Monthly Archives: August 2025
Various Resources
Water use till maturity for Corn: Beginning Dent 5”, ¼ milk 3.75”; ½ milk 2.25”; ¾ milk 1”.
Water use till maturity for Beans: Beg. Seed 6.5”; Full Seed 3.5”; Leaves beg yellow 1.9”.
The Nebraska State Fair is occurring and this past week/weekend was a full one for the 4-H side with FFA projects to be showcased next weekend! Extra special to me are the 4-H identification contests where youth compete to show their knowledge. This year, the York County 4-H youth received Champion Intermediate Horticulture ID team, Champion Intermediate Weed ID team, and Reserve Champion Senior Weed ID Team! So proud of all the youth who competed this year and in the past!
Southern rust of corn was the most frequent question I received last week. The recommendation from research shows there’s no additional benefit to spraying when the corn is two weeks prior to full dent. https://cropprotectionnetwork.org/publications/an-overview-of-southern-rust. Corn is also rapidly progressing in maturity due to the high night-time temperatures we’ve had. This results in corn plants burning sugars at night instead of filling kernels as deeply which can impact yields.
Leaf spot on lilacs: have received a number of calls about lilacs that appear to be “dying”. The culprit is pseudocercospora leaf spot, which is caused by a fungus. The leaves will brown and fall off the lilacs and you will most likely see new growth occurring. Stems are still pliable and buds are still green. Nothing to do other than to rake up the leaves that fall as the fungus can survive in the leaves for two years. More detailed information: https://extension.missouri.edu/media/wysiwyg/Extensiondata/Pro/PlantDiagnosticClinic/Docs/leaf-spot-on-lilac.pdf.
An additional note, fungal leaf spots are found on a number of trees and shrubs right now due to the humid conditions with heavy dew. You may observe impacted leaves fall off early with new growth beginning on the trees/shrubs. Again, nothing to worry about or do for now.
Fall Armyworms have been on the rise over the past few weeks in pastures, alfalfa, lawns, and some crop fields. It will be important to keep watching newly seeded small grain, alfalfa, and cover crop fields this fall. Caterpillars ¾ inch or longer are close to maturity and can be harder to control with an insecticide. There’s a number of conventional and organic insecticides that can be used. Products with 0 day grazing restrictions in pastures include Warrior II, Mustang Max, Beseige, and Prevathon. While it’s not updated, a Q/A for consideration can be found here: https://cropwatch.unl.edu/2021/fall-armyworms-pastures-alfalfa-small-grains-cover-crops-and-lawns/.
Resources: Wanted to share a number of resources. First, a reminder if you have a verbal crop lease you wish to terminate, that must be done by September 1st. More specific information here: https://cap.unl.edu/news/terminating-verbal-farmland-lease-nebraska/. We recommend transitioning verbal leases to written ones and a great resource to help you do that is Ag Lease101 https://aglease101.org/doclib/ where they have various free templates to help.
There have been a number of recent webinars regarding how the Big Beautiful Bill impacts ag. In case you missed them, here’s some recorded webinars:
- Impacts of the Big Beautiful Bill to Ag: https://cap.unl.edu/more-than-one-big-beautiful-impact-ag/
- Changes to Ag Taxes: https://cap.unl.edu/lets-talk-taxes-webinar/
York County Corn Grower Plot Tour and Shrimp Boil will be held September 2, 2025 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. just north of 1603 Road F, Bradshaw, NE. Seed reps will showcase their hybrids, we’ll hear an update from Nebraska Corn, and enjoy a delicious shrimp boil meal (shrimp, sausage, corn, and potatoes). Guess the highest yield without going over and win a $50 gas card. Must be present at the winter Corn Grower Banquet to win. All are welcome! Members are asked to bring a friend and potential member.
Nebraska Soil Health Coalition
Soil Health Success Stories: This week I’m sharing on the Nebraska Soil Health Coalition. I’ve watched this effort since 2019 and am grateful for the leadership, vision, dedication, and endurance of the Board individuals who have successfully completed the beginning efforts of this Coalition! Some background from their website at: https://www.nesoilhealth.org/, “In recognition of the need to achieve more rapid and widespread adoption of soil health practices with multiple benefits, the Nebraska Legislature passed LB 243 in 2019. The legislation created a 17-member Healthy Soils Task Force (HSTF) task with developing a Nebraska Healthy Soils Initiative. The Healthy Soils Task Force concluded that healthier soils produced through best soil management practices improve yield stability, produce greater financial returns over time, reduce the need for chemical inputs, increase water infiltration rates and water storage capacity making soil more resilient to drought, flooding, and erosion, and protect and improve water quality.”
“In May of 2023 a group of committed individuals decided to establish an independent, non-profit Soil Health Coalition in Nebraska. The purpose of the Coalition is to advance producer-centered education, outreach, and adoption of soil health principles to build resilient farms, ranches, and communities across Nebraska.”
What I appreciate is the three-pronged, four metric approach that is different than what has been built in other states. The three prongs include: producer learning communities, demonstration/education sites, stakeholder visioning groups. The fourth metric includes Outcomes (soil health benchmarks, improved economics, community growth, success stories).
The other difference is the building of “Hubs” that include producers and stakeholders (medical, financial, consulting, community, etc.) in the surrounding communities of around a 9-county area. Hub 1 began in the Hastings and surrounding area with Hub 2 rolling out now in Southwest NE.
The producers participated in economic interviews with the Soil Health Institute (SHI) and socio-behavior interviews with Dr. Julie Snorek. Why is this important? SHI seeks to quantify economics of conventional vs. regenerative ag practices. By interviewing producers in a similar region, the economics and practices of that region can better be quantified and relevant to those producers.
What was learned? 20 farmers who had adopted soil health management strategies for at least 5 years (cover crops, reduced tillage, Sentinel Ag, etc.) were interviewed. For irrigated corn/soybean, it was found that overall, producers were able to reduce expenses by adopting soil health practices by a total of $147.19/ac for corn and $88.27 for soybeans. Added value from revenue such as grazing provided a total value of soil health practices of $152.94/ac for corn and $89.73/ac for soybean. Non-irrigated corn soybean saw a total value of $197.80 for corn and $102.12 for soybean for adopting soil health management practices. The full fact-sheet can be found here and is worth a read!
On the socio-behavioral side, the producers shared about isolation in adopting practices different than their neighbors, the importance of producer learning communities/peer networks to be vulnerable in sharing successes and failures, independence they felt in reducing the need to pay entities for inputs, farming being more fun/interesting in trying different practices, and also the need for alternative markets. The joy for me in attending the Celebration Event last week was seeing a glimmer of the hard work and dedication of the Board realized with producers and stakeholders presenting outcomes and the ability to have economics around these topics that are meaningful to Nebraska producers. Our hope is that more producers who are watching on the fringes will join us in adopting soil health practices in the future! More info. at: https://www.nesoilhealth.org/.
Water use till maturity for Corn: Beginning Dent 5”, ¼ milk 3.75”; ½ milk 2.25”; ¾ milk 1”.
Water use till maturity for Beans: Beg. Seed 6.5”; Full Seed 3.5”; Leaves beg yellow 1.9”.
Register now to reserve your seat: https://cvent.me/WMzLdk.
Cloudy Days and Corn Tip-Back
Received a number of questions about tip-back in corn and also how the cloudy/smoky days could impact yields. First wanted to mention the difference between pollination concerns vs. tip-back concerns.
Pollination concerns are when the green silk remains attached to the ovule that should have formed a kernel if it had pollinated. Gently husking back an ear and shaking it will reveal where pollination occurred on the ear where the brown silks detach. Green silks remain attached where pollination did not occur. Tip back is when the ovule pollinated but the kernel later aborted (looks shrunken/shriveled) due to some reason, often some type of stress.
This week’s UNL CropWatch shared yield potential for different places in the Midwest using weather modeling and comparing it to a 30-year average. The data clearly shows low solar radiation (which includes photosynthetically active radiation (PAR)), meaning photosynthesis is reduced. In spite of that, the article is suggesting for non-irrigated corn, nearly 100% of above-average yields for the Beatrice area, and nearly 75% chance of above-average yields near the Clay Center and Mead areas. For irrigated corn, it’s estimating 50% near-average yields for Clay Center, 75% near-average yields for Beatrice, and 50% above-average yields for Mead. These estimations are just based on weather and don’t account for stand losses, disease, insects, etc. The full article is at: https://go.unl.edu/tkz6.
Dr. Roger Elmore and Dr. Tom Hoegemeyer wrote a CropWatch article several years ago about the impacts of cloudy days on different stages of corn development. The full article can be found at: https://go.unl.edu/sv06 and the following are excerpts from it.
“Early et al., 1967,…shaded plants around the “reproductive phase” for 21 days as well as during the “vegetative stage” for 54 days and the “maturation phases” for 63 days. Shading during reproductive stages reduced plant yields the most, but 30% shading during the maturation stages ― what we consider the seed set and grain-fill periods (R2-R6) ― not only reduced yield per plant 25% to 30% but also reduced kernels per plant and the amount of protein per plant.
Researchers in a new study shaded plants from silking to maturity (R1-R6) (Yang et al., 2019). They also found reductions in yield and biomass with more shading resulting in more losses. Shading reduced yields more with higher plant populations than with lower populations.”
If you’re seeing tip-back concerns, it could be due to the consecutive days of cloudy skies reducing photosynthesis. But it’s also important to understand the hybrids in your fields. Hybrids are very specific in how they handle stress such as heat, drought, and cloudy weather during and shortly after pollination. Some hybrids have long ears, and in counting kernels, 30-40 kernels per row with a 1-2” tip-back may be “normal”, especially if there are a larger number of rows around for a decent total kernel number per ear. Plant populations also can play a roll in tip-back. So, not all tip-back is a concern. Knowing the hybrid and counting total kernels per ear can tell a bigger story. We will have to wait and see how the remainder of the grain fill season progresses to better understand any potential yield impacts from the cloudy days.
August 2025 Events
Thank you to all who helped make the 2025 York County Fair a success! I didn’t get out to the fields this past week so sharing reminders on some upcoming field days.
Aug. 5 Grazing Cover Crops Field Day of area farmer Alex Daake will be held from 4-6 p.m. at 4136 Superior Rd. near Utica, NE. Alex split a pivot into 4 quarters where he rotates corn, soybeans, rye for seed, and grazed cover crops. The focus will be primarily on what he’s doing for grazing covers and the economics of this system where pasture is limited for cattle production. Alex also has an on-farm research nitrogen study on the corn portion of this pivot where he’s looking at reducing nitrogen inputs due to the grazed cover crops. He’s monitoring the nitrogen strips with Sentinel Fertigation. If you’re interested, you’re welcome to RSVP to jrees2@unl.edu. Walk-ins are also welcome and cookies/water will be provided by Nebraska On-Farm Research.
Aug. 7 South Central Ag Lab Field Day will be held 8:45 a.m.-3:10 p.m. (Registration at 8:30 a.m.) Attendees can tailor their schedule by selecting from various presentations and interactive demonstrations (Irrigation, Diseases, Insects, Weeds (including robotic weeders), Nutrients). There is no charge and CCA credits will be provided. Please RSVP at: go.unl.edu/scalfieldday.
Dan Snow is the keynote speaker and will discuss nitrate challenges in groundwater. This talk will cover findings from a study with the Upper Big Blue NRD and UNL focusing on nitrate and agrichemical levels in the vadose zone across 12 water quality management zones. Lunch talks also feature a farmer panel discussion, providing an opportunity for attendees to engage and interact at the local level.
The SCAL Research Farm is located at 851 Hwy. 6 near Harvard, NE. Directions: 13 miles east of Hastings on Hwy. 6 or 4.5 miles west of the intersection of Hwy. 14 and Hwy. 6 north of Clay Center. Field day GPS coordinates: 40.575256, -98.137824. More info please call (402)762-3536.
Soybean Management Field Days will be held Aug. 12-15. Topics will vary by location and the first three days are twilight tours from 6-8 p.m. There is no charge but registration is requested two days in advance at: https://enreec.unl.edu/soydays/.
- Tuesday, Aug. 12 – Ravenna, NE. Lonnie and Scott Bohn farm 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. (5:30 p.m. – Registration)
- Wednesday, Aug. 13 – Concord, NE. UNL Haskell Ag Lab 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. (5:30 p.m. – Registration)
- Thursday, August 14 – Weeping Water, NE, Rick Meyer farm 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. (5:30 p.m. – Registration)
- Friday, August 15 – Mead, NE, UNL Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension & Education Center – (10:00 a.m. – Registration)
Aug. 25 Regenerative Ag Field Day will feature area farmer Jordan Uldrich. The field day will be from 10 a.m.-Noon, ½ mile east of 1606 County Road J, Geneva, NE. Lunch will be provided following the field day. Jordan has interseeded cover crops into his corn to aid with soil health and weed management. He will also discuss the economics of alternative farming practices. For more information, please call Andrew at 402-590-7096.
JenResources 