Corn that was hail-damaged on June 3rd is starting to regrow. Leaves wrapped up in the whorl are beginning to slough off as wind and warm temperatures cause the damaged tissue to die and break off. For more information on how stand loss impacts yield, please check http://cropwatch.unl.edu.

Some corn plants more severely affected were reduced to stems. Sometimes no new growth is appearing while in other plants new growth can be seen. I split open the stem on this plant since no new growth was apparent and the center looked discolored.

In this corn plant, a bacterial rot has set in as can be seen from the discoloration at the upper portion of this plant and the discoloration at crown area. This plant may not survive. This is typical of what we were seeing in Nuckolls/Thayer counties with the 8-10″ of rain they received there.  My concerns for corn at this point are bacterial diseases such as this or Goss’ wilt that may continue to reduce stands through the season.  Some growers are considering a fungicide application but fungicides don’t target bacterial diseases.  We’d recommend anyone considering this to consider an on-farm research experiment and I’d be happy to help set this up for you.

These soybeans were reduced to stems yet are showing new growth 5 days later. UNL research has shown that soybean stands can be greatly reduced without a significant yield effect. Several growers are considering replanting; we’d recommend taking into account the research or conduct an on-farm research experiment to see any differences for yourself like this farmer did.  The other thing we have looked for is bruising on stems and some flooded areas truly did not have plants survive.  For more information, please check out http://cropwatch.unl.edu.