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 1^st. 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.