Field Crop News at Penn State

Field Crop News

Website Address: http://fcn.agronomy.psu.edu/

September 17, 2004    Vol. 04:11

IN THIS ISSUE:

Mark Your Calendar

Announcements

Weather Outlook

Production

Pest Management

Agents Corner

Announcements

New Fact Sheet

A new fact sheet just came out titled "Effects of Soil Compaction". It is a summary of research findings of the effects of soil compaction on crop and forage yields, and it details effects of compaction on soil physical, chemical and biological properties. It is available through the Publications Distribution Center The Pennsylvania State University 112 Agricultural Administration Building University Park, PA 16802-2602 Telephone: 814-865-6713 FAX: 814-863-5560 Email: AgPubsDist@psu.edu.

Sjoerd Duiker, swd10@psu.edu
Soil Management, Crop and Soil Sciences

2005 ADVANCED TRAINING IN ORGANIC CROP PRODUCTION

For Agricultural Service Providers: State and USDA Agency, Extension, Non-Profit and Private Crop Advisors from throughout the Northeast

Then this intensive training is for you!

Three separate multi-day sessions (starting and ending at noon) will cover a wide range of organic production and management topics for vegetables and field crops. The sessions will be held on: Feb 28-March 3, June 27-30, and Sept 19-22, 2005 in New York State, Pennsylvania, and Maine respectively. All travel, meals, and lodging expenses will be covered. Note that a day of travel is included in the above dates.

Applicants must commit to attend all three sessions, which will be taught by leading organic systems researchers, experienced farmer-educators and extension staff. Each session's classroom work and on-farm activities will be complemented by additional online discussions and extensive printed resource materials, including case studies.

Session 1. Feb 28-March 3: Overview of Organic Systems. New York The history of the organic approach; Organic Certification/National Organic Program; The organic farm plan; Transition to organic production; Organic markets and farm management; Resource materials

Session 2. June 27-30: Pest Management. Pennsylvania Pest ID, scouting; Weed management and cultivation tools; Organic insect and disease management; Crop rotation; Organic systems

Session 3. Sept 19-22: Soil Management. Maine Soil quality assessment; Organic fertility sources; Nutrient budgets; Whole farm planning and assessment

Requirements: an interest in organic agriculture, knowledge of its basic concepts and practices, and some experience working with organic farmers. The training class will be limited to 20.

So hold these dates! Detailed program information and application forms will be available in October. For more information, contact Anu Rangarajan at 607-255-1780 (ar47@cornell.edu) or Vern Grubinger at 802-257-7967 (vernon.grubinger@uvm.edu).

This Training is funded by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program of the USDA.

Mary Barbercheck, meb34@psu.edu
Entomology

WEATHER OUTLOOK

The first week of September marked one of the few seven-day periods during the summer of 2004 that much of Pennsylvania had no rain. As if to compensate for the dry spell, the remnants of Hurricane Frances inundated the Commonwealth with as much as 8 inches in parts of Crawford and Erie counties on September 8-9th. Most of the western half of the state had more than a month's worth of rain (4 inches) in just one day. The rainfall was more sporadic, though locally very heavy from the Susquehanna Valley to the Poconos. A dramatic change in the temperature pattern began in late August as warm, humid air returned. The first half of September has averaged between 2 and 5 degrees above normal, due mainly to very mild nights. Foggy mornings and generally light winds have led to very poor drying conditions.

The weekend will begin with the remnants of Hurricane Ivan affecting the state. A drier, more seasonable air mass will spread into the region from Canada during the period from September 19-21 with noticeably cooler nights along with valley fog. A significant warming trend will occur from September 22-25 with readings returning to summery levels. After the rains from Ivan depart, little or no rain is expected for at least 4-5 days. A cold front and associated showers will likely bring an end to warm spell between September 25-27 and the month should conclude seasonably cool. While October may start with a warming trend, the balance of the month will average cooler than normal.

Paul Knight, PGK2@psu.edu
Pennsylvania State Climatologist

PRODUCTION

EDAMAME

Edamame is a food grade soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) that is very popular in East Asia. It has been used as a vegetable there since 200 B.C. More recently, it has become very popular here in the United States, especially on both coasts. It is used as snack food, in salads, and in stir fry. It basically can be used in a lot of dishes. It is thought the use of food grade soybeans as a vegetable is a healthy source of protein and energy.

Food grade soybeans differ from feed grade soybeans (fed to livestock) in that they are normally larger in size and sweeter in taste. The part that attaches to the inside of the pod, called the hylem, is normally white in color. Feed grade varieties normally have a brown hylem. The most popular food grade varieties harvested for Edamame are usually white varieties. There are a few black varieties on the market. Size and sweetness at harvest seems to be the most important characteristic.

Edamame is harvested as an immature soybean at reproductive stage 6 (R6). That is when the soybean pods are green and have 2 to 3 fully developed green beans inside the pod. The beans inside the pod are usually round to oblong and 1/4 to 3/8 inches in diameter. Most production is hand picked to avoid bruising. They have been harvested with an FMC Green Bean Harvester. But 25% of the beans were left in the field and 7% harvested were bruised.

Edamame

Edamame is processed in the pod. You should soak them in water twice-once to get the dirt off and the second soaking with salt and rub the soybeans down to help remove the hairs. Then bring a pot of water to a boil and add salt. Stir the salt into solution then add the soybeans to the boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes. When the time is up, poor the soybeans into a colander and let drain and cool. They can be eaten right away or frozen in freezer bags. After frozen they can be eaten once thawed or heated and eaten. They can be micro-waved. I find edamame to be an excellent tasting snack with good market potential.

We have been doing applied research on varieties here at Rock Springs for three years and have four late maturing experimental varieties in replicated plots this year.

Craig Altemose, cea10@psu.edu
Centre County Extension Office

Pest Management

NEW WEED AND CROP IDENTIFICATION DVD

A new software program, the "Interactive Encyclopedia of North American Weeds" may be of interest to you. It offers more than 2,400 photographs covering 447 of the most important weeds and crops in the United States and Canada. The illustrated glossary of 565 botanical terms is a program in itself! A unique illustrated interactive identification key now covers all of the weeds in the program. The professionally narrated lessons provide nearly three hours of interactive instruction on the basics of plant taxonomy needed to identify plants.

After 12 years of development, the program provides a balanced and fully integrated teaching and reference resource for weed, crop, and plant identification. The DVD is an excellent resource for teaching plant taxonomy and weed identification courses, basic botany, agronomy, and horticulture courses, and high school biology and vocational agriculture courses. A presentation maker feature allows an instructor or presenter to create a custom path through the program. Professional agronomists, horticulturalists, grounds keepers, landscapers, turf managers, gardeners, herbalists, botanists, and all manner of plant enthusiasts will enjoy the extensive descriptions, distribution maps, habitat key, World of Weeds weed history articles, and the unique visual weed and crop identification key.

The best way to see if it might be of value to you is to view a demonstration weed home page and obtain more information on the DVD-ROM at the following link: http://www.thundersnow.com/weedid.htm.

The Interactive Encyclopedia of North American Weeds - Version 3 DVD-ROM can be ordered through the North Central Weed Science Society by clicking on the following link: http://www.ncwss.org/info/weedncwss.pdf. Or you can call Bob Schmidt directly to place an order at: 217 352-4212. The price is $59.95 each plus $5.00 shipping and handling.

TILLAGE: THE SILVER BULLET FOR MYCOTOXIN CONTROL IN CORN SILAGE?

Have you been struggling with mycotoxins on your farm? Have you been told that tillage is the Silver Bullet that will alleviate those problems? If that's the case it is time for a wake-up call.

Over the past months we have heard reports of producers that have abandoned their no-till practices in hopes of eliminating mycotoxin problems. These producers received advice from professionals promising that tillage would "take care of the problem". In reality, many factors contribute to mycotoxin problems and it is unlikely that any one practice is going to make the problem go away. Rather producers should consider practices that place their operation at risk for mycotoxins and then work to eliminate as many risk factors as possible.

Mycotoxin basics. Mycotoxins are by definition toxic compounds that are produced by fungi. Not all molds are capable of producing mycotoxins. In many cases the mycotoxins are produced by fungi that are causing crop diseases. For example, some ear and stalk rotting pathogens of corn are notorious for being mycotoxin producers. Some molds that are commonly found in stored silage and feed can also produce significant mycotoxins. In fact, some of the latter toxins may be more important for dairy producers. Many mycotoxins are not easily degraded and may persist in contaminated silage or grain long after the fungal growth is limited by low pH and low oxygen environment associated the quality corn silage.

Fusarium stalk rot on corn

Taking steps to minimize your risk. If you are struggling with chronic mycotoxin problems you will need to carefully evaluate each step of your silage/grain production, to make sure you are doing everything possible to minimize your risk of having a repeat performance. Below are some tips to get you started.

  1. Carefully inspect your silo, or bunker for obvious signs of mold growth. Avoid feeding sections that have obvious mold problems and attempt to adjust the feed out rate to stay ahead of the mold growth. Watch for hot spots near the top of a bunker that could fall down and get mixed in with clean feed.
  2. Harvest your silage on time. The timely harvest of silage will leave you in a good position to pack the silage well, and help encourage the low oxygen conditions required to start the fermentation process and exclude many mycotoxin producing fungi. Manage the face of your bunker by scraping across the pile to limit introduction of air into the silage. The introduction of air into the bunker will likely encourage mold growth.
  3. 3. Select hybrids that are well adapted to your region and have high levels of resistance to the Gibberella and Fusarium ear rots that are caused by fungi that are known mycotoxin producers. Hybrids with reasonable leaf disease resistance can also help reduce the stress that may predispose plants to colonization by the stalk rot phase of these diseases, and may also provide a more uniform dry down of the crop. Bt hybrids may help because of the reduced insect damage that can provide entry-points for the fungi.
  4. 4. Maintain a good soil fertility program. Too much or too little nitrogen has been associated with increased stalk rot, as well as low soil potassium. So maintaining soil nutrient levels in the optimum range is recommended. Have your soil tested and follow the recommendations to optimize your fertility.
  5. 5. Limit exposure to high pathogen populations. Crop rotation can be effectively used to distance your crop from the high pathogen populations that are associated with crop residues. Each year a moderate portion of the disease causing fungi will die due to natural predation by other organisms and the break down of their food resources. Crop rotation also provides valuable time for the populations to decline before replanting a susceptible crop. A two to three year rotation in a broad leaf crop (for example alfalfa, clover, or soybeans) can be very helpful. Tillage can be used to incorporate crop residues into the soil and speed the processes that reduce the pathogen population, but in many cases the increased risk of erosion, and loss of soil quality make tillage undesirable. No-till may also help minimize the stress of drought that can predispose plants to attack by ear and stalk rotting pathogens.

Consider the options to limit mycotoxin problems in corn silage. Tillage is certainly not the Silver Bullet that will solve all your problems. Instead, tillage has many disadvantages. In today's farming environment, the economic, environmental, and social disadvantages of tillage are just too great to offer it as an easy solution.

Sjoerd W. Duiker, swd10@psu.edu
Soil Management, Crop and Soil Sciences
Erick De Wolf, edd10@psu.edu,
Plant Pathology
and Paul H. Craig, phc8@psu.edu,
Capital Region Forage Agronomist

LATE SEASON RESCUE OPTIONS FOR CORN AND SOYBEAN

This has been a banner year for burcucumber and other weeds with all the rainfall. Burcucumber in particular thrives under these conditions and there are no 100% successful herbicide programs (or even 90%) even under normal rainfall conditions. There are three choices in terms of harvest aids for corn. They include:

2,4-D LV4 - 1- 2 pt/acre after the hard dough or dent stage. Do not forage or feed corn fodder for 7 days after application. This is not very effective on burcucumber and although we havenÕt tested it in replicated field trials, I have heard that it will hasten maturity of burcucumber and make the vines more brittle to potentially improve harvestability. 2,4-D is effective on broadleaf weeds including ragweed, lambsquarters, and pigweed.

Glyphosate - Can be applied up to 0.75 lb ae/acre (22 oz Weathermax or 32 oz of Touchdown IQ). Apply when grain has 35% moisture and after maximum kernel fill is complete. This application makes more sense for high moisture corn or at least for grain, not silage. I suspect this could be fairly effective unless the corn/weeds have been frosted, then it would be useless. Again, the major benefit for burcucumber might be quicker vine disintegration to allow passage of harvest equipment. Glyphosate should hasten dry down of both broadleaves and grasses.

Gramoxone Max is also now labeled for preharvest in corn. Apply up to 1.5 pt/acre after the corn is mature and black layer has formed. Make the application at least 7 days prior to harvest. Be sure to add a nonionic surfactant at 1 qt/100 gal. This may be the most effective treatment of the three for burcucumber and should be fairly effective on other weeds.

Finally, I have been recommending that corn severely infested with burcucumber be harvested for silage if possible since the fresh burcucumber seed can be destroyed during the ensiling process. This assumes that the silage chopper can get through the mess. If the seed remains in the field as it does with grain, then it will surely increase the problem for future years. For your information, glyphosate and Gramoxone Max as well as Clarity are labeled for harvest aid in soybeans. See the Penn State Agronomy Guide for more details.

Bill Curran, wscurran@psu.edu
Weed Science, Crop and Soil Sciences

FALL IS THE BEST TIME TO TREAT MOST PERENNIAL WEEDS

Even though great progress has been made in our ability to control perennial weeds with the introduction of Roundup-Ready in summer annual crops, fall is still the best time to achieve longer-term control of perennial weeds. In fall, perennials such as hemp dogbane, Canada thistle, quackgrass, and wirestem muhly translocate or move sugars and carbohydrates from their leaves to their roots or underground storage structures. A higher percentage of a systemic herbicide such as glyphosate (Roundup or Touchdown or Glyphomax, etc.) will move with the sugars and carbohydrates to underground structures where they can potentially kill these reproductive organs.

The most common herbicides used for this type of application include glyphosate for grasses and broadleaves and 2,4-D or Banvel or Clarity for broadleaves. A combination of these products may be the best solution for a mixture of different perennial weeds. For most perennials including hemp dogbane, horsenettle, common milkweed, pokeweed, hedge bindweed, multiflora rose, poison ivy, and wild blackberry, make applications from September 1 through October 15 or before a hard frost. In general, applications by October 1 may be more effective. In northern areas of Pennsylvania, consider making the application before October 1. An additional two week application window can exist for Canada thistle and quackgrass, because of their cool-season habit of growth. Most importantly, make sure that the foliage on the weeds appears relatively healthy and capable of absorbing the herbicide spray. Plants that have been damaged by insect feeding, drought, harvest equipment, frost, or autumn leaf senescence are not good candidates for fall applications.

An additional opportunity for perennial weed control is the using glyphosate PREHARVEST in alfalfa. It makes the most sense prior to the last cutting in the fall since it will help control perennial grasses such as quackgrass, orchardgrass, and others plus provide some control of perennial broadleaves including dandelion. The idea is to use the application in declining alfalfa stands prior to rotating to another crop. Use up to 1.5 lb ae/acre (43 oz of Roundup WeatherMax or 64 oz Touchdown IQ, Glyphomax, etc.). The treated crop can be harvested and fed to livestock, but allow a minimum of 36 hours before harvest. Tank-mixtures with other herbicides are not allowed. In general, the crop should be harvested within 5 days of application. Although glyphosate is better at controlling alfalfa in the fall than the spring, an additional herbicide application (e.g. 2,4-D/Banvel) or tillage will be required to completely control the alfalfa.

Bill Curran, wscurran@psu.edu
Weed Science, Crop and Soil Sciences

EPA ISSUES ATRAZINE A FAVORABLE INTERIM RE-REGISTRATION ELIGIBILITY DECISION

We received a note this week that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a favorable Interim Re-registration Eligibility Decision (IRED) for atrazine and atrazine-containing products following a 10-year review of human health and environmental safety information. This favorable re-registration decision is important for American farmers to continue to use atrazine containing products in corn, grain sorghum, sugarcane, and other crops. The re-registration decision includes label revisions that apply to all manufacturers, formulators, distributors, retailers, and end-users of atrazine products. I have not reviewed the revised label, but the supplemental label will include changes in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) requirements for specific formulations of atrazine products, Pre-Harvest Intervals (PHI) for some crops, maximum application rates for certain uses, and contact information for the Atrazine Watershed Information Center. I'll report more details as I receive them and I'm sure we will hear more about these changes as the new labels are distributed and at winter meetings.

Bill Curran, wscurran@psu.edu
Weed Science, Crop and Soil Sciences

Agents Corner

CAPITAL

We have actually gone through a period of relatively low rainfall and fairly hot temperatures the last couple of weeks. Corn silage harvest is well underway. Yields that I have heard are excellent. I checked a grain corn club field and came up with a yield estimate of one of the highest I have ever measured. I have seen soybean fields harvested but most are just yellowing and have a way to go. Last cutting of alfalfa should be a good one. Barley is being seeded. I have never seen as much mile-a-minute weed along roadsides as I have this year.

John Rowehl, jrowehl@psu.edu
Cumberland County

CENTRAL

The crops are maturing rapidly here in Central PA. Corn silage harvest is well under way, in fact quite a few acres of corn are too dry to be chopped at this date. Early corn grain moistures I have heard are in the 25 - 30% moisture range. This is allowing harvest for high moisture shelled corn also. There seems to be lots of leaf disease showing up on the corn, many fields had brown leaves while the stalks remained green and the grain was just in early dent stage. I have also seen more stalk problems than in recent years. With most plants producing heavy ears a rapid harvest will help prevent field losses.

Annual weeds in new alfalfa seedings were a big challenge this year. Foxtail, fall panicum, barnyard grass and crab grass all seemed to show up as problems in spring seeded alfalfa fields. Alfalfa yield and harvest are going well. A few nice dry days allowed more good dry hay to be made during the past two weeks than at any other time this season.

Soybeans continue to look great and are set for a good harvest. With a second year of low quality small grains farmers are evaluating the need for these grains in their crop program and planning to adjust their acres accordingly.

Greg Hostetter, gjh10@psu.edu
Juniata County

SOUTHEAST

Corn silage harvest is well underway. Corn has a lot of NCLB besides gray leaf spot. It has really changed in the past 2 weeks, quite a bit of stalk rot has also been observed. Harvest will begin in a few weeks in the earlier planted fields.

Soybeans are maturing, many fields are yellowing, what once were tall even stands of beans are now leaning from the heavy rains and wind from the second half of the summer.

Hay making continues to be a challenge tropical rains, clouds and wet soil has prevented hay from drying very well. Some farmers were able to seed pastures and hay fields early in the month but there were few opportunities. Now all eyes are looking to the Gulf as Ivan approaches the SE coast wondering how much rain will fall this time.

Andrew D. Frankenfield, adf13@psu.edu
Montgomery County

SOUTHWEST

WeÕve had some really nice weather the past few weeks allowing lots of hay to be made, wet and dry. Corn silage harvest has gotten into full swing this week, in most cases the corn silage has been dryer than what it looks to be. This continues to show the value of whole plant moisture testing prior to harvest.

Corn is really beginning to dry down and I look to see combines starting to roll out in a couple of weeks. A lot of leaf diseases are showing up in the corn fields, Northern Corn Leaf Blight, Common Rust and even some Gray Leaf Spot. These may cause some significant problems in the later planted corn.

The majority of the beans are turning yellow and dropping leaves, hope the yields look as good as the fields did all summer.

I think last year at this time we all had our eyes on Isabelle, this year it is Ivan. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Kevin Fry, ksf107@psu.edu
Armstrong County


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Douglas Beegle, editor,
Professor, Agronomy, dbb@psu.edu

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