No rain again this week... Time is running out for a rain to save our corn crop. In addition to the dry soils we also have Japanese and Corn Rootworm Beetles clipping ear silks off in a couple fields. If you allow the population of beetles to become too severe, they can clip silks back to the point where the they will not be long enough to intercept the grains of pollen falling down from the tassel; thus having an ear of corn that is not pollinated which yields zero. Once we scouted our fields and inspected our beetle pressure, we decided to call in the plane to spray them with insecticide. Within five hours of our phone call, the plane arrived. The product mix we are using contains two modes of actions; one for immediate "knock-down" and another for residual which should last us 14-21 days depending on how hot temperatures get. We did not have the beetle pressure in many acres, but rather in our first two fields that we planted. Beetles tend to congregate in the earliest planted fields in the area. We will continue to stay vigilant and watch for more beetles in later planted fields.
Besides scouting corn this week we also hauled more corn from the bins and began mowing our roadsides in preparation for the Ashland Community Days and the 4th of July Holiday.
SEND RAIN...!!!
Loading the semi from one of our grain bins
Japanese Beetles clipping corn silks
Spraying insecticide with the plane to kill the beetles
No comments:
Post a Comment