Your planter may not yet be cleaned and stored for the year, but there is a good chance you have begun the process of looking for bugs, disease, and other problems that will potentially reduce the yield from your emerging crops. Crop scouting is the one activity you can take to proactively protect your yield.

When you see an insect, there is a 90% chance you have seen it previously. Whether you know how to eliminate it, and when to make that decision may be another issue. That is where University of Illinois Extension pest management websites on the Internet may become a major problem solver.

http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/cespubs/pest/

This website is an electronic newsletter which is updated weekly during the growing season with articles and pictures of insects, weeds, and diseases that attack corn and soybeans, as well as wheat and forage crops. As insect problems are reported in the southern part of Illinois, you'll have an advanced warning of what pests to scout for in your fields. Articles typically indicate the type of insecticides that are labeled for control, as well as guides on economic thresholds for control.

The website is funded by C-FAR, the Council for Food and Agricultural Research, and edited by Dr. Kevin Steffey. It has a searchable database and a subscription system, which will notify you when the latest issue has been posted on the Internet.

http://www.ipm.uiuc.edu

The implementation of integrated pest management strategies continues to be a high priority in the state of Illinois and the information contained in this web site is designed to inform and encourage the adoption of IPM practices. Visitors to the site may browse by commodity (field crop, fruit and vegetable, livestock, medical, or urban) or pest type (insects, plant diseases, or weeds). If visitors are looking for information on a particular pest or IPM practice, the full text site-wide search engine will provide all related pages and rank them according to relevancy.

The web site features a "Frequently Asked Question" page that allows visitors to submit IPM questions to an expert and receive a response by email. In addition to the standard publications that include pest management handbooks and fact sheets, the site includes short videos designed to educate visitors on current pest problems and scouting methods, and the on-line pest management calculators allow visitors to make informed decisions regarding the use of pesticides.

The website is also funded by C-FAR, and is edited by Dr. Mike Gray and Dr. Susan Ratcliffe.

http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/IAH/

No list of electronic reference sources for farmers would be complete without the web version of the Agronomy Handbook. This represents the entire biennial paperback volume, with frequent updates and searchable database. It has a Toolbar that integrates tools from the handbook with tools from other partner projects funded by C-FAR.

It has a Wireless Web site, which is one of the first in the world for farmers, that offers weather data, corn and soybean stand counting, and other wireless examples of the regular Extension online decision aids.

New for this year is an Agriweather Toolbench with improved "Insect Forecast" models and the latest NEXRAD radar image for central Illinois. There are special pages for all 102 Illinois counties which offer historical yield and climate data plus provide some 'real time' weather info for the past ten days from the nearest reporting station.

What does it cost to scout?

"What does it cost me to scout my fields?" the better question is "What will it cost me if I don't". To answer the first question, if you look at an 80 acre field with no significant pest problems, scouted four times during the year at a labor rate of $20 per hour it will cost you about $1.00 per acre.

The second question, "What will it cost me if I don't?" Let's look at the same 80 acre field. First, corn, if you have a potential yield of 200 Bu. and due to a pest problem you have a 10% reduction, 20 Bu. times the $2.00 loan rate is a loss of $40 per acre. If you look at soybeans on the same field with a yield potential of 50 Bu. and due to a pest problem you have a 10% reduction, 5 Bu. times the county loan rate of $5.47 you have only lost $27.35.

The economics would indicate that the $1.00 you spend in labor might be one of the best-spent investments of the season. Scout your fields at least four times during the growing season.

The law to deregulate electricity providers passed in 1997 and has been discussed, interpreted, and questioned ever since the final vote was counted, but now it is here. The Illinois Electric Service Customer Choice and Rate Relief Law of 1997 went into effect for residential electric customers on May 1, 2002. Originally the idea was to give consumers a choice in who supplied them with electricity. It sounds simple enough, however it gets more complicated.

A lot of the complications come from the fact, that the way electricity gets to your farm is complicated. Electricity is produced in a generation plant, generally located in a remote location. The majority of the generation plants boil water to produce steam, which spins the turbines-generators to produce electricity. Because the plant needs large amounts of fuel and cooling water they tend to be located near an economical source of water and fuel. Due to the remote location the electricity has to be moved to the consumer through the use of a transmission system that delivers electric energy to the distribution system. Distribution systems are the transformers, substations and the lines that deliver electricity to consumer's homes, business, and plants. The distribution system that provides service is the part of the electric system most consumers see on the streets and in the neighborhoods.

The electric system in the United States is made up of thousands of generation plants owned by hundreds of companies, tens of thousands of miles of transmission lines owned by hundreds of companies and hundreds of companies that distribute electricity all of which are overseen by a number of State and Federal Agencies. See why it is kind of complicated?

Deregulation in Illinois is for Investor-Owned Electric Utilities. Residential consumers have been given the choice to pick their electric supplier. This will not apply to consumers served by electric cooperatives or Municipal Systems unless the parent organization decided to participate.

If a consumer does nothing the current distribution company will continue to provide electricity. If the consumer decides to choose other companies to provide service the transmission and generation companies may change, but the distribution company providing service to the house will remain the same. In other words you can change the provider you buy the actual electricity from, but the company that maintains the wires and restores service after a storm will remain the same.

A consumer that stays with the same company is referred to as "bundled customer," all the services, the generation, transmission, and distribution arrangements are all handled by one company, just like it was before May 1, 2002. A consumer can decide take unbundled service by contacting an "Alternative Retail Electric Supplier" (ARES) to make arrangements for generation and transmission; however, your current distribution company will remain the same. The billing may get a little more complicated with costs listed by item for generation, transmission, delivery service charges, transition charges and customer charges.

Before you make a decision to change or stay with your current electrical supplier research the options open to you, contact your local supplier or the Illinois Commerce Commission.

As you start your vegetable garden this spring, please consider planting a little extra to donate to the Plant A Row for the Hungry program in Macon County. Plant a Row donations can be dropped off at the Salvation Army (229 W. Main, Decatur) from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. They may also be given to the Good Samaritan Inn (543 N. Water, Decatur) from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. An extra benefit of helping others is that the donations are tax-deductible at a rate of $1.48 per pound of produce donated.

We are starting a new season and a new crop year. During this year take the time to be safe. When you go to the field make sure that your Slow Moving Vehicle Signs (SMV) are in place and visible. Last spring what appeared to be a new tractor with a new planter going to the field both of which had a SMV sign attached, however, when the planter was folded into a highway configuration the signs were no longer visible.

At night highway reflective sign can be seen farther than John Deere green. This is important when a car traveling at 65 MPH or 95 ft. per second covers the 500 ft. (the visibility requirement for headlights in Illinois) in less than six seconds. That is one second to recognize the sign, one second to depress the brake and four seconds for the brakes to slow the car. There is very little room for error especially if the driver in the car is tuning the radio or getting a call on the cell phone. Put SMV signs and light on all your equipment, take the time to be safe.

It is springtime and the pressure is on to get the crop planted. We take the shortest route to the field and some times we have to cross road ditches. Depending on where the center of gravity is on the tractor or implement having one wheel as little as 20 degrees lower than the other at 5 mph when crossing can roll a tractor. If you have roll over protection that is great, as long as, you have your seat restraint (seat belt) in place (on).

If you are involved in a roll over and are lucky enough not to get killed or seriously injured, remember you will still have to face your friends at the coffee shop and tell them how badly the tractor was damaged. It is better to look first at the spot you're going to cross. If spring rains have created a deep washout that is covered by grass and weeds, you will have a surprise no one needs. Take the time to be safe.

As farming demands larger equipment, manufactures have to design it so that can be towed down the road. Many of the designs fold up into configurations 14 ft. or more in height. This is very near the height that electric distribution wires span between poles. Farm equipment and wires carrying 7,200 volt of electricity do not work well together. Take special care to look up when entering fields and barn lots to make sure that you will not contact electric wires; take the time to be safe. We lost a good farmer last year for this very reason.

The Macon County Seed Plot is on Riley Rd. just south of Elwin. Jim Snow, Sr. and Jim Snow, Jr. are the host farmers. The plot will provide farmers and agriculturalist with reliable field data on premier crop varieties from 20 corn and 18 soybean companies. There are 76 varieties of corn and soybeans in the plot this year.

Mark your calendar; the plot tour date is August 20, 2002. There will be a drawing for door prizes for farmers, farm managers and land owners that complete the plot tour and have their card signed by the seed representatives present.