Agronomy

It’s that time of year again to make your seed selections for the upcoming season. With the various soybean trait packages available, it can be tricky to know which options are best for you and your operation’s goals. To help with your seed decisions, here’s the lowdown on the products we’re offering for next season.More

By: Lucas Gillmore, Seed Manager

A quick recap from this summer: as I’m sure most of you remember, the Ninth Circuit Court vacated the label for Dicamba, and the EPA announced that the current supply could be used up. More

By: Allyn Francis, Agronomist

Although there has been a lot of buzz on drones over the past several years, we’ve observed very few practical instances where they help growers learn more about their fields. However, this past spring (and part of summer 2019) we flew some fields as a trial run with an aerial imagery service called Taranis. Beyond the basic images standard drones provide, Taranis identifies and pinpoints weeds, insects, individual plants, and deficiencies within a field.More

Each year, we enjoy having interns on the team and watching their growth throughout the summer. Not even a pandemic could stop 2020 interns Zachary Badtram and Parker Werling from serving our customers, conquering an escape room, and broadening their agricultural experiences. On top of their daily crop scouting responsibilities, the interns researched, experimented, and prepared presentations for their end of summer capstone projects. Take a look!More

Today, many growers are reaping the benefits of cover crops; enhanced soil health, reduced weed pressure, and reduced erosion to name a few. One factor that may be keeping you from planting cover crops is the additional cost. Thankfully, there are many government programs available to help offset this cost. Here’s an overview of a few popular programs.More

With our warm temperatures and high humidity, Southeast Iowa is an ideal environment for diseases like gray leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight, and common rust. Not to mention the new fungal threats that seem to pop up, like tar spot (see article here). To shield your crop from the high fungal pressure of our region, fungicide application should be considered in your protection plan every growing season.More

As we rounded out the 2019 growing season, we started learning about the threat of a new disease. Since our last update this winter, Iowa State Extension has published more information on where tar spot was found and how it impacts yield.More