There has been almost no rain for a month. Early planted corn is pollinating. Japanese beetle populations are building and more being in field edges. Mid-May planted soybeans are just R1 and recently had a post herbicide application. The only disease found on corn was Physoderma brown spot. No fungicide needed or applied. Fingers crossed for some rain in the coming week.

The last two weeks have been hot and basically dry. A rain shower 2 weeks ago has kept us going but we have been included in the drought monitor areas again. Crops are continuing to hold their own and look decent for what they have been through. With dry weather, roots are going downward, but with high temperatures this corn crop is growing upward in a hurry. A field I scouted the other day is 7 leave away from tassel. I saw another field with tassels just spiking out. Soybeans continue to be in their ugly slow growing stages. Hopefully some rain will come, and they can keep on growing.

Goodfield had 3.6” of rain over the last week. Ponds are once again visible in the fields. The moisture will help alleviate the Dicamba damage on the soybeans locally. Lower temperatures this week will give some added relief. The moisture and low temps may set up for a conducive disease environment. Scout fields and evaluate disease progression.

The rain that hit this week has made the county extremely variable field to field on moisture levels, but the crops said thank you! Wheat is being harvested and/or was harvested before the rain. The heat is taking a little break, but the sun is still shining!

Corn fields are showing signs of stress and leaf rolling during this high heat environment. Several fields were observed with tassels appearing and some silks. Another good indicator of how even fields will be are how uniformly we see tassels. I suspect there will be fields with non-uniform flowering. Soybean fields are growing nicely. I observed one 30″ field that was near closing the row. Soybeans will be flowering very soon if not already. Fungicide applications for corn will start soon. Soybeans still have some time. Spider mites could be a potential threat if the continued hot and dry weather persists.

Fields are dry, but not seeing a lot of stress in plants. This area could use a good rain. We saw our first field of tasseled corn. In one soybean field, seeing several grape colaspis beetle and couple of Japanese beetles.