A year ago, at this time we were wondering if the crop would ever get planted.  This spring we wondered if we would ever get a break.  It’s amazing how much one year can be different from the next.  This is why selecting product solely based off its previous year’s performance is somewhat in accurate.   No two years are the same.  Here at AXIS Seed we like to take the opportunity in July and August to create a cropping plan and place product throughout the year that meet your performance expectations as well as the product management capabilities of your operation.

The 2018 planting season in northern Illinois was one for the record books.  When talking with growers the common thread is “I can’t believe how much got planted in 10 days and perfect conditions”.

We started on April 19^th  in northern Illinois with a quarter inch of ice and an inch and half of snow fall.  By Sunday tractors were rolling and by Tuesday everyone was running.  Our soil conditions were magnificent across the 10 days.  Following the 10-day window we received a hard rain that resulted in crusting on the fields with a little heavier clay content.  However, a few days later we received an additional rain fall which helped the crusting and made it a non-issue for much of the area.

Early Season Scouting a few quick topics.   

1. Black cutworm has been on the move in some counties in Illinois such as Madison, Champaign, and Lee. Something to keep in mind as we are doing our early season scouting.  (Note:  just because your county was not listed as significant flights does not mean you will not experience yield hindering black cutworm activity.)
2. True Armyworm counts remain low across the state for the second week in a row.
3. Alfalfa weevil still needs to be scouted for even though we have not experienced up to this point.
4. Corn Earworm we should start scouting for in the next couple of weeks.

Read the full article at http://bulletin.ipm.illinois.edu/?p=4145.