Recent rain has been greatly needed by farmers across Iowa, as drier and hotter conditions this June have caused issues such as rolling corn stalk leaves in Washington County.

ISU Extension and Outreach Field Agronomist Rebecca Vittetoe says locally crops have been looking good except for some areas around Wellman and Packwood that were impacted by hail last week. Vittetoe says that ideally she would like the rain to lessen up now and resume sometime later for crop development, while acknowledging that parts of central and northern Iowa are in more dire need for precipitation this season. She says as we head into July farmers should keep an eye out for fungal diseases in crops if the recent precipitation persists, “Another thing right now to kind of be keeping an eye out for or checking fields for is corn rootworm larvae are hatching and potentially feeding on roots. So especially corn on cornfields, now’s a great time if you’re worried about corn rootworm to get out there and dig the roots if you do see any type of feeding on those roots and maybe think about management going forward.”

Japanese beetles are another potential pest mostly for soybean fields, Vittetoe adds. Soybean producers are also advised of an agronomy workshop that will discuss weed management strategies in soybeans and carbon markets on July 13th at The Southeast Research and Demonstration Farm near Crawfordsville. More information can be found by visiting here.