This will probably not be a banner year for corn. High temperatures and localized drought took a heavy toll in the form of poor pollination in fields that were planted from late March through the first two weeks of April. That seems to be the general “window” of plantings that suffered most; but there are probably exceptions as always.

There will be a lot of high yielding corn that was planted very early and was able to pollinate and fill the grain prior to the worst stress conditions. Irrigated fields will of course be good in general; and some of the later planted fields that pollinated after we started getting a little more rain in late June and early July may also perform well.

I probably should not bring up problems we don’t have yet; but we have learned through the years that corn matured during high stress years is more prone to some of the disease problems that interfere with harvesting and delivery to markets, especially A. flavus that produces alatoxin.

As fields begin the dry-down period before harvest, we need to be sampling fields and looking for these issues that should be reported as potential claims if the fields are insured.

We had some localized high levels of Southwestern corn borers that were treated; and I expect we may find other spots that show themselves as lodged from girdling. The increased use of varieties carrying resistance to Southwestern corn borer has certainly reduced this problem; but they are still waiting in the wings for a chance to damage the crop.

This has turned out to be a disease year in corn, with high levels of the disease we used to consider as a northern problem that we did not have – namely gray leaf spot. This disease can effectively defoliate corn just at the time when leaf efficiency is most critical during the peak period of grain filling.

We have also seen some of the heaviest incidence of Southern rust in many years. While evaluating a trial with Extension Corn Specialist Dr. Erick Larson last week, the old white shirt I was wearing to keep cool turned into an orange shirt after about an hour of walking through a field with heavy Southern rust.

We also have the two leaf blights, Southern and Northern, contributing to the loss of effective leaf area. I have little doubt that yields will be reduced to some degree by disease this year. The apparent question that follows after that statement is “Does this mean we will need to begin applying fungicides to corn on a more routine basis?”

I believe we already have the answer if we read between the lines of statements that have appeared in the media for several years. Most of them suggest that fungicide applications are not justified where diseases are not present.

Well, now we are finding some of the most damaging corn diseases in gray leaf spot and Southern rust.  Of course, it’s late in the game for applications this year; but we know that inoculum for both of these diseases is present here.

We need to intensify scouting for them in the future and make decisions about applications early enough to preserve effective leaf area and allow plants to complete the filling of grain before leaves are shut down by disease. Winter weather of sufficient intensity may be capable of suppressing the onset of disease in any given area; so spending time scouting fields is the answer.

Soybean: Again, I have been amazed at how well soybeans have withstood the heat and drought conditions we have experienced this year. Last year showed that the varieties we now plant have excellent tolerance to our Southern weather conditions.

Most fields are now in stages R4 through R6 when soil moisture is especially critical for pod filling; and we will undoubtedly see differences in varieties with regard to their ability to yield under these continued hot conditions. Although most of the area has now received rain, soil moisture reserves are still variable as a carrover from past weeks.

Foliar disease levels have generally been very low this year in soybeans, especially in fields that have not been in soybeans for a few years. I have visited only a few fields with significant levels of foliar disease; and even fewer show signs of pod and stem blight that was so terrible last year. Quite a few producers have delayed the application of fungicides as a result of this situation. Only now as insect levels have begun to increase have some of them decided to go ahead with some form of yield enhancement application.

My suggestion is that when there is justification for an application of insecticide at growth stages through R6 we include a strobilurin fungicide as a “quality shot” as added prevention against the onset of seed rotting diseases.

Insects have generally been at light to moderate levels in soybeans throughout this area. I switched to the drop cloth about a month ago as most fields got too tall for the net. I am finding scattered low levels of stinkbugs, threecornered alfalfa leafhoppers, subthreshold levels of looper type larvae, and a smattering of podworms (Heliothis).

The Heliothis moths I see in soybeans are usually corn earworm (H. zea); but the occasional tobacco budworm moth is present as well. So far I have not seen the redbanded stinkbug that threatened us last year; and I hope this means they are susceptible to the long duration of low temperatures we experienced last winter. Levels of bean leaf beetles are surprisingly low, with an occasional grape colaspis. I have also visited a couple of fields where Dectes stem borers were easy to find; and I hope these don’t cause problems for us in some of the later-maturing fields.