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Around the County

Frequent information updates for agricultural audiences

August 27, 2007

Weekly Rainfall

Logan County Extension Office

Week ending

Rainfall in inches

Week ending

Rainfall in inches

3/11

.14

6/10

0.0

3/18

.02

6/17

0.0

3/25

1.24

6/24

3.12

4/1

.34

7/1

1.10

4/8

.12

7/8

.92

4/15

.80

7/15

Missed recording/added in 7/22

4/22

0.0

7/22

2.28

4/29

1.32

7/29

.24

5/6

.94

8/5

0.0

5/13

0.0

8/12

.12

5/20

.6

8/19

.28

5/27

.56

8/26

.68

6/3

1.4

Posted by John Fulton at 7:48 AM | Permalink |

August 24, 2007

Farmland Values Increase

URBANA - Illinois farmland values continue to go up, increasing 92 percent since 2000, said a University of Illinois Extension farm management specialist.

"The average farm real-estate value for Illinois in 2007 was $4,330 per acre, the highest on record," said Dale Lattz. "This includes the value of all land and buildings. The figure was 13.9 percent higher than the 2006 average of $3,800 per acre.

"The current strength in farmland values seems to be driven by higher corn and soybean prices and the expectation that these prices will remain high due to strong demand."

Lattz discussed the increase in his report, "Illinois Farm Real Estate Values Continue Double-Digit Increases," (http://www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/manage/newsletters/fefo07_14/fefo07_14.html), which is available on Extension's farmdoc website.

"The 2007 increase, based on figures from the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, marked the third year in a row of double-digit increases," he noted. "The 2005 value increased 27.6 percent, and the 2006 value increased 14.1 percent.

"The 2007 percent increase was the third highest since 1979. Farm real-estate values have shown a year-over-year increase every year since 1988, or 20 consecutive years."

Since 1970, average farm real-estate values have declined only five times as compared to the previous years. Those years were 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1987.

"There have been four years when farm real-estate values increased over 20 percent, in 1974, 1976, 1977, and 2005," Lattz said. "The largest increase came in 1977 when values rose 37.3 percent."

From 1994 through 1999, average farm real-estate values increased between 4.2 percent and 9 percent annually. From 2000 to 2004, farm real-estate increased between 1.3 percent and 7.4 percent.

"Since 2004, the increase in farmland values has averaged 18.5 percent," he said.

Posted by John Fulton at 12:09 PM | Permalink |

August 24, 2007

Weekly Rainfall

Logan County Extension Office

Week ending

Rainfall in inches

Week ending

Rainfall in inches

3/11

.14

6/10

0.0

3/18

.02

6/17

0.0

3/25

1.24

6/24

3.12

4/1

.34

7/1

1.10

4/8

.12

7/8

.92

4/15

.80

7/15

Missed recording/added in 7/22

4/22

0.0

7/22

2.28

4/29

1.32

7/29

.24

5/6

.94

8/5

0.0

5/13

0.0

8/12

.12

5/20

.6

8/19

.28

5/27

.56

6/3

1.4

Posted by John Fulton at 7:10 AM | Permalink |

August 14, 2007

Unexpected Ear Development Problems

Continuing dry conditions are causing concerns about the ability of the corn crop to complete the filling of grain in much of the southern half of Illinois. Whether the crop will recover to fill grain more completely following rainfall depends strongly on whether green tissue remains on the crop at the time that rain comes. Leaves that turn gray in the afternoon but still are green in the morning remain alive and capable of producing sugars if they can get water. Leaf tissue that is crispy and tan is no longer capable of coming back.

More surprising are recent reports, so far mostly from central Illinois, that some fields have small or even missing ears, even in areas that have not been deficient in water. Leaves, canopies, and stalks are in good to excellent shape in most of these fields, and there is no indication that a problem exists until you see ears that are not developing.

Most of the fields we are hearing about have symptoms much like those that we saw in a group of fields near Rock Falls in 2006. Plants appeared normal, but some ear shoots carry either no ear or only a short remnant of an ear. Cobs may extend past the kernels, and in most cases the end of the cob is the undeveloped remnant of the cob, with few or no silks present. Down the row, damaged ear shoots might alternate with full-sized ears, with no apparent cause. Reported damage in 2007 is extremely high in some fields, with virtually no healthy ears.

We are still investigating the possible causes of this unusual injury, and it is not clear that there is a single cause across all fields. Many of the affected fields, including those described in 2006, were treated with a foliar fungicide (typically Headline), usually just before tassel emergence. While no direct connection has been made between such fungicides and such damage, it is likely that ears at this point in late vegetative stage are about the same size as those found with "arrested development" in these fields. We do not know of any herbicide that is known to persist from much earlier in the season to cause such damage, especially without affecting plant size at the same time. The problem also tends to be uniformly distributed across fields, regardless of percentage of plants affected. This suggests a uniform cause, such as a broadcast application.

It is important to go soon into fields to see whether this problem might be present. Be sure to check fields where fungicide was applied before tassel emergence, where application was by ground (higher volume and better coverage might mean faster and greater uptake), and where other additives, such as insecticides and fertilizer nitrogen, were applied along with fungicide.

The problem just described is similar to, but I believe slightly different from, the so-called "blunt ear" or "beer-can-ear" symptom that has been described by Dr. Bob Nielsen. This type of injury has also been reported in some fields this year, typically distributed unevenly across the field, with damage confined to or worse in the lower-lying parts of fields, including plants along waterways. We think that this is related to damage from the light frost that occurred on May 18 in parts of Illinois. Affected ears are often normal in row number and husk length, but rows might have only 5 to 15 kernels, and the cob may or may not extend past the kernels. In some cases, the cob has a sharp projection on the end that resembles the tip of a tassel branch.

Another phenomenon we are hearing about is the appearance of multiple ears from the same shank. In mild cases of this, the small, second ear never developed, and there will likely be no effect on yield (see my article in issue no. 18 of the Bulletin, July 26, 2007). There are definitely some hybrids that are highly likely to produce such ears. In some fields, as many as 5 or 6 "side" ears developed, forming what Bob Nielsen calls a bouquet. The side ears in these cases might be well developed, though many likely failed to form kernels due to late silking and lack of pollen. In general, the larger and more numerous the side ears, the more likely that the main ear was damaged in some way or has low kernel number. We think that the secondary ears are able to grow faster when the primary ear either shows less dominance or when it just uses less sugar, leaving more for the other ears. Causes of damage to the main ear might be different in different fields, but we can't rule out a cause such as that discussed above.


"Bouquet" ears from a single shank, with damage to the primary ear.

While some of the symptoms described here might differ among hybrids, it is not clear that there are groups of hybrids now on the market that are especially susceptible or immune to such problems. To the extent that stage of development affects the development of such symptoms, some hybrids that seem especially susceptible compared to others in the same field might only have been "in the wrong stage at the wrong time." At the same time, we cannot rule out that certain genetics common to a number of hybrids might bring along susceptibility. If the combination of factors that trigger such problems occurs very rarely, such hybrids might reach the market without the problem ever being observed.--Emerson Nafziger

Author:
Emerson Nafziger

Posted by John Fulton at 9:26 AM | Permalink |

August 14, 2007

Weekly Rainfall

Logan County Extension Office

Week ending

Rainfall in inches

Week ending

Rainfall in inches

3/11

.14

6/10

0.0

3/18

.02

6/17

0.0

3/25

1.24

6/24

3.12

4/1

.34

7/1

1.10

4/8

.12

7/8

.92

4/15

.80

7/15

Missed recording/added in 7/22

4/22

0.0

7/22

2.28

4/29

1.32

7/29

.24

5/6

.94

8/5

0.0

5/13

0.0

8/12

.12

5/20

.6

5/27

.56

6/3

1.4

Posted by John Fulton at 9:14 AM | Permalink |

August 10, 2007

Soybean Aphids

Despite the high temperatures we have experienced recently, populations of soybean aphids continue to increase in many fields in northern Illinois. Although in most fields densities are still below the economic threshold (250 aphids per plant, 80% or more of plants infested), in some fields densities have exceeded 1,000 aphids per plant. For example, in the field in Mercer County where we have released the parasitoid Binodoxys communis, the average density on August 6 was 1,020 aphids per plant, with a range of 564 to 1,723 aphids per plant on the 20 plants sampled. The soybeans in this field were at stage R2 in development. The average density in this field on July 30 was 287 aphids per plant. We observed a similar explosion of soybean aphids in one of our weekly surveyed fields in Stephenson County. On July 30 the average density in the field was 71.30 aphids per plant; on August 6, the average density in the same field was 916.35 aphids per plant.

Many fields of soybeans have been and are being treated to control soybean aphids in "hot spots" throughout northern Illinois. However, I reiterate that densities of soybean aphids vary widely in affected areas, so scouting of individual fields is essential. And despite the dramatic increases in numbers of soybean aphids in the two examples just provided, densities have reached plateaus in other fields, the growth of the populations having been suppressed by high temperatures. It's also important to note that in some heavily infested fields, predators, especially the multicolored Asian lady beetle, are showing up in force. This lag between buildup of soybean aphid populations and populations of lady beetles has been typical during years when soybean aphids reach outbreak proportions. It is likely that these late-season predators will have an impact on populations of soybean aphids that will overwinter.

We continue to receive reports of people encountering soybean aphids dubbed "white dwarfs" that are smaller and lighter-colored than the typical yellow-green soybean aphids. Again, these are not "babies," necessarily, nor are they a different species. White dwarf soybean aphids are merely smaller versions of the soybean aphid and have developed in response to some type of change, such as high temperatures, shorter day length, or lower nutritional quality. We speculate that these aphids do not cause as much injury as "normal" soybean aphids, but this is speculation. We still include them in overall counts of aphids. It is also important to note that many people are finding alate (winged) soybean aphids. Winged adults are produced when populations of soybean aphids become crowded, typically in heavily infested fields. These alates fly to other fields, where they land in a less crowded environment and begin producing young almost immediately. The end result is new colonies of soybean aphids. By the way, these winged aphids are the ones being captured in the network of suction traps in the Midwest. You can view records of captures of soybean aphids this summer at the North Central IPM Center Web site, "Regional Soybean Aphid Suction Trap Network".


Alate (yellow circle) and white dwarf (orange circle) soybean aphids, amidst white flies on a soybean leaflet, Champaign County, August 7, 2007 (photo courtesy of Joe Spencer, Illinois Natural History Survey).

At the time this article was written, our weekly survey of 26 commercial soybean fields had not been completed. Some of the fields have been sprayed with insecticides, and some of the cooperators have agreed to leave untreated check areas in the fields, in which we will continue sampling. We hope to obtain yield comparisons for some of our study fields when the fields are harvested later this season. We invite others who have untreated areas in otherwise treated fields to provide us with data, including stage of soybean development and average density of soybean aphids at the time of treatment. We are particularly interested in obtaining data for fields of R5 or R6 soybeans that were (will be) treated. Most data to date suggest that an insecticide application to R6 soybeans infested with soybean aphids will not pay for itself in yield benefit. However, we certainly are willing to examine and discuss data that address this relationship.--Kevin Steffey

Posted by John Fulton at 11:20 AM | Permalink |

August 9, 2007

Rootworm varieties and their isolines

Here are roots dug from the Hartsburg Field trial on July 9. They are tagged for their treatments (both rootworm corn and their isolines). The isolines were treated with the recommended amount of Force insecticide.

Rootworm damage was heavy across all varieties. Root pruning and tunneling is evident on all specimens.

Posted by John Fulton at 2:54 PM | Permalink |

August 7, 2007

Weekly Rainfall

Logan County Extension Office

Week ending

Rainfall in inches

Week ending

Rainfall in inches

3/11

.14

6/10

0.0

3/18

.02

6/17

0.0

3/25

1.24

6/24

3.12

4/1

.34

7/1

1.10

4/8

.12

7/8

.92

4/15

.80

7/15

Missed recording/added in 7/22

4/22

0.0

7/22

2.28

4/29

1.32

7/29

.24

5/6

.94

8/5

0.0

5/13

0.0

5/20

.6

5/27

.56

6/3

1.4

Posted by John Fulton at 9:10 AM | Permalink |