Harvest Time!         

                                                                    New! Performances of Insecticides: | Yield | Aphids |

We think that we will be able to harvest our soybeans by the second week
of October.  Most of them were planted late because of too much moisture
in May.  R8 (full maturity) is where our soybeans are both here in Brookings
and Beresford.  There are still a few yellow leaves here and there.

I'm pretty pleased with the aphid infestations in our plots.  All seed treatments and
sprays will be tested this season.  When we sprayed our plots at R2-R3, the aphid
numbers were less than 10 soybean aphids per plant with about 10% of the plants
infested.  And, we knew how to count - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 - just like anyone with
a Ph.D. degree does except gophers.

At R5 (August 22), the numbers in the untreated plots were 160 per leaf.  And on
the average, there were 60 leaves per plant in the variety that we planted.  That
translates into 9,613 aphids per plant in the untreated plots, not even counting the
aphids on the pods and stems.

We have over 500 plots in our soybean aphid research sites between Brookings
and Beresford.  I need volunteers in counting the (now frozen) aphids!

Over in our Bt corn plots, Ph.D. student Jon Kieckhefer tells me that there are
plenty of sap beetles and corn leaf aphids on the corn ears in Beresford.  And,
surprisingly high levels of univoltine corn borer infestation in South Shore.


                                               It . . . was . . . a . . . very . . . good . . . year. . . .
                               

                                                



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 Web Posted on Friday, September 23, 2005 by Mike Catangui. Last Updated on Thursday, January 26, 2006.