Crop Talk by IAS – 04/14/26

Crop Talk by IAS – Field Scouting Update | Week of April 14

Spring is warming up—but timing and precision are everything.

In this week’s Crop Talk Field Scouting Update, our IAS agronomy team shares what they’re seeing across the territory as soil temperatures rise and field conditions remain wet. While planters may be waiting, this window is critical for dialing in burndown strategies, pre-emerge applications, and making the right agronomic decisions before the season accelerates.

You’ll hear updates from across Iowa, including where soil temps stand, early weed emergence, and how to fine-tune your herbicide program based on field conditions and timing.

This week’s highlights:

• Soil temperatures reaching 50–53°F across many areas—approaching planting readiness
• Continued wet conditions are delaying fieldwork and planting progress
• Early weed emergence (ragweed, grasses) and increasing pressure
• Importance of proper burndown timing, rates, and coverage
• Adjusting herbicide programs based on weed size and field conditions
• Adjuvant selection, water volume, and tank mix considerations
• Preventive maintenance and planning during weather delays
• Safety reminders: PPE, SDS sheets, and proper chemical handling

As always, these are local, boots-on-the-ground insights to help you make confident decisions—because starting clean is the first step to staying clean. 
 
Featured Agronomists this week include:
Nicholas Giessman (Host)
Nick Thompson (Host)
Owen Heetland
Erin Recker
Adrianna Herlache

🎧 Listen now
Have a question for the team? Send it to CropTalk@InnovativeAg.com

To learn more about Innovative Ag Services and our agronomy services, visit InnovativeAg.com/Agronomy.

Produced by IAS Communications in partnership with My Four Creative.

Transcript

Nicholas Giessman 0:00

Welcome to Crop Talk, brought to you by Innovative Ag Services, and this is our field scouting special. Each week from March through October, our agronomy team shares timely, boots on the ground updates from across the IAS geography so you can make confident decisions as the seasons change. Today you'll hear a quick regional update from our IAS agronomist, including what we're seeing in the fields right now, what to keep an eye on next, and a few practical scouting reminders you can put to work this week. I am your host, Nicholas Giessman, and this week's focus is gonna be on burns, pre-herbicides, and getting timing application down for both of those passes. I'm gonna send it over to Nick and Ellsworth with a safety update. Thanks, Nicholas.

Nick Thompson 0:46

I'm Nick Thompson from the Southwest region covering Story County, Harden County, and Hamilton County. For the safety update this week, we're gonna follow along with the theme of pre's and burndowns. Make sure you're reading the chemical labels, have your SDS sheets with you at all times, wearing your PPE, including gloves and smocks. And when you're not spraying, in this rainy times, it's a good time to do whatever preventative maintenance that you can before the season starts, including changing the oil in your tractors, the air filters, and making sure you hit every grease circ on your planter. It's very important that in these slow periods while we have the rain, that we do these preventative maintenance measures as so that during the busy times you're not left standing around waiting for these to get done. This would also be a good time for you to get in touch with your local agronomists and go over the plans that you have for planting and what order you think you're planning on planting your fields in. This information can give your agronomist a better idea of when and how frequently to dispatch your fields for spraying. For the scouting report here in the southwest region, soil temperatures have been increasing at a great rate this past week, even with the rain. Once the ground is dried, I believe we'll probably see planters heading to the fields and whatever anhydrous or fertilizer that hasn't been put on will begin to be put on again. The ground temperature has been on average above 50 degrees, which is that magic number for all corn growers. And Alden had the lowest that I tested at 48 degrees, while Ellsworth, Radcliffe, and Jewel all tested between 50 and 53 degrees. We're starting to see some weeds poking through as we walk, but I wouldn't say anything has really taken off. We've stayed below that popcorn size and they should be pretty easy to kill. Now I'll send it over to Owen in our northwest region.

Owen Heetland 2:46

Thanks, Nick. This is Owen Heetland from the Cleves location, covering Grundy, Harden, Franklin, and Butler counties. For the update for this area, nothing has changed really over the last week. We continue to be wet. While we have warmed some, it appears that we're going to continue to stay wet for probably the next seven to ten days. Most ammonia and dry is done. Very little to no planting is done. You know, the biggest touch points or lookouts are making sure that we're dry enough as we move farther in the season for planting. I know as well as everybody else that we'll be rushed when we get to the point to plant, but make sure we aren't causing any sidewall compaction or seeding issues as we go along the year. As far as weeds go, we are starting to see some more emergence of warmer season weeds besides like a ragweed or a cocklebur. And we will touch a little bit more on that and burn down later on in the podcast. So next I will kick it over to Aaron.

Erin Recker 3:48

Thank you, Owen. I'm Erin Recker out of the Masonville location. I covered Buchanan, Delaware, and parts of Fayette and Clayton County. The last couple days have left most of the area wet with getting about one to two inches of rain with more to follow this week, which will keep guys out of the field for a couple more days. With that being said, we are about 90% done of our anhydrous and fertilizer application. So once things dry back up, we will get rolling on that again to get those acres covered. The rain has allowed farmers to catch up on repairs and getting things ready for planting season. Now's the time to be getting those liquid, nitrogen, and seeding wrecks put together and having a plan for where you want to start, along with making sure you have your pre-application set and if any kind of burndown is needing to be added. Here we are getting chemicals and seeds shipped out to our growers. We have also gotten a good start on getting tanks out to guys for liquid fertilizer, along with getting some 32% and thiolo loads to the guys who have storage on the farm. Looking ahead, we have some nice weather coming with warmer temperatures. With crop insurance planting dates already here, farmers will be eager to get out in the field and start planting. I know we've talked about this in past episodes, but just make sure your soil conditions are where you need them to be before planting to avoid causing any issues down the road. With that, I'm going to pass it over to Adriana in our Southeast region.

Adrianna Herlache 5:03

Thank you, Erin. I'm Adriana Herlache, Southeast Region, mainly focusing in Jones County. Key points this week, I just want to touch base, you know, chemical and seed being delivered. If you haven't gotten it yet and you're curious if we've got it ready, just go ahead and give your local garnymist a shout. You can always schedule a pickup or delivery, whatever works best with you. If you're curious about any treatments, we can still make that happen. You just have to let us know. Another key point burndowns. Starting to pick up here. I know it's been a little wet. I've already had a couple guys reach out. They got rye or alfalfa, whatever the case may be. Let your local agronomists know. And we can try to get out there as soon as it is fit. Warm and wet weather is optimal for the growth of weeds. May want to start considering, you know, making your pre-pass more of a burn down, depending on the weed pressure. You know, we'll be out as much as we can trying to check those fields, seeing what we're seeing, letting you know so we can make any adjustments that we may see fit. Thank you. I'm gonna go ahead and kick it back to Nicholas.

Nicholas Giessman 6:01

Thank you, Adriana, for that update. As the temperatures start increasing and we get more weeds emerging and it's closer to planting, there's times where we might be adding in a herbicide with our burn down or increasing the rate of our burndown. I'm gonna send it over to Owen and he's gonna kind of give us his thoughts on increasing rates and adjusting adjuvants and maybe adding herbicides with a pass. Owen, what do you got for us?

Owen Heetland 6:23

As we start to look at herbicide applications, burn down pre-emerge applications, we want to really look at a couple things. So, first off would probably be burned down in general. So as we stay warmer and wetter, we will continue to see weeds get bigger and different species of weeds start to emerge. So if we start with beans, we really want to make sure if we're doing burn down on beans that we're adding the appropriate growth regulator product, whether that be 2,4D and an enlist bean or a dicamba and an extend flex bean. And as the season goes on, we may start to see some grass emerge, which would cause us to add a roundup to the mix. So when we do any of those things, we want to make sure number one, we have enough water for coverage and we have the right adjuvant package to work with those products and with whatever we're using as a pre-product. Usually you would see an AMS brace product and then some sort of oil to help with the burner product. Now, as we move into corn, there's not as much no-till over here on the west side, but I know there is on the east side. You would look to add maybe a Roundup or a dicamba product based on what weeds you are seeing out in the field. And again, then making sure you're adding the right adjuvants into your products to enhance them. Because as we continue to stay warm, we'll start to see those cockleburr, ragweed, early season grasses continue to take off before we can get in the field. So we'll have to continually adjust rates. And that's something that you really need to talk to your agronomist about and figure out what fields you're going to plant first, what you're going to plant last, what you're going to work, what you're not going to work. And then you can come up with a game plan as the year goes on and change it if necessary. Nick, over there on the east side, what products would you think you would see or want to add, or what weeds would be your biggest issue?

Nicholas Giessman 8:18

I don't know. Kind of like you said already, you know, we're giant rags popping up. We're seeing some cockbur. I know grasses are just getting started as it warms up here. We're looking at a lot of stuff that was just a 24D or maybe a dikamba mix going out there. We're gonna have to start spiking some Roundup in, which means adding AMS to get the right adjuvant loads in there. I know one thing I'm talking about with some growers is they had a burn down past planned just to do the kill. And now as we get really close to our planting window approaching, insurance dates are here. We're talking about adding in some prees, some residual products to make sure we're helping keep the weeds away as we get closer to planting. Are you seeing a lot of that on the west side or are you helping growers you know navigate through those decisions?

Owen Heetland 8:59

Yes, we we definitely are. We're to the point here where when we dry out, planters will run and we'll probably combine the the two passes together. The other couple watch outside to hit on is depending on what pre you have will depend on what product you put with it. So that's a great conversation point for you and your agronomist to discuss. And then the other thing is as we add Roundup to the mix, we really need to look at are we using 32 or thiosulfate as a carrier? And if so, how much? And will that affect how our Roundup works? Do we need to add water? Do we need to do other things? So all those things need to be considered for that field, and then just weed specifics. You know, everybody knows that different weeds grow in different fields, and so if we maybe need to tweak our plan and add something to this field, but not to this field, your agonists will continue to look and see what you need to add, but anything you can do to help them out make that plan will work better for the both of you.

Nicholas Giessman 9:56

That is like that. Uh, when we talk about weeds and different species, let's also talk about weed size. If we were going out there two weeks ago, stuff was just coming up, you're talking one to two inch weeds. Some of these fields you're starting to see some three to five inch weeds pop up. That really dictates the rate and you know the coverage that you're gonna need to get that kill.

Owen Heetland 10:13

Yeah, absolutely. You know, as you as weeds continue to grow, it's very important that if we're doing a burn down, we'll use enough product to make sure those weeds are killed. Because the worst thing that you can do is injure the weed and then it'll just be ragweed, especially. I'm sure you know, once it's injured, it's almost impossible to kill. So making sure we're up in those rates before the crop emerges to make sure those weeds are killed so we start cleaning and then we can stay clean. Is there any other questions on weeds or points that somebody wants to jump in and say?

Nick Thompson 10:44

With the weather that we're having and the heavy rains, would that impact what residual you would choose to put down? Would you go to a residual that could stay in the soil a little longer and deal with more rain? Or would you not be looking at that right now?

Owen Heetland 11:00

Usually the products that we use for pre-emerge are usually based a little bit more towards heavy rain, and then your residual for your second pass is based a little bit towards light rain. I always like to tell guys that when you try and outgas Mother Nature, usually it doesn't work. So stick with your plan, and any residual is is obviously better than none. So I think as long as you're putting a residual out there uh with your burndown pass, it's probably the best thing you can as you get rain moving forward.

Nicholas Giessman 11:29

That's awesome. Thanks, thanks for the information, Owen. As we look for next week, we're gonna have a guest on and we're gonna be talking about soil sampling and some precision egg talk. That's all for this week's Crop Talk by IAS. Thanks for tuning in. If any of our listeners have questions, feel free to email them to crop talk at innovativeag.com. Be sure to like, follow, and subscribe so you don't miss next week's update. And if you know a fellow grower who'd value a quick field snapshot, share this episode with them. For more agronomy resources and to connect with your local IAS team, visit InnovativeAg.com and follow Innovative Ag Services on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. We'll catch you next week on Crop Talk.