Late-Season Field Evaluations

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• Late-season field evaluations can help explain some of the yield differences experienced at harvest time.
• Evaluating the efficacy of your herbicide and pest management programs can provide information on what worked and what can be changed to achieve effective control of problematic weeds, diseases, and insects.

Now is a good time to go out and assess corn and soybean fields prior to making input decisions for crop year 2025. Observations taken at this time are valuable as they may help explain some of the yield differences that are observed at harvest. If the time is not taken to check fields, yield differences may be unexplainable. A few in-season notes recorded about these areas taken as the crop finishes but is still green will help you customize your programs and determine which issues show up consistently year after year and create a plan to protect yields from these recurrent issues. 

As spray season wraps up, it is important to make time to evaluate your overall herbicide, insect and disease management programs that were deployed this season. What worked well? What could you have done differently to improve your weed control? What changes do you plan to make for your weed control program next year? These questions may address traits, products, application rates and timing, or a combination of all. 

Regarding insects, monitoring root feeding damage and rootworm beetle activity can help make management decisions for the following season. Did the Bt trait package perform well in these moderate to heavy rootworm scenarios? Should you consider rotation to soybeans or alfalfa, using a different trait package, or switching to at-plant insecticides? How about ear damage? Are you seeing insect feeding on more ears than is typical but used a hybrid that should have controlled these issues? If so, it could be that you may be experiencing insensitivity of a particular insect pest to a Bt trait. This has happened in regions with ear worms and western bean cutworm, and there is no reason to assume these issues could not occur elsewhere.  

If planting into areas that showed signs of seedling diseases this year, selection of a more resistant soybean variety and pairing this with a labeled seed treatment may help reduce issues the next time soybeans are planted into these fields. Remember, rotation to a non-host crop is always a viable option also. 

In areas that experienced Phytophthora issues, evaluating seed treatment packages and varietal resistance can help us come up with a game plan to better fend off Phytophthora infection next season and protect the soybean crop. 

Foliar diseases this season were relatively low in most areas this season. In areas where disease development occurred, residue borne foliar fungal diseases of corn, such as grey leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight, or tar spot may have developed on the ear leaf and above before R5 and possibly chipped away at some yield. Noting which hybrids and practices worked best for you can help you select hybrids that could reduce these issues for you the next time you plant corn in these fields.   

Perhaps your soybean fields look fine, but the yield potential isn’t where you expect.  Have you assessed your soils for soybean cyst nematodes recently? It may be time to look at the pressure imposed by this pathogen and consider management options. Are you willing to rotate to corn next season? Can you select a variety that has a different source of SCN resistance?  

All of these items help you improve your chances of having a profitable season. A little note taking now can pay big dividends for you in the future! Your local FS crop specialist can help you decide the best management products and programs for your fields and can provide you with a list of options that fit your individual needs.