(Lakefield, Mn.)– Ideal conditions have occurred at a critical time for corn and soybean crops in the region. Jim Nesseth of Extended Ag Services in Lakefield tells KUOO news timely rains and cooler than normal temperatures are resulting in some really nice looking fields…
“The timely rains we’ve had so far during pollination of the corn and tasseling and that’s just been excellent. We’ve had some cool temperatures to kind of buy us some time as far as conserving some moisture there and just make a very efficient use of the moisture there that we have received, so things look really good. I think we’ve got some excellent yield potential. I think overall, you know, we’ve got, I know just talking to some of the producer they’re kind of excited. They don’t want to talk about it because they think they might jinx something, but crops look really good and I think we really could have some higher end yields here this fall if we get those timely rains.”
Nesseth says producers now are in the process of applying fungicide to corn and beans…
“We certainly want to get that done by R-3 on the soybeans and actually going back to the corn side of the rotation, there’s some fungicide applications going on there, too. We want to certainly do that after full tassel. Usually by R-2 when the silk starts turning brown, that’s probably past the optimum time to apply fungicide, so. Planes are in the air and are busy. The only thing we are kind of hoping that a lot of producers won’t do, we don’t have a lot of aphid pressure yet and I know there’s some corn rootworm beetles out there but I think a lot of times guys want to put that insecticide in as long as they’re doing the application but most generally it’s usually too soon or it isn’t going to be effective enough to control the population and we kill a lot of the beneficial insects.”
Nesseth says the only exception to that would be in soybean fields where there is noticeable aphid feeding going on.
