Weeds

Field trials of a new cover crop, CoverCress, are in its third year at the Illinois State University Farm and multiple benefits are being realized as intended.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture announced April 14 permanent state-specific restrictions for dicamba use on soybeans. The permanent restrictions remained unchanged from the 2020 and 2021 growing seasons.

We are all feeling the pressures these days of rising costs, from the grocery store to the fuel pump. Most Americans are already making adjustments here and there.

Researchers are developing dozens of agricultural innovations at Purdue University. Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization has more than 50 ag innovations available to license on its website.

Corteva Agriscience introduced its next-generation corn rootworm technology at the Commodity Classic in New Orleans. Vorceed Enlist corn will help enable growers to manage corn rootworm acres with more options than any other corn seed product, said Tony Klemm, Corteva Agriscience

The Iffts planted their first cover crop 10 years ago on 50 acres, continued to increase acres year-over-year and have seen the benefits of this practice.

Adding nutrition on the planter and spoon-feeding the plants throughout the season provided the highest soybean yield and a top three return on investment in Precision Technology Institute trials in 2021.

His journey started on a farm in rural western Illinois. Seven decades later, he has traveled to various foreign countries, has been in the room at some of the most momentous times in agriculture and has seen some of the best and most difficult years in U.S. agriculture.

March has been teasing us with 70-degree temps followed by snow and single digits. Winter has a hard time letting go, but the forecast looks favorable for spring’s arrival. The recent snow cover did allow for finishing my frost seeding.

The early March weather has finally allowed us to complete the frost seeding. Conditions improved rapidly over the last weekend in February.

Nutrient and weed control plans may end up looking different than usual this year, which makes it especially important to keep soil health in mind, said Hans Kok of the Conservation Technology Information Center in West Lafayette.

Many agronomic weeds are developing resistance to available herbicides, making them harder and harder to kill.

Winter has definitely tightened its grip on us this week. We have 12 inches of new snow accompanied by gusty winds and far below normal temperatures. I’m feeling a little cabin fever since us old guys are supposed to be very careful about scooping snow by hand.

Weeds don’t always impact pastures and animal performance. “Weeds can impact desirable forage quality, quantity, palatability, animal heath and performance, but there are a lot of factors that determine what that impact is,” said Mark Renz.

Corn prices have been on the rise, but so have input costs. Chris Edgington, president of National Corn Growers Association and a farmer from Iowa, shared his views on recent corn farming news during a podcast hosted by the organization.