Crop Talk by IAS – 04/28/26

Crop Talk by IAS – Field Scouting Update | Week of April 28

Wet conditions are slowing progress—and putting pressure on every decision.

In this week’s Crop Talk Field Scouting Update, the IAS agronomy team shares what they’re seeing across the territory as planting pauses and fields continue to dry out. While some acres are in, many growers are waiting for the right conditions to avoid compaction and protect yield potential.

We’re also seeing increased weed pressure, especially grasses and early-emerging weeds, making burn-down strategy and timing more important than ever.

You’ll hear practical, boots-on-the-ground insights from across Iowa, including what to watch next and how to adjust your approach as conditions change.

This week’s highlights:

• Planting progress stalled by rain—many areas still waiting to resume 
• Soil conditions matter more than the calendar—avoid sidewall compaction 
• Weed pressure increasing, especially grasses and early growth 
• Burn-down adjustments: tank mixes, AMS, and timing considerations 
• Scouting reminders: walk fields, don’t just check from the road 
• Border vs. full-field spray decisions depending on pressure 
• Nozzle selection and coverage matter more as programs shift 
• Nitrogen plans still holding—for now 
• No need to rush maturity changes—plenty of season ahead 

As always, these are real-time insights from local agronomists—because the best decisions come from what your fields are telling you right now.

Featured this week:
Nicholas Giesseman (Host)
Nick Thompson
Owen Heetland
Erin Ricker
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 EG 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. Thanks, Nicholas.

Speaker 2 0:42

This is Nick Thompson from the Ellsworth location covering Story County, Harden County, and Hamilton County. Pretty basic update here today. We've had planters in the field for the past week or so until we got rained out. Right now, my biggest watch out is going to be we are well ahead of our year-to-date average on rain. So those guys who stabilized your nitrogen in the fall and the spring, you should see good return on that investment there. And as we get further into the season, we want to make sure that those low spots aren't just collecting water and letting it sit. If you have those low spots and you can identify them now, there might be something you can do. Otherwise, make sure that you know your fields, know the topography, and know where the water's gonna sit. One thing I've noticed while I've been out scouting has been the weed presence has definitely stepped up as of recent. If you didn't have a burndown pass planned, you might want to take a look at some of your fields and maybe get with your agronomist and see if a burndown is something that you may need. Next, I'm gonna pass it over here to our northwest region and Owen over in Cleves.

Owen Heetland 1:51

Thanks, Nick. This is Owen Heetland out of Cleves office, covering Hardin, Grundy, Butler, and Franklin counties. As has been stated, we've been pretty wet the last few days. Last week allowed some guys to get into some planting. I've seen some corn go in the ground and some beans go in the ground. I would estimate uh both between five and ten percent planted acres in this area. While some guys haven't planted any corn and only beans, the the reverse is true as well. So just not a lot done, very wet. Uh as and as we go into this week, we will see colder temperatures move back in through Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then warm up start to happen. So I would be a little cautious of making sure we're planting into good conditions. That means dry conditions, no sidewall compaction. And as the ground begins to warm up, we'll we'll see those things fix themselves. Uh, the other thing that I've noticed as I was out scouting this weekend was the emergence of a lot of grass. We've talked about in the last couple episodes some of those winter annuals, cowber, ragweed, pennycress, but I've really started to see the grass emerge, which will necessitate adding Roundup to your mix or atriene or something of that nature if you're burning down. Later, me and Nicholas can dive a little deeper into that, but that's what I've got for an update now. And next, I'll kick it east, Erin.

Erin Recker 3:13

Thank you, Owen. I'm Erin Recker at the Masonville location. I cover Buchanan, Delaware, and parts of Fayette and Clayton County. Last week there were a handful of guys out in the field getting field work done. Some guys even got the planners out to test to make sure everything was going good. There are a handful of growers that have some crop in the ground, but those are the guys that didn't get much rain. We were able to get some burn down sprayed over the weekend before the weather came in on Monday. So now we're just waiting for those fields to dry out again so we can get back out there. A quick tip is water hemp starts to germinate around 350 GDUs, and we're getting close to that threshold. So making sure we're out scouting fields and checking the weeds and weed pressure to make sure we have the right chemical and correct rates in the tank when we go out to spray is very important. As always, call your local agronomist with any questions. We would be happy to help. With that, I'm going to pass it over to Adriana in our Southeast region.

Speaker 4 4:04

Thank you, Erin. I'm Adriana Herlache. I cover Jones County and parts of Delaware County in the Southeast region. This week is a good opportunity to finish up anhydrous as we start to dry out and get back into fields. We aren't to the point yet where we need to consider maybe changing up our nitrogen plans if anhydrous isn't going to get finished. But that time we'll be here before we know it. So just keep it in the back of your mind as we move forward. And when we get to that point, that is something you can discuss with your grandmother. As things keep progressing and warming up, looking at wrapping up dry fertilizer, hopefully this week, and continuing spraying beans and corn with nitrogen. Along with that, Erin, Nick, and Owen said, we're already seeing weeds coming up and reaching four to six inches tall. If your pre-pass hasn't been applied yet, now is the time to touch base with your local agonist and consider maybe bumping up those rates or adding some different chemicals in. This spring so far has been the optimal growth of weeds. If you see a weed or an issue that you aren't sure about, please reach out and we'll try to meet with you in the field and go over what plan needs to be set in place to help alleviate any issues you are having or seeing. We are here to help you in any way possible. So don't be shy to reach out with any concerns you may have. Thank you. And I'm going to kick it back to your host, Nicholas.

Nicholas Giessman 5:14

Thank you very much for that update, Adriana. As everybody kind of said, it sounds like we're very wet here. Um, I think we could do for a little dry spell to get everything dried out back in the fields. Owen, I think you've heard this before. Farming, you can't just have one plan. You got to have a plan B, C and D. I think we're kind of rolling into that with our pre's and our burn downs. You know, now's the time to be into plan B, plan C, where we're adding that roundup and whatever ever adjuvants that go along with that to control these grasses that are coming up. Are you seeing the same thing or what is your thoughts?

Owen Heetland 5:44

Yep, I would agree. Whether you're gonna do burn down or do tillage, even in the acres that are gonna get tillage, you're really starting to see the grass grow and explode. So making sure you've got that tillage tool set correctly to take the grass out, or if it gets bad enough, try and burn it down before you do a tillage pass. And then anytime you're looking at grass, we're looking at maybe a little different than what our plan had been. You know, whether we're using a 2,4-D or a Dicamba with grass, we really need either Roundup or if it's really small, we can get away with the atrazine or the some sort of HPPD in the mix. But when we add either of those products, we've got to have some form of AMS (Ammonium Sulfate), whether that's liquid, dry, some form we we need to add to that mix to get good burn down capabilities out of that. And then, you know, just remember we want to try and be above 50 the night before we're spraying. So we get good growth out of that material so it absorbs and accepts that herbicide.

Nicholas Giessman 6:38

Oh, and have you have you seen people, you know, a lot of this grass, you know, it always everybody always says it's around the waterways, it's the edge of fields. You know, what are your thoughts on going out and spraying, you know, the outside 90 feet or 120 feet of fields to clean that grass up and then maintain your plan A, if you will, on the rest of those acres? Or do you just see it beneficial to jump into if we're throwing around up at the tank, I'm gonna spray the whole acre?

Owen Heetland 7:03

There's two different ways to look at that. I would say definitely for sure you want to border your fields, but obviously there's a big variance of what I have for fields over here in central western Iowa to what you have for fields in Jackson County. You know, sometimes by the time you border the field, you sprayed almost the whole field. The second part of that scenario is if you truly get out and walk, don't ride the field. If there's grass coming next to the waterway that you can see from the road, there's grass coming in the middle of the field that you can't see from the road. So if you're gonna do no-till, then you probably need to consider some sort of burn down on the whole acre. Now, if you're not gonna do no-till, but the grass along the edges is really, really bad, that may necessitate roundup in that outside border pass and then the normal herbicide in the rest. So it's a scenario by scenario look, and you kind of just gotta discuss with the ergonomists what's gonna be the best case for you.

Nicholas Giessman 7:57

I would agree with that. And I know with changing your herbicide programs here, you know, a big topic is always we're talking about weed size, we're talking about adjuvants. I think one thing that kind of gets missed is always nozzles. So, you know, as you change your herbicide program, or if you're changing from your program last year, make sure you have the correct nozzles on because that makes a world of a difference to getting control.

Owen Heetland 8:17

That's a great point, Nicholas. Roundup 2,4-D, Dicamba are all products that don't necessarily require coverage, so you can use a more, shall we say, aggressive nozzle that you will have bigger droplet sizes, and if you get a little on the plant, you're okay. But if you're starting to rely on an HPPD or an atrazine in the mix to get your burn down, you're gonna have to get a little better coverage. And most of the time you're talking about smaller weeds, so that may change a little bit what you use for the nozzle in the pre-pass, depending on what you have in the tank.

Nicholas Giessman 8:49

I know one conversation we're having, which I'm sure everybody is right now, is you start seeing May 1st at the end of the week here, when and when not to plant. You know, I think we're all kind of in the same boat. It's wet and it's cooling down. In your eyes, you know, what's the ideal? Do you wait till it warms up here over the weekend to really get going? Or as soon as you can go, is it worth putting seed in the ground?

Owen Heetland 9:09

I would say the biggest thing is I don't look so much at the calendar or temps. You look at soil temp and then you look at what is a soil telling me. Because even though the calendar may say May 1st, there's no need to mud that crop in. And what I mean is there's no need to cause sidewall compaction or tomahawk roots, because once that happens, you're not fixing it the rest of the year. So we still have plenty of time as the calendar goes, and we can still raise great corn and soybeans, even for planting uh a couple more weeks yet. So the biggest thing I would say is look at your fields. You know, maybe you pick a pattern-tiled field first, something that's gonna dry out, maybe something that's got lighter soil, and just make sure that you're doing a good job, not only when you're planting, but when you're doing tillage. You know, we don't want to be creating clods out there. We don't want to create problems because those problems will follow us for the rest of the year. So I know it's hard to sit and wait, but that's probably the most important thing is is soil conditions, more so than temp and and calendar. You know, ideally we'd want to start planting when the soil temp is 50 degrees and and rising, but I would much rather plant into a 48 degree soil that's good and fit than a 55 degree soil that's muddy and gonna create issues.

Nicholas Giessman 10:30

I would second that. I think we've uh we've kind of hit the nail on the head with that a couple times of making sure our soil is in the right condition to go, not just looking at a calendar date or hey, you know, yeah, my soil temp says it's it's it's go time. It's what is your field telling you? What is your soil telling you? And is it time to go, or is it better to wait another 12 to 24 hours?

Owen Heetland 10:52

One last thing I want to bring up is Adriana made a good point about you know changing nitrogen. But the other thing is guys will get nervous and and start to ask about changing seed. I really don't know that there's a big issue to even begin to think about changing maturities until we get into probably the 20th of May or maybe even a little bit later. You know, maybe you look at your latest number and make sure you get that planted first or close to first, but we still got a long time before we even start to think about doing any of that.

Nicholas Giessman 11:25

Thank you, Owen, for all that good information there. Those last little tidbits on waiting on uh, you know, change and maturities, there is a lot of time left. So that's it for this week's Crop Talk by AS. Thanks for tuning in. I'm your host, Nicholas Giessman. We'll see you next week. That's all for this week's Crop Talk by AS. Thanks for tuning in. If any of our listeners have questions, feel free to email them to croptalk@ 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.