Included: Yellow corn, armyworm, aphids, soybean herbicide injury and more.
Synopsis: Rainfall has been good for the most part. 1.0 to 2.0 inches 10 days ago and about 0.5 inches fell last weekend. Rainfall was not a heavy downpour. Some sporadic showers came last night. There still are dry areas that got only 0.5 inches of rain. Goderich and north it remains very dry and yields will be impacted. Sulphur deficiency on corn and alfalfa have been confirmed.
NOTE: Final meeting will be at the Huron Research Station. Start time is 7:00 am followed by a 1 hour tour of the station at 8:00 am.
Corn: Most corn is off to a great start and growing quickly. Yield expectations are high. Lodged and leaning corn along with “roping” and “loopy” corn is common. Rain, wind and the “rapid growth syndrome” are the cause. Symptoms are present with or without herbicide applications, and are variety specific, indicating growing conditions are the cause.
Continued reports that fields disc ripped last fall are sluggish and do not look as good as plowed ground. There was one report of a field that was kept “dead” with herbicides last summer for worm pickers. It was manured last fall then plowed. It was planted in good time this year but has been very sluggish. Is it possible that not growing a crop last year has impacted corn growth this year? When there is nothing growing on land the beneficial fungi and bacteria start to die off. This can have a significant impact on the following crop especially phosphorous uptake. The corn in question is purple, indicating poor phosphorus uptake. The management of keeping the field barren has the potential to impact the following crop. The field is expected to “recover” over the next few weeks. Some sulphur deficiency in corn has been confirmed on sandy soils aroung New Hamburg. There is a considerable amount of fungicide application with the final herbicide application (V6 to V8). Try to leave some strips with no fungicide to assess yield differences!
Armyworm: Armyworm continues to be the hot topic. Many hay fields have been totally stripped, along with wheat, rye and winter barley fields. In many cases the AW are moving across fields or roads and into corn fields. Borders of corn fields may need to be sprayed. Link to armyworm marching.
The biggest problem is south of the 401, but there are fields with significant small armyworm that should be controlled in this area as well. Some discussion around Matador rates, and that 34 ml was insufficient. 50 to 60 ml seems to be required. The addition of a little surfactant improves control. Matador supplies are tight. The new biological product Delegate was discussed: it is giving good control, has no temperature restrictions, gives residual and is priced competitively, making it worth considering. Regardless of product, spraying should be done at night when feeding occurs to maximize kill. Increased water volume is important to attain full canopy penetration. Hay fields have been hit hard this year. There is little point in spraying hay fields since they need to be cut anyway.
Soybeans: Soybean plant stands are all about planting depth: they are excellent if seed was planted deep enough to find moisture. Fields where seed was not planted into moisture are suffering from thin stands. Seedlings are still emerging so most fields will have adequate stands but if stands are still thin patching or reseeding should be done immediately. Late emerging seedlings have taken a long time to emerge and appear to have been impacted by “cold” rains 10 days ago. Field experience has shown that soybeans and especially edible beans emerge more slowly if significant rainfall occurs before emergence.
Metribuzin damage is common. Significant rainfall can cause herbicide burn from soil uptake or surface splash.
Fields will outgrow this damage quickly and it will not impact yield. Lots of re-spraying going on right now. Weeds are past the “pullback” of postemergent herbicides. Foxtail is the predominant escape present. Fields are going through the “lag phase” now: plants look very pale in colour. Vigorous growth means the plants do not have sufficient nitrogen at present. N fixation through the nodules will start to supply adequate N and crops will turn darker green over the next week. The majority of the crop is in the first to third trifoliate leaf stage. Slug damage is evident in some no-till fields. A small amount of tillage (fall or spring) has done a good job in helping to reduce slug damage. Fall RTS plots look very good this year compared to straight no-till. It will be interesting to see if there are any significant yield differences from a small amount of tillage. There was some hail in isolated pockets (north ofStratford,Woodstock, etc) but damage has been minor.
Aphid numbers are high in spring cereals and a few wheat fields. These are not soybean aphids! No soybean aphids have been reported except for some in a few “volunteer” soybeans further north. It is too early to know what soybean aphid numbers will be like this year.
Double Cropping Soybeans: There continues to be a lot of interest in double cropping soybeans after wheat this year. Significant seed discounts will be available.
Edible Beans: Edible bean seeding is essentially complete. (90% plus) A few reseeds have been necessary due to poor emergence. One report of edible beans planted at 2 ¾ inches to find moisture that did not emerge. In the same field where seed was planted at 2 inches emergence was excellent: it is possible to seed edible too deep.
Crop Insurance: Some reseeding claims on soybeans and edible beans have been reported but the number of fields has been relatively small so far. Online reporting is available. Please try online reporting if you have not done so in the past. Please do not leave phone reporting to the last day (June 30th) since the phones are very busy that day.
Chair for the meeting was Aart DeVos. Thank you. Pat Feryn will be chair for next meeting which will be the last one of the spring.
Crop Insurance deadlines:
June 15: Last day to report unseeded acreage.
June 30: Spring seeded final acreage reports due.
July 10: Premiums due.
Publications:
Publication 812 – Field Crop Protection Guide is available at any resource center, or by calling ServiceOntario Publications, 1-800-668-9938 or 416-326-5300.
CropLine – 1-888-449-0937
CropPest Website – http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/field/news/news_croppest.html
Stratford Crop Technology Contacts:
Horst Bohner, 519-271-5858 or horst.bohner@ontario.ca
Peter Johnson, 519-271-8180 or peter.johnson@ontario.ca