September is National Preparedness Month - Are you Ready Ag?

Fire, flood, feed contamination, foot-and-mouth disease. Farm and ranch disasters can come without warning. Is your crop, livestock or poultry operation secure? Is it biosecure?

A team of Extension professionals from across the US came together to develop an educational tool to assist farm and ranch managers become better prepared for any disaster The tool is called ReadyAG—Disaster and Defense Preparedness for Production Agriculture.

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug in Field Corn

We are beginning to get reports of brown marmorated stink bugs in field corn in South Jersey. So far populations have mainly been confined to field edges near wooded areas. Counts have been as high as 3 to 5 per plant. I have heard of some fields with significantly higher counts. Populations in the interior of the fields were light. I have seen some isolated kernel damage. Stink bugs have not yet been encountered on adjacent soybean fields. Though we would expect to see movement into soybean fields eventually.  In Maryland, there are currently evaluations of edge treatments to see how effective they are when kernel damage is occurring. As we have mentioned before we are still in the learning curve in trying to deal with this relatively new pest.

Bill Bamka

Be on the look out for Palmer Amaranth

I received a phone call from Mark Van Gessel, the Extension Weed Specialist from the University of Delaware (who also serves as our RCE Field Crops Weed Specialist). He was letting me know that they have found several fields in Delaware with Palmer Amaranth in them, and that we should be on the look out for it in New Jersey. At this point we do not have any Palmer Amaranth present in New Jersey that we are aware of.  According to Mark, "It looks a lot like our “typical” pigweeds, but it has no hairs on the stem, often a white watermark on the leaves, long petioles, and long slender seedheads." The concern is that this species is very aggressive, and is referred to as "pigweed on steriods".  It has the ability to be resistant to many different herbicides. It is proving to be a headache to cotton producers across the south. The populations found in Delaware are not herbicide resistant at this point. Dr. Van Gessel notes it is important that we identify it early and aggressively start to manage it before it becomes a problem. The University of Georgia has a fact sheet on the biology of Palmer Amaranth . Kansas State University has a guide to help in identification of Palmer Amaranth .

Bill Bamka

Orchardgrass leaf streak disease

I was out looking at an orchardgrass field yesterday that was infected with the disease "leaf streak", also called brown stripe. This is becoming more of a problem in the mid-Atlantic. Agronomists across the region have been noticing vigor and persistence problems with orchardgrass. Orchardgrass stands which would typically last for 6-8 years are lasting for 3 years or less. Regrowth has been slow, pests and diseases are damaging stands, and stands have been performing poorly for unexplained reasons. I know this is not news to many of our growers. To try to determine what is happening the Mid-Atlantic Orchardgrass task force was established in 2008. Unfortunately, we don't have many control options for forage diseases. It is recommended to maintain proper fertility, suppress weeds, and two rotate to a non-grass crop for two years prior to establishing orchardgrass. The orchardgrass task force has begun conducting variety evaluations for disease and control studies. Hopefully we will have more answers in the future to address the problems in orchardgrass. For more information and disease pictures visit the the overview of the Mid-Atlantic Orchardgrass Task Force. 

Bill Bamka

Spider mites in soybeans

Starting to see some soybean fields with spider mites. Given the current hot, dry weather it would be a good idea to scout fields for spider mites. Scouting information and treatment thresholds can be found in the Mid Atlantic Pest Management Guide for Field Crops 

Bill Bamka