All but maybe a handful of corn and soy fields have been planted in Douglas County. For both corn and soy, most fields are still in earlier stages of development (V1-V2), and I also saw several fields that were just now emerging (VE). However, there were a number of fields in certain pockets of the county reaching V3-V4 for soy and V4-V5 for corn. The few wheat fields I saw were on the tail end of flowering (Feekes 10.5.4).

Weed pressure appeared to still be low in most corn fields, but I found a few soybean fields that will be needing a post-emergence application before too long. With warmer weather and not too much rain in the forecast next week, soils should be dry enough to handle traffic in most fields. The warmer weather also means emerged weeds, particularly waterhemp, will grow quickly, thereby reducing the efficacy of chemical control options. Because of this and varying degrees of herbicide resistance in waterhemp populations, it is recommended to apply post-emergence herbicides when waterhemp is no more than 3-4 inches in height. For more information on waterhemp biology and control options, check out the resources on the Getting Rid Of Weeds (GROW) website.

https://growiwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/20200921-factsheet-waterhemp-ada-usdadraft.pdf