The recent cool and wet conditions in Iowa have been helpful for the state’s soybean and corn crops, but have also caused farmers a delay in doing some field treatments.
Terry Basol is an Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Field Agronomist for several counties, including Butler and Grundy.
“The big thing right now is weed control. Because of all the dry conditions and such that we had this spring, we had pre-emerge herbicides that were applied for both corn and soybeans, that it was dry enough that it didn’t activate that herbicide to give us the early weed control that we want. So some of those weeds snuck through that. And so now we’re looking at post-emerge application timing and very critical now to be able to get out there and get those weeds taken care of before they get too big for everybody, so that’s kind of the big one right now. And then also side dressing, nitrogen, that’s another one, depending upon how the guys are set up for their operations and how much they put out early on for the pre-emerge type applications and things like that. So those are really the two big ones for corn right now. And the most important, getting those weeds controlled.”
The most recent crop report shows a majority of Iowa’s corn and soybean crops are doing well.
