Scout’s Honor Weekly Report: June 12-16
Our crop scouts had another full week of scouting even with the rain! As always they are excited to share their knowledge and findings from this past week and each week to come. *Every Friday during the summer we will feature their scouting reports on the blog and our social media accounts; check in to see what’s happening in our community. We look forward to seeing the changes in the agriculture world this time of year and hope that you find the information to be helpful!
Stand Counts
Corn and soybean stand counts are remaining consistent throughout out territories. At this point in the growing season, minus the few fields that were planted late, the stands that we are going to get, are up. Hopefully mother nature will cooperate this growing season and we do not lose any of our stands to storm damage.
Stage
The corn has moved into V5-V6 staging. Soybeans in the southern territory are reaching V4, and soybeans in the northern territory are reaching V3 staging. V6 is an important growth stage for corn plants because the growing point emerges from below ground to above ground due to internode elongation. V6 is also the growth stage for corn where the ear shoot is initiated.
Plant Conditions
Corn was curling, or onion leafing as some call it, from heat stress this week. This happens so that the plant can hold in as much moisture as possible, giving the sun less leaf margin to dehydrate. We will be keeping our eyes out for any diseases or disorders that may arise.
Insects
Japanese Beetles are starting to appear in fields as well as Grasshoppers. Japanese Beetles are the insects that are known to skeletonize soybean leaves, leaving only the veins of the leaf to remain. Grasshoppers leave hole like feedings on a soybean leaf.
Weeds
Most weed issues in corn fields have been controlled. In soybean fields we are still seeing Redroot Pigweed, Waterhemp and Giant Ragweed pressure. The Giant Ragweed is being found more in patches throughout the fields where as Waterhemp and Redroot Pigweed are growing throughout fields at a rapid pace. It is important to find these weeds early on and get them sprayed as soon as possible so that we can insure to kill the weeds in the first pass and not give the weeds a chance to become resistant.
Territory Info
The big thing that we have noticed across our territory is that all fields are in need of rain. The warm temperatures are sucking the moisture right out of the soil and the crop. We have also noticed that corn canopies are starting to close in our southern fields. This is great news for weed control as canopied corn helps reduce the sunlight that can hit the soil surface, preventing weed growth. Soybean stands on 15 inch rows are also starting to close canopies in our southern fields.
Fun Facts
It was hot…
*Every Friday we will post The Scout’s Honor Scouting Report as long as there are new findings in the field.
Questions about this week’s scouting report? Contact your Stutsman Agronomist!
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