Most growers and agronomists are familiar with gray leaf spot, but another less known leaf fungal pathogen that I am starting to see in Dodge County is called Northern corn leaf blight (NCLB) caused by Exserohilum turcicum. Right now, the the incidence of NCLB is low and the severity is low to moderate, suggesting previous […] Continue reading → 
This is Nathan Mueller, UNL Extension Educator for Cropping Systems, in Fremont, NE. Each Monday, I conduct a Dodge County Crop Condition Tour that I write up on my blog at croptechcafe.com posted with plenty of pictures. Agronomic issues growers may be seeing this week include potato leaf hopper in alfalfa and corn leaf diseases. […] Continue reading → 
USDA-NASS general crop conditions categories are defined as followed: Very Poor – Extreme loss of yield potential; complete or near complete crop failure. Poor – Heavy loss of yield potential due to excessive soil moisture, drought, disease, etc. Fair – Less than normal crop conditions. Yield loss is a possibility, but is not severe. […] Continue reading → 
2014 EQIP Storm Damage Cover Crop Initiative Action Required by: August 15, 2014 Purpose. To announce a targeted initiative to address the loss of residue cover on cropland fields caused by storm damage during the 2014 cropping season Expiration Date. September 30, 2014 Producers that have experienced crop and residue loss in the 2014 growing […] Continue reading → 
In this report, I will use the definitions used by USDA-NASS for crop conditions: General crop conditions. The county’s entire crop should be assigned a percentage by category, with the total of the categories equal to 100 percent. Categories are defined as follows: Very Poor – Extreme loss of yield potential; complete or near complete […] Continue reading → 
Platte River Valley (Fremont, Ames, North Bend) Corn and soybeans on well-drained fields in the Platte River valley are in fair to good condition. Some corn fields will have visible tassels by next week (Figure 2). Soybeans that were planted early are about 1.5 ft tall and blooming (Figure 3). However, waterlogged conditions have negatively […] Continue reading → This is Nathan Mueller, UNL Extension Educator for Cropping Systems and Agricultural Technologies, in Fremont, NE. Diseases and insects growers may be seeing with week include bacterial blight in soybeans, leaf spot in alfalfa, and southern corn rootworm beetles. Should we be concerned and if so, what can we do? Bacterial blight in soybeans are […] Continue reading →