Indiana corn harvested was at 15 percent in the Monday USDA update, and soybean harvest was 13 percent complete. In Indiana and nationally harvest progress is ahead of the 5-year average.
Disease has been a problem for both crops, and something unusual this year was the emergence of second generation bean leaf beetle. DEKALB Asgrow Technical Agronomist Jason Harmon says it came out later than he expected.
“In previous years, a lot of times when we package our fungicide and insecticide at R3, we really do a great job taking that second generation out, and really don’t see as much of an issue when it comes to yields and also soybean quality,” he said. “But this year that first generation that came in early on in our early seedling stage, when they survived, maybe got past our seed treatments, they lay their eggs right there. And the second generation just seems to have come out later and infested this crop into August where our insecticides that we put on back at R3 have definitely dissipated. So they have gone to town and had nothing to hold them back.”
Harmon says you may see the results by the look of the beans you’re harvesting.
“It’s something I want to be cautious of, because when growers are harvesting a field of soybeans, they will not see those bean leaf beetles, but they may see a tank of beans in their back window of that combine that just don’t look as uniform as they’d like to see. One of the main reasons that could have been is from bean leaf beetle coming in late this year.”
And yields so far? “We’re hearing quite the range,” Harmon says. “I really feel like the guys who took care of their products and used top of the line genetics are very pleased with their soybean yields so far.”
He goes into more detail on the benefits of Asgrow genetics in the full HAT interview: