aware of what these weeds look like, I have attached a photo.
Waterhemp-Palmer Amaranth News Release
Upcoming events in the area that I have included flyers are Beef Quality Assurance training August 27 and ‘Our Land, Our Water’ farm tour September 9 in Mercer County. Shelby County is hosting Beef Quality Assurance training September 8 and ‘Drive-It-Yourself Agriculture Tour’ on September 16. If you need to renew your fertilizer certification, Auglaize County is hosting a fertilizer recertification meeting on September 7. If you are interested in knowing how the wheat varieties did this year, check out the attached 2018 Ohio Wheat Performance Test. We now have Farm Science Review tickets for sale at the Extension office for $7 per person. If you wait until the Farm Science Review on September 18-20, you will need to pay $10 at the gate.
Beef Quality Assurance Flyer – Mercer
Beef Quality Assurance Flyer – Shelby
Shelby County Ag Tour 2018 Flyer
2018 Ohio Wheat Performance Test
Fertilizer Recertification Flyer
Upcoming local events include the Hardin County Cattle Producers Picnic Saturday (8/25) starting at 6:00 pm in the Community Building at the fairgrounds; OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteers meeting Monday (8/27) starting at 7:00 pm at Harco Industries, Ag Hall of Fame fair booth set-up Wednesday (8/29) starting at 5:00 pm in the Machinery Building at the fairgrounds; Fairboard meeting Wednesday (8/29) starting at 7:00 pm in the Community Building at the fairgrounds; and Farm Bureau meeting/fair booth set-up Thursday (8/30) starting at 6:30 pm in the Machinery Building at the fairgrounds. I have included some agronomy articles below that you may be interested in reading.
Mark
Soybean Disease Outlook for August – Anne Dorrance
We have soybeans in all different growth stages but the majority of the crop looks great but there are a few highlights based on some scouting and reports from last week. Frogeye leaf spot – the fungicides do seem to be holding this at bay for those fields where it got an early start. It is now showing up in northern Ohio, but too little too late to do any damage. The caveat for this will be to monitor these fields to identify the susceptible varieties – and then avoid those varieties in those fields for 2019. Sclerotinia stem rot – white mold is just beginning. At two of my field research plots there were a few plants with 1” long lesions and white mold. To read more about late season soybean diseases, go to https://agcrops.osu.edu/newsletter/corn-newsletter/2018-26/soybean-disease-outlook-august.
Did You See Crop injury from Slugs or Voles in 2017 or 2018? – Greg LaBarge
We have heard varying reports of crop injury including replanting, treatment with control products or tillage from slugs and vole in corn and soybeans across the state. To get a better feel for where and under what conditions these two pests have been active in 2017 and 2018, a short 6-question survey has been put together. The survey is intended for farmers or professionals. The survey will be available until August 31 and should take less than 3 minutes. Please go to http://go.osu.edu/slugvole. For more information on “Slugs on Field Crops,” visit https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/ENT-20. A summary of responses will be posted in an upcoming fall issue of the CORN newsletter. If you have any question please contact Greg LaBarge, labarge.1@osu.edu
Recommendations for Seeding Cover Crops in Late Summer – Alan Sundermeier
Just Do It !! Now is an excellent time to improve your soil by planting cover crops. Leaving soil bare exposes it to erosion and nutrient loss. Get it covered and protected. There are many cover crop seed choices when planting after small grain harvest. You can get complex with various mixtures or keep it simple. An easy to manage, simple cover crop mix that does well this time of year in wheat stubble is oats (1 bu/acre), crimson clover (12 lb/acre), and radish or rape (2 lb/acre). Mixtures provide a variety of benefits that outperform single species plantings. When using legumes, be sure to inoculate seed with rhizobia for maximum nitrogen gain. Also be careful about hosting soybean cyst nematode if planting to soybeans next year. Go to https://agcrops.osu.edu/newsletter/corn-newsletter/2018-27/recommendations-seeding-cover-crops-late-summer to continue reading this article.
Will Soybean Aphids Reach Threshold This Year? – Andy Michel, Kelley Tilmon
We have heard from a few extension educators and scouts that soybean aphids are starting to make their appearance. Right now, the number of infested plants is very low (around 5%) and the number of aphids on the plants is also low (average 5-10). With this level of infestation, it is highly doubtful that soybean aphids will reach threshold, especially in soybean that has already entered the late R stages (R5 and R6). However, there is a fair amount of late planted soybean that could still be at risk—in fact we were in a field last week that just reached R2. We recommend that growers continue to scout their fields to make sure that soybean aphid populations remain under the treatment threshold which is 250 aphids per plant.
Western Bean Cutworm: Adult Moth Update – John Schoenhals, Mark Badertscher, Sam Custer, Tom Dehass, Allen Gahler, Mike Gastier, Ed Lentz, Rory Lewandowski, Cecilia Lokai-Minnich, David Marrison, Sarah Noggle, Les Ober, Eric Richer, Garth Ruff, Jeff Stachler, Alan Sundermeier, Curtis Young, Megan Zerrer, Andy Michel, Kelley Tilmon
Western bean cutworm (WBC) adult moth trapping is winding down across the state as very few adults are being captured in the bucket traps. For week ending August 18, 11 counties reported zeros and the statewide average was 1.2 moths per trap (76 total captured). This data was collected from 20 counties that monitored 61 traps. The previous week trap average was 3.0 moths per trap (221 total captured). See more at https://agcrops.osu.edu/newsletter/corn-newsletter/2018-27/western-bean-cutworm-adult-moth-update.
Mark A. Badertscher
Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator
OSU Extension Hardin County
1021 W. Lima Street, Suite 103, Kenton, OH 43326
419-674-2297 Office
hardin.osu.edu