Crop Talk by IAS – 06/10/26

Crop Talk by IAS – Field Scouting Update | June 10

Field activity is picking back up across Iowa and Southwest Wisconsin as weather windows open and crops move into more rapid growth stages. What we’re seeing in the field right now is a mix of opportunity and pressure—post applications are rolling, but moisture, heat, and timing are all influencing performance.

In this episode, the team discusses:

• Post herbicide progress in corn and timing considerations for soybeans
• Field conditions and why checking wet spots still matters before spraying
• Pre herbicide performance and where residuals are starting to wear off
• Waterhemp pressure and the importance of controlling weeds early
• The “150 rule” and how heat + humidity affects spray applications
• Adjusting adjuvants and tank mixes to avoid crop injury in hot conditions
• Early nutrient deficiencies as crops enter rapid uptake stages
• Managing mid-season stress with fertility and micronutrient strategies
• Early conversations around fungicide timing and disease prevention
• Signs of heat and moisture stress, including leaf rolling and crop response

Conditions still vary field-by-field. Staying timely with scouting, adjusting to weather conditions, and making informed application decisions will be key as we move deeper into the season.

Featured this week:
Nick Thompson – Host, Southwest Region Agronomist
Erin Ricker – Eastern Region Agronomist
Adrianna Herlache – Southeast Region Agronomist 

🎧 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

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to Crop Talk, brought to you by Innovative Ag Services, and this is our field scouting special.

Nicholas Giessman 0:08

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 field right now, what to keep an eye on next, and a few practical scouting reminders you can put to work this week.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

Over here for the West Side update, I'll be updating for both the Ellsworth location and Cleve's location. As we go further south, I noticed this past weekend got a little more rain. Up north, things started to kind of taper off to the point where people were out in the field maybe late yesterday, even if not early today. And we've just been focused on getting our post-spraying done. For Ellsworth here, I know we're sitting good, got about all of our corn done, and then moving on to the beans here later this week. We control, I would say things got a little hairier early on, but I've seen great burndow potential and great ability to keep things down with the plants that we've been running out of Ellsworth here. Just be careful to not bury yourself into the field getting out there when it's too wet. Be sure to always walk the wettest spots of your field. You know, you don't want to step in there and uh be looking around thinking it's dry, and then you come over the hill and all of a sudden your sprayer tires have sunk into the ground. That's never fun, and then you end up ruining a good amount of crop to get that machine out of there, and we would have just been better off with maybe a few more weeds and getting out there when it was safe. Coming up ahead, I've been seeing a few deficiencies starting to pop up. We're kind of hitting that crop stage where we're going to start really using a lot of those nutrients, and you'll probably start to see some of those deficiencies pop up that you wouldn't have seen earlier this spring. And as we're walking out there, just know we have different fertilizers, whether it's liquid or dry options that we can put over the top and help us get through the season. Just making sure that you're talking with your local agronomists whenever you see something like that pop up. Know your threshold of what you can put on, what you can't put on, and what's going to make you money versus when it's time to just cut and run. As we reach later in the season here, just uh keep thinking about fungicide passes. If you have it booked, think about the timing. Just make sure we get out there around tassel time before the disease, keep that disease pressure down, and we'll be touching on that a little bit later. But I'll send it over here to our northeast region over to Aaron.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Thank you, Nick. I'm Aaron Recker out of the Masonville location. I cover Bikanan, Delaware, and parts of Fayette and Clayton County. Like Nick has mentioned, over the past couple days, my area has gotten anywhere from one to three inches of rain, depending on where you're at. But before that rain, we got a good start on some cornpost acres. So once it dries back up, we'll get out there and get those knocked out and then start on beans. Just a reminder if you have seed boxes or pallets still out in your shed, let your agronomists know so we can get someone out there to get those picked up in time for seed returns. Other than that, I would say the crops are looking pretty good around here. Most of our pre's held for both corn and beans. There were some fields that got sprayed and we had no rain to activate them for a while. So we did see some weed pressure there. But overall, I would say the pre's did their job. We are getting to the point where some of those pre-residuals are gonna start running out, especially with the amount of rain we have gotten. So making sure we get back out there as soon as possible when it dries up is gonna be important to get any of those emerged weeds killed and to get that last layer of residual on before the corn to canopy. As for beans, they're still not far enough along yet for a post-application, but still get out and scout those fields to make sure everything's going good and see what weed pressure is looking like. So you know what order fields need to be sprayed in when that time comes. With talking about getting back out in the field, Nick mentioned just make sure the field conditions are right. Another thing to remember is make sure our environmental conditions are right as well. Maybe checking the weather to see where you're at with the 150 degree spraying rule. To check this, you take your temperature and add the relative humidity together to get a target score. If that adds up to over 150, just make sure we're adjusting our adjuvant or surfactant rates to try to avoid any crop injury response. With that, I'm gonna pass it over to Adriana in our southeast region.

Adrianna Herlache 4:42

Thank you, Aaron. I'm Adriana Herlash recovering Jones County and parts of Delaware County. Definitely what I've noticed here this last week, like Aaron and Nick touched on, residuals did their job for the most part in our pre's. We've had a couple instances where we got that dry spell for three weeks, and then we're definitely seeing it wear off now. It got broken down in a little bit, didn't work probably as good as we would have hoped, especially corn-wise. You know, we're getting out there now, we're getting that post on. Definitely touching back to what Aaron said about that 150th degree. We need to watch that. So actually, you know, I went out and checked some fields yesterday, and you can definitely see a little bit of burn, uh, especially in the corn. You know, too many oils, environments are too hot. What I've noticed in bean fields, had a couple bean fields have a post pass. Water hemp was thick. I'm starting to notice water hemp coming back up. I've seen some where it's already reaching six, seven inches tall. At that point, you need to have a talk with your garments and might need to get out there and get something on. Because if it gets too tall, you're not gonna be able to control it. So a good rule of thumb that I like to go by, especially regarding water hemp and beans, four courts. Your court of Roundup, your court of class act, your court of enlist and court of liberty. It's not fit for every situation, but if you're noticing water hemp becoming a prevalent issue, especially early, those four are gonna ensure good coverage, especially if you're getting out there and getting it taken care of before it's getting too tall. But that's what I like to go by, especially down here. I'll kick it back to Nick. Nick, could you give us a little information on a post-pass additive, microboost?

SPEAKER_03 6:18

Yeah, so microboost would be a new product that Innovative Bag Services just released, uh, working with Brandt on that micronutrient fertilizer. It's gonna be a liquid at about one to two quarts application per acre. I like to use it as a late season stress mitigator. You know, we're reaching the point where the corn's getting taller and they're really gonna start up taking those micronutrients and that nitrogen at a much higher rate now. So if you're seeing those deficiencies pop up, this is a really easy product to just come over the top with and run it at a quart or two quarts an acre, and it'll mitigate whatever stress you're seeing out there. It's very compatible with any herbicide passes or uh any tank mix partners if you're just looking to throw it into your post if you haven't run that post yet. Its main attributes, I would say, would be the sulfur content, the boron, and the manganese. With this micro boost pass, it goes over it can go over corn or beans. I typically like to put it over the post pass, although you can apply it at fungicide time, you just won't see the results that you would at post-timing. We have a product called kernel boost that you'd probably see a better return from if you applied it at fungicide timing. Have you guys on the east side used any of it? And what results have you seen?

SPEAKER_01 7:45

I've gotten some microboost out on the post side on the corn, and there's still some to be going out with the beans. But since we haven't done posts yet on that, we won't be seeing the results on that for a little bit. But I do agree with Nick, we're getting into the time of the season where the crop is taking up a lot of nutrients and we're gonna start to see some deficiencies in it. And this microboost package is a great add-on to throw in the tank to kind of help with that stress that's going on with the crop and help mitigate it. Also, it's a variable reasonable price for our growers, which is also important, especially with how fertilizer prices have been going and the grain market and stuff. So here's an added product that Innovative Egg has made solely for our growers in these situations and giving them a good product for a good ROI.

Adrianna Herlache 8:30

Yeah. I've got some split fields we did. I'm excited to see, you know, the results from those. It's a little early to tell yet, but I put some flags out. I may keep track of it through the summer, keep checking on it, you know, see what that result is. Affordability is there, you know, you compared to other products that you know growers might be using. This is definitely in the market and it's meant to fit our regions that we're applying this in. It was made for our areas. Our agronomist at Innovative Ag worked with branch systems to create these products. We have them tailored to what our growers' needs are.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Yeah, and I think those results we've seen on both the west and the east side have been pretty consistent. I know the corn that we had it go over, you know, I came back out there about a week later and took a look at it, and it is a dark green, and uh any variability in plant size seemed to kind of work itself out, and they all kind of came up and they were off and running. Now, not every instance may not wind up like that, but just to see that after a week and kind of have our problems settled, that was a very comforting thing to see as an agronomist. And it's always nice when you look out at the field and see that the product that you put on and that you recommended was a great fit for that program. One thing we touched on a little bit earlier, and uh I do want to touch on it again here backing down those oils with the hot weather we're gonna have here, that's gonna be a huge deal for us, especially as we start to get into bean posts, and if there's guys running a little hairier fields, a little earlier on those beans, you can cause a good amount of damage with not backing down your oils. So uh I just pull out destiny, destiny HC. Usually we're running it at about eight ounces to the acre. When you guys hit that 150 mark, what do you usually end up backing down? We'll say a destiny rate too.

Adrianna Herlache 10:30

Well, I know down here in Jones, I take out the Destiny and I use Interlock. And a lot of post-pass products, especially in corn, they already have an oil in them. If you're gonna be using a drift agent like Interlock or you're gonna be using even like Triple Flex 2, it has an oil in it. You don't need to add any more, especially when you're reaching that 150.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

I would agree with you on that, AJ. Another option would be, you know, if you're not really wanting something as high as Destiny, um running an MSO just with the heat and stuff, maybe considering bumping it down to COC and kind of switching that out, just so you still have some oil with whatever herbicide you're running. But some of those herbicides that you're running, you don't need to add any or very little amount to with this heat coming in, especially on post soybeans that there's gonna be a lot of crop injury. Um, if guys aren't watching and kind of keeping track of that stuff and switching out where it needs to be switched out. What are your thoughts on that, Nick?

SPEAKER_03 11:27

Typically over here in Ellsworth, on a lot of our corn posts, we don't run hardly any oil over it just because, like you said, a lot of those adjuvants and the uh products that are coming out now, they have oil already included into them. But oils are a very big portion of our bean programs. Just this last week, there were a few days where maybe we went out to get some beans that the pre may have slipped on, and uh things got a little hairy out there, so we had to get out there early, you know, just backing it down, you know, two ounces to the acre, even you'll still get a little ding on the beans, but it'd be nothing but a little browning on the edge of some of the leaves. If we're up above, you know, 165 or 170 in our total count, then yeah, you might want to just cut that oil out, especially if you got another oil-based herbicide in the plan. Keep in mind and keep ahead of as we're looking at the weather here, you know, just remembering that 150 rule on your oils will definitely make a greater impact and you should see a better result.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

To kind of piggyback off of what Nick just said, um, he does make a good point. Sometimes having that MSO in there is needed, especially on the bean post side of things when weeds are getting too tall and stuff. Sometimes heating up the mix is what's needed to make sure we get a good kill on that. Are you guys starting to have conversations with growers about fungicide and the timing on that and getting stuff lined up?

Adrianna Herlache 12:57

I know we're having those conversations here. It may seem too early, but now is the time. I know every year's gonna be a little different, but you know, you look at last year and fungicide was definitely almost a must in a lot of acres. Those southernly winds that we got and storms that we got just brought it up here. You gotta have those conversations and you gotta stay ahead. So I know I've been having some of those around here, you know, trying to get it in commitments too. You know, we want to make sure we have the enough product here to supply for the acres that we need to.

SPEAKER_03 13:27

Yeah, no, that's definitely been a topic of conversation here these past week or so for me. You know, a lot of guys they don't want to think about it. It's kind of the same discussion that I have a lot of times with prees where, well, there's no weeds out there, so why should we warrant spraying it? But at the end of the day, if you're waiting until the disease shows up, that's too late. It's more so preventative than it is going to be curative. If you're going out there and you already have tar spot or southern rust out there and it's starting to spread on those plants, spraying fungicide will mitigate the damage, but it won't be able to stop it completely.

Adrianna Herlache 14:09

And you know, Nick's not saying that if you see disease, you're necessarily too late to apply anything. I'd rather see stuff out a little after it's notice than not at all. You know, and that's where, you know, we also like we had touched on kernel boost. You know, that's when you would add that in, you know, you go with your fungicide, your kernel boost, and insecticide if needed, and you can definitely see, you know, some turnaround. You can stop the progression. I mean, you're not gonna prevent it, but you can stop it from making it worse and affecting yield.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

Exactly. You should still spray because like I said, you're gonna mitigate that damage that that disease can do. Talking about kernel boost here, I'm looking at some of the benefits that we uh present. And I think a big portion of this that we could see come into play heavy this year would be two things either nitrogen assimilation or drought and heat stress. When you've been looking out at some fields, because I know I have. Have you guys been seeing some drought and heat stress whipping in the leaves and some curling?

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Yeah, I've seen some of it across the fields that I've walked in the territory I cover putting that kernel boost in on your fungicide pass on your corn, it's gonna help a lot because you're getting some of that nitrogen, but also you're getting some soluble potash with it. We will be seeing some good responses with that and helping maximize yield potential and help prevent any nutrient deficiencies during that grain field time. Any guys that didn't put any stabilizer in with their nitrogen and all the rain that we've had, we could start to be seeing some nitrogen deficiencies here soon or later down the road. So I think having that kernel boost and with the Foncha side pass is gonna help that out a lot too.

Adrianna Herlache 15:49

I know I've seen a little bit of curling, especially in the corn. Now that we got the rain, I haven't seen it as much. But you know, by the end of evening time, a couple days last week, you know, you see them rolled up by by morning, they're they're back open. The heat, the humidity, the dryness, you know, it's definitely taking a little bit of a toll, but things are looking a lot better now.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

If you have any more questions on kernel boost or micro boost, feel free to reach out to your local agronomist. We'd be happy to share any information and uh handouts that we have of this product with you.

Nicholas Giessman 16:23

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 crop talk at innovativeeg.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 Crowd Talk.