ILSoyAdvisor Blog

It’s gettin’ busy in the Midwest.

When it comes to harvest, no one knows your land and crops better than you. But don’t forget to dig into your data. On average, U.S. corn and soybean farms generate more than 2,500 data records during a typical 10-month growing season. The data captured this season, and years past, can take you well beyond last year’s...

As harvest nears full swing in the Midwest and farmers are watching the yield data flow in on their monitors, there is little guidance on how to ensure that all the hard work of the season is recording properly in the cab. Yield monitors are an important tool for gaining knowledge about an operation and can connect the dots when managing hybrids and fertility based on soil variability. The biggest area of confusion with setting up yield...

As I drove around Southern IL this summer, I noticed a lot of fields that have areas in them that were showing the symptomology of Soybean Cyst Nematode (SCN). Often these spots are stunted, yellow and just generally not in good health. Now, there are a lot of reasons for soybeans to show this symptomology, and very likely not every one of these spots were SCN, but SCN counts have been on the rise over the last few years and now is a great...

As the growing season progresses and we near harvest, Illinois soybean growers often see increased disease symptomology in their fields. They may wonder what can be done to combat diseases once symptoms appear, but with some pathogens the infection occurs many weeks prior to the onset of visible signs of disease. Once the infection is apparent, it is often too late for effective control. The best-known illustration of this is Sudden Death...