Just a few comments about some things that are being talked about.  First, the dates of February 18-19, 2014 are taken so no weddings, birthdays or anniversaries.  This is the date of the 2014 Conservation Tillage Conference in St. Cloud.  Attached here is a 'Save the Date' postcard for you to place prominently on your fridge so you have a reminder.  This is a great conference to learn about other tillage practices and how they can fit your operation.  Another great reason to go is for those of you interested in or looking at banding fertilizer.  There will be plenty of people here who have experience with this and will be talking about what they have done and what has worked for them and what has not.  More information will be coming so save the date.

Next, I had received a number of calls from some of you about your need to collect soil sample reports for your new CSP signup.  Almost universally, the comments were that you needed every soil test report for each of your fields from each of the last five years.  This did not make sense to me so I called to get the scoop.  What you need is at least one soil test report, from each of the fields you have signed up in CSP from sometime within the last five year.  As an example, if you are on a corn soybean rotation and sample all of your soybean fields every year, you will only need two years of samples because you will have all of your fields covered from sometime within the last five years.  Don't go looking for every single report you have.  For many of you, you should already have them in the packets I give you, if not, I have them archived and can quickly reproduce them.

Finally, it’s time to panic - well, maybe not yet.  I've been hearing reports for the last few weeks that we are inundated with soybean aphids.  Yes they are here.  I finally found some by Granite, but I had to pull so many plants to find them that I probably lowered the overall yield of the field.  They are behind the normal levels of infestation for this time of year, but they will most likely get to the point of treatment.  Now is the time to start paying attention to them.  More to come...

I get questions about a molybdenum foliar quite regularly.  I think it stems from the fact that certain cole crops are known to respond to applications of Mo; mostly as a part of their fertilizer program and not necessarily as a foliar (except for certain varieties).  In corn and beans, there has been no consistent advantage to Mo foliar (or consistent advantage to any micro foliar).

Foliar applications do have some positive test results behind them.  They have many more inconclusive test results when the tests are done correctly.  Be wary of a 3-5 bushel increase claim as that is an increase that you cannot measure in the field without doing replications and subjecting the yield data to statistics to determine if any change is due to treatment or just natural variation.  You see this every year in your yield data.  Even a side by side can be deceiving as your yield can vary naturally from one row to the next.

The biggest hurdle to get a foliar to work is that the set of conditions needed for them to do what they need to do is diverse, ever changing and largely poorly understood.  The one thing that is well understood is that if you decide to use a foliar, use it when the crop is at its best.  None of the foliar products will remedy a deficiency or remediate any other type of stress on the plant.

I see this sell sheet recommends tissue sampling.  They all do.  Tissue samples are notorious for showing nutrient deficiencies, even in highly productive fields.  Also, be wary of tissue samples taken last summer as weather conditions can influence test results.  Also, how the sample was handled will make differences.  A sample with soil particles on it will show higher levels of certain minerals since the soil particles will be ground up with the plant sample to analyze.  Conversely, a sample that has been washed, in order to reflect more accurately the mineral nutrients, can influence the results of other nutrients.  Hence the difficulty in using tissue sampling as a fertility guide.

Molybdenum is used in the plant for certain metabolic functions – primarily nitrogen metabolism.  It is also more available to the plant in alkaline soils so a deficiency in our part of the world is less likely.  The chart shows the relative availability of some nutrients as affected by pH.

If you decide to use a Mo foliar, I would be more interested seeing it on soybeans because of its role in N use and N fixation.  You are not risking any injury to any crop by applying it unless the rate is extremely high.  Just don’t expect anything to great or consistent.

If you got here via my Facebook post, then you already know what my following rant is about.  If you got here the old fashioned way, then let me set the scene.  Today, while at a meeting, I had to set through another conversation by industry representatives, who were trying to disguise themselves as leading experts in everything that goes on in your fields.  Again today I was told just how bad Goss' Wilt was during the 2012 growing season when the facts are that the incidence of the disease was very light.

For some reason industry wants you to think that Goss' Wilt was as bad, or worse, than it was in 2011.  It actually was barely to the levels of 2010.  In terms of actual percentage of fields infected in 2011, the percentage was low.  Yes, those that were, were sometimes devastated and the distribution of infestation was widespread in 2011, it was not "virtually in every field".

As growers, you need access to timely and accurate information about what is going on.  Why are you continually bombarded with all of this BS?  I think I figured it out about Goss' Wilt.  It was one of two things: (1) there was a diagnosis of a production problem in your field that could not be identified and since you cannot field ID Goss' Wilt, it was used as a scapegoat for whatever the actual problem was, or (2) there was a diagnosis of a production problem in your field that someone doesn't want you to know about and since you cannot field ID Goss' Wilt, it was used as a scapegoat for whatever the actual problem was.

Am I telling you to not worry about this disease? No!  The inocculum is out there and if infested, your fields could be greatly affected.  Last season the environment simply was not conducive to wide spread manifestation of the disease.  Will next year?  I don't know.  If your "expert" tells you that he has found it in your fields remember this:  the actual experts (the ones who have the training, background and experience) misdiagnose Goss' about 50% of the time, as evidenced by the number of false lab results returned from the samples that they themselves sent in to confirm the infestation.  Yet your industry expert can positively ID it all the time.  I can tell you one thing, I cannot make a possitive field ID

Want to disprove me?  Talk to the pathologists, the ones with the PhD's who have developed the procedures that have made your production as good as it is.  I did.  Yes, the experts did misdiagnose Goss' about half the time in the field.  Yes, the disease is out there. No, it was not as big of a problem as you are led to believe in 2012.  Yes, you will hear more this winter about how bad it was and yes, you will be asked to make some very expensive decisions based on some very bad and inaccurate information.

We just can’t seem to get away from soybean aphids.  Over the weekend, their numbers have increased more than I would have expected.  They are still on near treatment levels, but now I have to wonder if thinking that the season was over were a bit premature.  Based on our weather, and how rapidly these bugs can reproduce, there may be some late season spraying.

 

The early beans are starting to turn in some areas.  These fields are no longer in danger of aphid infestations but the later maturity beans, especially now that we have a weather delay in reaching maturity.  I will pass along anything that I see otherwise.

Another interesting note; of all the beans I have been in watching aphids, there is quite a difference in their weed control.  I’ve seen fields that were under a total glyphosate program, others that had authority/sonic and others with verdict.  It is not surprise that the fields that were only treated with glyphosate had the toughest time with weeds this year and all of the pre emerge herbicides worked well.  However, I think I can say that I seen a distinct difference between the sonic/authority fields vs. the verdict fields.  Both programs worked very well but the verdict fields did seem to be in better shape late in the season. This may be something worth keeping an eye on.

I spent some time at Farm Fest today.  The number of people attending seemed to be high today, although it was not too difficult to navigate throughout the grounds.

 My report on soybean aphids is not changing.  As of today, levels are quite low but evenly spread throughout the area.  The forecast of more pleasant weather will be of benefit to aphids.  I expect that their numbers will climb in the next week.

Spider mites are becoming more of a concern.  There are a few fields were I think treatment may be warranted.  There are even a couple of corn fields that may soon need a treatment.  If you do need to treat for mites, I would recommend staying with a chlorpyrifos product (lorsban, nufos, etc.) because the other products are simply not that effective on them.   Also, since we are well into August, I question the value of the name brand products and there guarantee.  If you do spray this time of year, the chance that you will have to again is remote, making the extra cost of the guarantee worthless.

Have you looked at your corn?  I mean really walked out into to it to see?  The July heat was not good on it.  The rows on the perimeter suffered from the heat, but think about how hot it got in the middle of the field.  A number of fields that I did walk into had some pretty tough looking ears deep inside; some were not too bad.  When the season is over I think we will notice some seeding rate issues.  The picture is one taken from the field by my place from the middle of the field.  This is a flex ear planted at a lower population and so far everything looks decent.  The overlap area on the headlands where the population is higher does not look so good.  This will be interesting to try to figure out.

What a difference a little moisture, cooler temperatures and a few days make!!!  Soybean aphid numbers have definitely changes in the last few days.  Last week the fields, with the exception of a few hot spots, where essentially devoid of any aphids, are now to fairly consistent low levels throughout the fields.  In almost every field I stopped in today I was able to find aphids at about two thirds of the places I looked.  The numbers were only a few, but spread out through the fields.  The areas that were very heavily infested last week are now completely without any aphids.  These observations were quite consistent everywhere from Granite, to Cottonwood, Wood Lake and Echo.

This is not unexpected.  This is normally how they increase in numbers.  It’s now just a waiting game.

Tonight, finally some rain coming through the area.  I have a report of close to one inch, and some small hail, in the Wood Lake area.  Here in Granite, nothing again.  The amount of rain we received tonight was not enough to even get the ground wet under vehicles. 

 

I have nothing too different to report today as in the last few days.  I continue to see some small areas of the fields that have some high aphid numbers, but they are very isolated and do not yet seem to be spreading very fast throughout the fields.  I have noticed though, (maybe it would be more proper to say that I took the time to look) that many corn fields are also being infested with spider mites.  Quite a few of the field borders that I looked at do have the same stippling symptoms associated with mites.  No field is in need of spraying, as of yet.  I did see (actually smell) that between Granite and Clarkfield some fields were sprayed, though I do not know for what insect.  The rain that has come tonight will not be enough to alleviate mite infestations.

I will continue to monitor insect levels and let you know.  For the next two days I will attending a seed meeting and will not be close to home.  I will have phone and email contact if anything comes up.

Today’s foray into soybean fields has shown that soybean aphid numbers are increasing.  Today I was able to find several areas where numbers easily reached into the 500-1000’s per plant.  In fact, some of these areas were already in the honey dew/sooty mold stage.  Interestingly though, outside of these few areas, nothing else can be found; even in the same fields as these heavily infested areas.

 

Normally, I would have expected current aphid levels to have shown up about three weeks ago.  And, normally, it would have taken a few weeks for them to progress to treatable levels.  Does that mean about three weeks will be the optimum time to spray?  I don’t know.  For certain, our current weather is affecting their growth and spread.  All we can do is keep watching.  The attached photo is one of those hot spots not far from Wood Lake.

What about treatment thresholds?  You all have heard that 250 aphids per plant over 80% of the field is the economic threshold.  The actual threshold is 6000 aphid days – this means plants with one aphid per plant for 6000 days, or 2 aphids per plant for 3000 days, or 50 aphids per plant for 50 days or 250/plant for 24 days or 3000/plant for 2 days or 6000/plant for 1 day. You get the point.  This is a very difficult threshold to monitor.  The 250/plant threshold is used because it has been found that by the time they reach that level, the 6000 aphid day threshold has been (or soon will be) reached.  This is important to know because low levels of aphids over an extended period of time can be damaging, especially when the plants are already under other stresses.  Also, it is an economic threshold.  Your tolerance for aphids is justifiably lower on $16 soybeans.

Here is a quick update on what I have found in soybean fields.  First, soybean aphids are still very scattered and light.  I was in fields from around Granite to Cottonwood, Wood Lake and Belview.  So far most everywhere levels are low, but some pockets around Granite (north of Granite actually) are starting to do some spraying.  In many fields, SBA are still very hard to find.

I've been noticing a lot of yellow flash from these late applications of glyphosate, but there is yellowing from soybean cyst nematodes and actually some yellowing from potassium deficiencies.  The K deficiency is not because of low K levels in the soil, but rather the plants inability to properly utilize it because of the droughty conditions.  Don't use this as an excuse to apply a foliar fertilizer though because it will do you no good.  Simply, if the plant is unable to use the available potassium now, adding more will not make it any better since it is not a deficiency, but rather a physiological inability to mobilize the potassium.  Given the conditions, I would expect to see other deficiency symptoms as well.

I also looked at some corn ears to see how pollination went.  For the most part I'm impressed with how well the ears are filled out.  There is some noticeable gaps in the ears but given the conditions, not bad.  The picture above is a typical ear that I found today.

Here are a few comments on some insect observations in soybeans:

Soybean Aphids-
    
Aphids are present, but as of today they are at very low levels.  Even the fields that have had a history of being the first infested are almost devoid of any significant numbers.  The weather conditions we have been experiencing has been hard on them, but rest assured, they will show up in numbers to control in at least part of the area.  Vigilance is paramount.
    Your control options are the same as in past years. Some companies do offer respray protection guarantees with their products, and of course, they will cost more per acre.  The product you choose should be based on the current environment though, not a manufacturer program.  With the dry, hot weather the pyrethroid insecticides will not work as well since they are more easily degraded by this weather.  They also are not effective on spider mites, which we may have to deal with as well.

Spider Mites-
    Every time it gets hot and dry it seems that industry gets on the spider mite bandwagon. It is a worry, but again, mites are not at levels that require control - yet. I did run across a field today that I believe will need to be sprayed for mites soon. Unfortunately this field did not have any aphids, so spraying now does not guarantee no aphids in the future.  This may be a case were relying on one of the manufacturer backed products may be beneficial.  Spaying a pyrethroid insecticide on this field will not control the mites and will probably flare them.  Choose wisely.
    What do mites look like?  Well, the mite itself is very small. A good magnifying glass or microscope is needed to see them. This picture above is one I took with a microscope with a 60x lens.  Leaf symptoms are a bit easier to see.  Generally you will first notice symptoms on the field edges (although the field today was not) and they look like the picture below.  Not the best picture, but it does show the stippling that is typical of mites.