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Focus on grasshoppers continues: Crop Pest Update

Summary

Insects: Grasshopper monitoring and management continues. Levels of pea aphids at or over the economic threshold have been found in some pea fields that are starting to flower in the Central region.

Levels of barley thrips around threshold have been reported from some barley fields. Lots of blister beetles are being noticed, including some of the species that when they are juveniles specialize in eating grasshopper eggs.

Flea beetle insecticide applications have wrapped up, as most fields are now past the susceptible stages.

Weeds: Sprayers kept rolling over this last week doing a good job of keeping up with weed control.

We are close to finishing up all herbicide applications, with late-seeded canola crops still needing spraying and second pass glyphosate applications going on corn and soybeans. Wet fields have been challenging to drive in, ruts and stuck sprayers have been seen across the province.

Generally weed control has been very good, though some glufosinate applications did not seem to work well, warranting respraying. This was a difficult situation given the tight glufosinate supplies.

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Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way



Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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