These Boots Are Made For Walking-Importance of Scouting
April showers bring May flowers and hopefully a lot of emerging corn and soybeans! Hopefully farmers are done or moving along nicely with your planting. A lot of work was done in April; from anhydrous applications, rye burndowns, fertilizer spreading, pre-spraying, planting. Now you are looking to the next important step of your operation, scouting.
Scouting is one of the most critical tasks you can do for your crops. Like most things, early detection of problems is key. The sooner a farmer can identify and notify their agronomist about issues, will result in the issue being fixed earlier. There are a lot of potential issues that can be concerning; things to look out for would be nutrient issues, diseases, weed pressure, and insects.
One thing to keep an eye out for early on is purpling of leaves or stems in corn, which can be a sign of phosphorus deficiency. However, this can also be a sign of sugar build up from colder growing conditions which is more common in certain hybrids.
Yellowing of your plants could mean you have a nitrogen deficiency, too much water, damping off (from organisms that kill young corn plants such as Fusarium, Pythium, and Phytophthora) or could be a result of herbicide injury. If you are out walking your fields and come across an issue that you don’t feel you can adequately identify, you should contact your agronomist; send them a picture or have them physically come check it out to make an identification. If he or she does identify an area of your field that is experiencing nutrient loss, they will in turn be able to help you remedy the problem.
Weeds are something you never want to see out in your field. If you are seeing them, it is time to spray. Most herbicides are only labeled for weeds that are a maximum of 4-6 inches tall. You typically cannot see these weeds at 50 mph out your pickup window from the highway (aka “road scouting”); put those boots on the ground! If you can see weeds above your plants, you need to contact your Stutsman agronomist ASAP to recommend a herbicide program. Farmers can ask if they’re available to come identify the plants for them, send a picture, or use an app for your smart phone that can be downloaded to assist you in weed identification.
One of the most crucial insects to keep an eye out for in May are cutworms. Iowa State Extension posts expected hatching dates for different regions of the state on their website. The best way to catch cutworms in your field is to walk/ride through them and look for plant cuttings. Plants will typically be completely severed, laying on the soil surface in a consecutive row. Cutworms come to the surface to cut at night; to identify them during the day, you should carefully dig down along the plant, looking for the culprit. If you do not see anything at the first cutting you dig at, move down along the line, one direction and then the other, keeping your eyes peeled. Again, your agronomist can help you identify cutworms and cutworm damage.
You and your agronomist are your greatest assets in protecting your fields against yield stealing pests. This does take time and diligent scouting efforts to make sure nothing escapes your notice. In years where every bushel matters, time spent preventing is better than money lost.