Happy 250^th Birthday America!!! Grateful for the wisdom and vision of our forefathers. We are truly blessed! May we reflect on our blessings and remember that freedom isn’t free!

With tasseling beginning or nearing for most fields in the area, sharing a few reminders of questions I typically receive. Some of you saw uneven corn emergence, thus plant stages vary in some fields. Pay attention to fungicides/insecticide pesticide labels regarding adjuvants/surfactants that can be used and their timing to avoid any potential crop injury. Not all plants in a field may be at tassel, thus waiting till brown silk/milk if no disease/insects are present can help the later plants be at tassel while also potentially reducing the chances of needing another fungicide app.

Fertigating during pollination: I’m sharing this based on what we knew from previous corn genetics, but I’m unsure if pollen shed from weaker tassels in some of today’s hybrids may be impacted by any products applied during pollination. With that note, we have said fertigation during pollination is ok and generally should be still. Dr. Tom Hoegemeyer had shared that pollination mostly occurs between 8:30 a.m. and noon. Heat kills pollen when the temperature is 90°F to 95°F and is seldom viable past 2 p.m. That leaves lots of time to run pivots, apply N, etc. when it won’t harm pollination. The UNL recommendation for fertigation is to use 30 lb of N with 0.25″ of water or 50-60 lb of N with 0.50″ of water. With a high capacity pump, you can apply up to 60 lb of N in 0.25” of water.

Western Bean Cutworm: It’s been time to be scouting corn for western bean cutworms. When scouting, we typically find western bean cutworm egg masses on upper leaf surfaces of corn leaves with masses containing 50-85 eggs. Normally we’re taught to look at the upper portion of the plants closer to the tassels, but with silks emerging prior to tassels most of the time, I tend to also find masses on leaves around the ear leaf and sometimes directly on the husks (especially during periods of high heat). Egg masses are white and raised when newly hatched; they turn a purplish color when they’re getting closer to hatching. Links to light trap data are below:

• West Central Research and Extension Center, North Platte
• South Central Agricultural Lab, Clay Center
• Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center, Mead

Japanese Beetles in crop fields: Adults emerge from grassy areas (lawns, pastures, road-side ditches for at least 4-6 weeks (up to 10). Even if you treat, they can come back. Threshold is 30% defoliation on vegetative corn. Upon silking, the threshold is 3 or more beetles/ear with silks clipped to less than ½ inch and pollination is less than 50% complete. Soybean threshold is 20% defoliation at reproductive stages; sometimes defoliation looks bad but regrows quickly even when not using an insecticide. Usually the beetles congregate in borders first or areas in the field and not whole fields. Some consider a border app.  Spidermites can also be flared upon insecticide applications.

Annual Forage Insurance is a precipitation risk management tool available for annual forages planted on cropland with intended use as livestock feed or fodder. With so many impacted by drought, wildfires, and now hail, wanted to share on this opportunity. The insurance is available in all counties of Nebraska. It is a rainfall index product much like the popular Pasture, Rangeland, Forage (PRF) insurance. The sign-up period for annual forages planted from August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027 is currently open until July 15, 2026. A recent webinar discussing this opportunity can be found here: https://cap.unl.edu/annual-forage-insurance-webinar-2026/.