Richard Taylor, Extension Agronomist; rtaylor@udel.edu
In last week’s issue, I wrote about Dr. Bob Nielsen’s Wednesday evening program on corn growth and development with emphasis on diagnosing corn problems. This week I want to cover the program we’ve put together for growers for Agronomy/Soybean Day on Thursday, January 16, 2014.
The morning program will start at 9 am with Dr. Mark VanGessel discussing corn and soybean weed control options for 2014. Mark will be followed by Dr. Doug Beegle from The Pennsylvania State University who will cover the importance of sulfur, lime, and soil pH in crop production. Dr. Beegle supplied the following short abstract for what will be covered in his talk. “Supplying adequate sulfur and maintaining a proper pH are both critical to successful crop production. While these two important management considerations are really independent, there are connections between them. For example, some sulfur materials, like ammonium sulfate, are acidifying and while gypsum is a good source of sulfur and calcium it is not a liming material. The management of sulfur and soil pH and how they might be linked will be discussed.”
Following Dr. Beegle, Dr. Bob Nielsen from Purdue University will speak on ‘Reading Corn Ears’. Dr. Nielsen will show and discuss many of the problems we see on the ears of corn with particular emphasis on some of the problems that have been seen this year. After Dr. Nielsen, the morning program will be closed out by Dr. Nathan Kleczewski, the new Extension Plant Pathologist at University of Delaware. Dr. Kleczewski will talk about scab control in small grains and be relating the latest available information on this topic. We’ll break for lunch following Dr. Kleczewski’s presentation.
After lunch, we’ll have the usual Delaware Soybean Board update and then the presentation of the Environmental Stewardship Awards. Following that, Ms. Joanne Whalen will give everyone an update on field crop insect management. Then, Dr. Jim Glancey will discuss the latest information on new poultry manure calculation revisions and how they may impact the Chesapeake Bay Model update. Finally, Mr. Dave Mayonado of Monsanto will talk about the interaction of dicamba resistant soybeans and herbicide resistant weeds and what this may mean for control of some of these resistant weeds.
I hope you agree that we have an exciting, quality, jam-packed program for the Agronomy/Soybean Day this coming January and will mark your calendars so you can attend. See you there!