C.O.R.N. Newsletter

You know how at the end of the horror movie there’s always some hint that the monster may come back?  We don’t know if this year will be “Soybean Aphid 11: The Return,” but there are some hints that you might want to pay attention to your beans and keep an eye out for this pest.  We have been hearing reports of unusually high numbers of various aphid species on various types of plants – fruits, vegetables, weeds.  This trend appears to be regional, and is being detected in other states as well.  Why?  It’s probably due to the unusual late spring/early summer weather which

The mid-season defoliators are beginning to show up in soybean fields across Ohio. These defoliators include first generation bean leaf beetles, Japanese beetles, grasshopper nymphs and several different caterpillars such as silver-spotted skippers, painted-lady butterflies and green cloverworms. Since all of these insects collectively add to the defoliation of soybeans, their collective feeding is used in the threshold to determine the need for an insecticide treatment, but it takes a lot of feeding to add up to significant damage. It often looks worse than what it truly is.

The Western Agricultural Research Station Agronomy Field Day will be held July 17th. The station is mostly planted but everything went in on the edge – as you saw it on your farm too. Hear our researchers thoughts and recommendations on how to manage this interesting season.

A couple of items we will walk through are:

Although the growing season is winding down, we are still receiving some reports of insect activity and damage in soybeans.  At this point, the risk is mainly to late-planted or double-cropped beans that are still maturing and still green when other fields are yellowing.  Late-season soybean aphids, which feed on sap, do not cause yield drag after seed fill is complete.  Stink bugs, grasshoppers, Mexican bean beetles, and bean leaf beetles can feed on pods later in the season.