Crop/Weather report for week of August 22

Weather- For the most part, weather continues to be ideal. We have enough dry, warm days to allow for crops to get harvested but still counter that with sporadic rain showers that continue to help our later maturing crops along.

Harvest- A vast majority of the durum, spring and winter wheat, and barley has been harvested. Yield reports for these crops continues to remain very good but protein readings are down somewhat. Most of the second cutting alfalfa is completed and tonnage remains very good.

Other crops- Sugarbeets in the irrigated valley continue to look very good. The outlook for sugar beet harvest is very positive. Both irrigated and dryland corn are doing well also. I have not seen any corn taken off for silage as of yet but it would not surprise me if there was some that has been cut.

Pests- I have noticed fields where there have been some weed escapes. Although not a major weed problem, there are quite a few sugarbeet fields with volunteer corn plants scattered throughout. A great article on scouting for glyphosate resistant weeds and for roguing out weeds in sugarbeets can be found here.

I have now been collectiong army, pale western, and dingy cutworm moths as part of a monitoring program for MSU since the beginning of August. The site that I have placed the pheromone traps is a dryland site just north and west of Sidney. I have collected moths for two weeks now and, have yet to catch any army cutworm moths. I have caught a few pale western cutworm moths, but not enough to cause much concern.

My biggest catches to date have been dingy cutworm moths. The first week I caught 13 of them and this week there were another 25 in the trap. So what does this mean? For this year's crop it does not mean much of anything. These numbers should be used as a guide and a notice that when planting next year, some consideration should be given to scouting for dingy cutworm larva.

Crop/Weather report for week of August 8

Harvest- For our small grains and some of our pulse crops, harvest has started and continues to gain momentum. I have heard a few very good reports from coffee shop talks regarding the barley harvest and even some good numbers on some dryland durum acres. I hesitate to include numbers because it is all word of mouth but I think we will see some very good yields, test weights and hopefully protein numbers when it is all said and done.

Forages-Second cutting alfalfa is really looking good and some of our grass hay acreage will start to be cut and baled as well. Producers are very optimistic that they will have ample amounts of hay to get them through the winter months.

Irrigated Crops- Sugar beet producers and processors continue to predict a very good sugar beet harvest this year. Our irrigated corn fields are beginning to tassel and I am optimistic about silage tonnage and grain yield in these fields as well.

Weather- We continue to get timely rains and good crop-growing/harvesting/and hay cutting weather. Subsurface soil moisture is not be an issue at this time as some of our later maturing crops continue to grow.