Monroe County Wheat

Monroe County has traditional been a leading wheat producing county in IL.  Nice Looking wheat below near Meramec.

More Fall Weed Control

My advice would be to start your weed control program for next year now.  Aaron Hagar offers fall weed control advice in this Bulletin.

Wheat Condition

Nice looking wheat in Bond County.  It looks like maybe a little more is being planted this year.  The good looking double crop soybeans may be influencing that decision.

Fall Weed Control

I have written several times on fall weed  control.  Early on, I failed to see the value.  With resistant weeds and heavy pressure, fall weed control is making sense to me at this point.  One fall weed control technique is to use fall applied herbicide.  A residual herbicide will not only supress the winter annuals, but i will also give some early spring control.  Use herbicides if you have n ot planned on cover crops.

The second technique of course it to use cover crops.  Weed suppression will last well into the growing season, and I have seen very good results.  You may still be able to get cereal rye seed to sow on fields that are going to soybeans next spring.  If this is your first time to use cover crops, I do not recommend planting corn into cereal rye.  I have one customer who is planning to do so, but he has done a lot of research on the subject before taking the plunge.

No-till Farmer says Weed Control and Soil Health go Hand in Hand.  

Cutting Ruts

I sampled a very wet field.  The farmer got a neighbor with duals to finish the field.  Ruts were almost as bad with duals.  Needed tracks.

Harvest Continues

After something of a damp weekend, there was rain in the forecast once again today.  We were lucky to have only sprinkles.  It looked like more on radar, but rain was not hitting the ground.  People were harvesting both corn and soybeans.  Beans had some green stems, but grain is dry.

Soil Judging

Janette Porter and I served as the scoring officials for the Section 11 FFA soil judging cotest held in Brown County today.  I always enjoy the chance to  interact with future agriculturalists.  It was kind of a  long drive, but it is also a good chance to look at soils in pits rather than a probe core.  I am not sure how long this activity has been a part of FFA, but I attended my first contest in 1969.  I have been involved in soil judging off and on ever since.  I can't say how many contests.  Some years there were many and some years one, and some years none.

Practice Pit