Watch ’em grow

We were blessed by a pretty normal week with all crops growing well in most areas. Some replanting was necessary, particularly in some southern Iowa fields where the crop had emerged or was just emerging when the freezes came about two weeks ago. Also, a few places suffered from seedling blights that took stands down. Damping off is caused by soil-borne fungi and is favored by cool, wet conditions. Seeds that have taken up water but cannot grow for a few days because of low temperatures, are particularly at risk. Warm soils as we enter June will help new plantings avoid some of the seedling blight problems

Good growin’ weather

The week of June 5 through June 12 finally was slightly above long-term average temperatures, and in all but northwest and north central Iowa we have essentially made up the growing degree deficit since May 1. Crops now are also growing well, with weeds the most critical issue facing farmers in most places

Not too bad, not too bad

July 4 came and went, and a few Iowa corn fields are now at VT, with tassels just emerging. Soybeans are also progressing well, and many fields are now reproductive (R1–R2). Although there are a few minor disease and insect issues around, including bacterial blight and brown spot on soybean and soybean aphids and corn rootworm beetle adult emergence, so far none of these has become a major problem

June is bustin’ out all over

Another week with near-normal temperatures coupled with adequate soil moisture in most areas has crop and pest growth coming on strong. Most of the corn and soybeans has at least emerged, with corn to stage V6 and a few soybeans to stage V3. Expect rapid growth as temperatures are projected to be well above normal for the coming week. Light rains the past week relieved some emergence problems due to soil crusting. Weeds are growing rapidly as well, and postemergence herbicides and cultivation are prime activities as the weather allows

OK, some rain would be nice

The week of July 4 generated normal temperatures, with little or no rain in the state. Although corn and soybeans are in good condition and growing well across Iowa, some parts of southeast Iowa are suffering from moisture deficits, most notably damaging pasture and forage growth

Is it the bark, or is it the bite?

The dog days of summer are here, and Iowa crops cover the gamut, ranging from excellent and happily barking, to awful. Farmers in southeast and east-central Iowa have been bitten, with seasonal moisture running more than 3 inches behind normal (see map below). We are at a point where degree days are not as important for crop development as total plant stress

ISU Pest Management Monitoring Programs in Iowa: Where and How to Get This Information for 2006

Three key issues need to be addressed for farmers and agronomists to develop economically successful management of pests in the upper Midwest. These include knowledge of the local presence of populations of the pest, the factors that affect pest infestations in the crop of interest, and the timing of both the crop\u27s and related pest\u27s developmental stages. For some insect pests, pheromone traps are useful in monitoring their arrival or emergence and from these; emergence patterns can be followed to focus scouting of fields. For plant diseases and some weeds, seasonal accumulated degree-day data can provide information useful in developing management plant

Pesticide Use and Water Quality

Understanding use rates and use patterns of pesticides is valuable to the agricultural industry for manufacturers, registrants, regulatory agencies, environmental interests and pesticide end-users. There are several sources of data, including surveys of pesticide users, monitoring of pesticide detections in the environment, and indirect measures including tracking pesticide sales. The Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987 directed the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) to collect pesticide sales data from pesticide dealers. The dollar sales data, which is confidential business information, is being used to calculate approximate pounds of active ingredients for pesticides which might impact surface or ground water quality. The calculated pounds data for selected pesticides is then provided to the water quality researchers at the Iowa Geological Survey (IGS) of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and at Iowa State University Extension. The dataset presented here using two methods, one by ISU Extension and the other by the Geologic Survey Bureau, was gathered by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship Pesticide Bureau and was compiled with assistance from the Iowa Geologic Survey Bureau of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. These use rate patterns are helpful in crafting management plans to reduce or avoid environmental contamination from specific pesticides

Using GIS Technology for Iowa Pesticide Distribution and Transport Modeling

The patterns of pesticide occurrence in surface and ground waters are linked to agricultural practices and the product\u27s susceptibility to leaching and runoff. Pesticide use information has historically been catalogued in relation to points of sale from agrichemical dealerships. In an effort to provide a wide audience with an understanding of these occurrences and patterns, an atlas was developed during 2006 that provided a web-based front end to the data. The atlas links pesticide calculations of pounds of active ingredients sold with geographic information and water monitoring data using Geographic Information System (GIS) software

Clinical Criteria for Physician Aid in Dying

More than 20 years ago, even before voters in Oregon had enacted the first aid in dying (AID) statute in the United States, Timothy Quill and colleagues proposed clinical criteria AID. Their proposal was carefully considered and temperate, but there were little data on the practice of AID at the time. (With AID, a physician writes a prescription for life-ending medication for a terminally ill, mentally capacitated adult.) With the passage of time, a substantial body of data on AID has developed from the states of Oregon and Washington. For more than 17 years, physicians in Oregon have been authorized to provide a prescription for AID. Accordingly, we have updated the clinical criteria of Quill, et al., based on the many years of experience with AID. With more jurisdictions authorizing AID, it is critical that physicians can turn to reliable clinical criteria. As with any medical practice, AID must be provided in a safe and effective manner. Physicians need to know (1) how to respond to a patient's inquiry about AID, (2) how to assess patient decision making capacity, and (3) how to address a range of other issues that may arise. To ensure that physicians have the guidance they need, Compassion & Choices convened the Physician Aid-in-Dying Clinical Criteria Committee, in July 2012, to create clinical criteria for physicians who are willing to provide AID to patients who request it. The committee includes experts in medicine, law, bioethics, hospice, nursing, social work, and pharmacy. Using an iterative consensus process, the Committee drafted the criteria over a one-year period