Week of May 26, 2025 Local, professional reports straight from the field,
from all regions serviced by Ag Partners.

Meet this week’s featured agronomists:

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WEST

Belle Plaine – Le Center – Le Sueur – Morristown – Traverse

June is approaching quickly, just like the crops. Most corn and soybean fields have emerged and with rising temperatures, both the crops and weeds are growing rapidly. Fields treated with a pre-emerge herbicide are staying clean, but those that missed that application are beginning to green up with weed pressure.

As post-emerge herbicide applications begin, it’s crucial to include a residual herbicide in the tank mix. Remember, the easiest weed to control is the one that never emerges.

For corn, we recommend a couple of effective herbicide options:

• Acuron® GT combines four modes of action: glyphosate, S-metolachlor, bicyclopyrone, and mesotrione.
• Resicore® is another herbicide which offers three modes of action: acetochlor, mesotrione, and clopyralid.

Acuron GT and Resicore deliver effective post-emergent weed control along with residual protection against weeds that have yet to emerge.  – Courtney

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EAST

Goodhue – Kenyon – Lake City – Pine Island – Wanamingo

Spring planting is now coming to a close, while spraying and side dressing are ramping up. Most all corn in our area is out of the ground with soybeans not far behind. We’ve had some welcoming showers early to mid-week here that are keeping the ground from forming a crust, so the last of our soybeans can pop up. Overall corn and soybean emergence is looking awesome!

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SOUTH

Elgin – Lewiston – Stewartville

This past week has welcomed some much-needed rain.  One that allowed for most of the moisture to soak in. Although cool and cloudy lately, the crops do look like they are off to a great start. With some of the corn locally staging from V2-V4, the next phase is to start side dressing nitrogen for the corn crop. One of the tools we use to measure how much nitrogen is in the soil profile, is to grid nitrate soil sample. We pull 12” soil cores at a 4.4 acre grid to tell us what levels are available. Below is an example of nitrate grid sample results. Each number displayed is the amount of nitrate nitrogen ppm. Depending on yield potential, these numbers should be 25ppm-35ppm to have enough to finish the crop. This map also shows the variability within the field, which helps to tailor nitrogen applications to match the crop’s needs.  This not only improves yield potential but will also improve input efficiency.  – Kenny

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WISCONSIN

Ellsworth

Why does my corn look so yellow? 

A common question asked by growers in Wisconsin lately. Some areas accumulated nearly 4 inches of that cool rain last week. Saturated soils, cloudy weather, and lack of heat units have certainly slowed the corn from progressing through its growth stages. Overall corn stands look good, but anything planted close to the rain last week seems to be a little tough and is struggling to emerge evenly. The weather finally looks like we will get some much-needed heat and sunlight later this week, which will help with the yellow color. Once the corn gets transitioning to the roots soon, things will really start to come together and look great!

Stick to the chemical plan! On the positive side of getting some moisture, the pre emerge herbicides are activated and off to the races. Some growers had questioned if they should apply that pre application when the forecast appeared to be very dry a few weeks ago. The acres that did not see any residual application are obvious now. More times than not, you will not regret spraying the pre application.  Now it is time to get those proper post modes of action applied to the corn acres and hopefully watch the soybean acres continue to stay clean with that great soybean pre program! As always, make sure to have that Group 4 herbicide part of your tank mixes to take down those emerged broadleaves in your fields.  Contact your Ag Partners Agronomist with any questions and chemical recommendations!  – Jake