1. Field Observations

Last week's report never came, so this week's report is early.

Similar to two weeks ago, Madison and Chenango counties remain "abnormally dry", along with eastern Schoharie and Saratoga Counties:

2. Growing Degree Days as of Aug 15th: See: Climate Smart Farming Growing Degree Day Calculator

Growing degree days (GDD) are calculated by taking the average daily temperature and subtracting the base temperature for development of a given organism ((High + Low)/2 - base temp = GDD). For corn silage, we are using base 50/86, as corn development starts at 50 degrees F and ceases above 86. Check your location and planting date.

Silage corn needs 750-800 GDD (depending on hybrid maturity) after silking to reach a whole plant DM of 32%. Under typical late season dry down conditions we can expect the crop to reach 35% DM four to seven days later (Remember that we can expect to accumulate 20-25 GDD per day, or even up to 30, so this is not a large window). For more details, see: Record Silking/Tasseling Dates for Corn Fields

But no matter what the numbers say, always check your crop to see how close you may be to harvest:

3. Pest and disease monitoring

Crop foliage continues to be largely clean in terms of insect pests and diseases. I'm seeing some feeding damage by Japanese beetles and grasshoppers, but nothing major.

A. Western bean cutworm (WBC), true armyworm (TAW) and fall armyworm (FAW):

For the second straight week, numbers of these three moths have dropped in my traps, so this will be the last week for reporting numbers:

B. Potato leafhopper in alfalfa. Many fields have either just been cut or are nearing harvest:

*No action needed within a week of harvest.