The preregistration deadline for the new AGMasters conference has NOW BEEN EXTENDED TO November 20^th. The deadline was November 13 but has been extended due to the late harvest season we are all experiencing. Registrations are still coming in so make sure you register at your earliest convenience. On-site registration will still be available for day 1, but the cost increases from $135 to $175. On the second day advanced sessions are a primary attraction. There are only 120 slots available, though, so if you want to attend a session on the second day register now at http://www.cropsciconferences.org/agmasters.

On the AGMasters conference website you will also notice a link to a conference blog. We have several very talented undergraduate students that will be helping with the conference and blogging about their experiences this year. Please learn more about them in anticipation to visit with them the day of the conference and share your experiences with them. The conference blog is located at http://agmasters.wordpress.com/. We are also sending updates via twitter, so if you are interested in receiving them go to twitter.com/AgMastersConf.

Those interested in certified crop advisor credits should be pleased that there is a nice selection: 2.5 for professional development, 9.0 for crop management, 9.5 for integrated pest management, and 2.5 for nutrient management. AGAIN, For more information about the conference and to register online, please go to www.cropsciconferences.org/agmasters.

If you still have more questions or need help with registration, call Sandy Osterbur at (217) 333-4424. - Vince

Hopefully you are not among the many farmers that now have fields with many large ruts like the picture above. Unfortunately I have seen too many of these, but I knew that was to be expected the way this harvest season has progressed. However, harvest has been progressing nicely in the last week, and I have been reluctant to write an article for fear of jinxing the run of excellent weather. The last NASS USDA report on November 9^th showed we almost doubled soybean harvest from 35% complete the prior week to 69% complete. I know we are much further along than that now because harvest has continued in many areas all week. I know some areas of the state in the south and southwest received some rain which halted some progress, though.

I have been traveling quite a bit the last two weeks spending nearly a week at American Society of Agronomy meetings and several days in Southwest, MO for another conference this week. Fortunately, I have an excellent support crew that has been keeping the pace of harvest going in our research trials. I will report yields from a couple of my studies as soon as we finish data entry and summaries. I can report in one of our 'high yield' trials we almost reached the 90 bu/ac mark in a few plots and had a grand trial mean of 79.5 bu/acre. The data needs more analyses before I can report on treatment differences.

All in all I hope your harvest season is finally shaping up and yields are meeting your expectations. I know moistures levels in corn remain a problem, but all I can say is I wish you luck. Continue to think safety. - Vince

The image from the Illinois NASS crop progress report released today says it all. The yellow bars represent % completed soybean harvest since 1940 (on the right) to 2009 (on the left). On the right hand side you can see IL soybean harvest was only 21% completed on November 2 in 1941. On the left side you can see this year we are 35% complete and we have not even been close to this far behind since the 1941 statistic. The good news is the last couple of days have been decent (for this time of year) for drying and the weather forecast looks mostly favorable for a few more days. I am in Pittsburgh at the American Society of Agronomy meetings but I am thinking much more about harvest in Illinois tonight. I heard some reports of combines running today, and I anticipate many, many more will be running in full force tomorrow. I hope everyone remains safe and is able to make significant harvest progress. Good Luck! - Vince

With the latest rainfall amounts that just came across Illinois, I am at a loss of words to describe the frustration of this harvest season. I doubt too many people want to think much about spending money for 2010 right now, but I bet seed dealers are still calling with early-order discounts. I have been asked several times recently about how the unique 2009 growing season affects 2010 variety selection. The 2009 season has been very unique mostly due to the persistent above average rainfall nearly every month of the growing season. As of today the majority of Illinois has received greater than 9 inches above normal rainfall (See IL Climatology Rainfall Depart Map). Furthermore, temperatures have remained below normal (See IL Climatology Temperature Depart Map), and they were further below normal during much of July and August. Variety selection can't fix those issues, but those issues could influence your variety selection and this should be done with some caution.

In abnormal crop years, crops can respond in abnormal ways. What I mean is, a variety that 'out-performs' other varieties under wet and cool conditions may not repeat that in more normal conditions, and the opposite is true. This is not unexpected and it is why using a diversity of genetics to stabilize a farming operation is important. Case in point, many farmers in Northern Illinois had the opportunity to evaluate varieties by their level of tolerance to white mold (sclerotinia stem rot) this year. That disease likely influenced yields in those areas, and it may seem like it should be the most important factor in variety selection for next year. Rightfully, in areas where white mold is somewhat frequently observed (sclerotia is plentiful in the soil), varieties with more tolerance to white mold could be important. However, the infection of white mold takes the right environmental conditions (cool and wet) to become a major problem, and it could be years before it is a major problem again. Therefore, it shouldn't quickly become the overall riding factor for variety selection, but rather, one important piece of information to be considered along with yield potential, SCN resistance, and other factors. I just used white mold as an example, but other examples could be described.

The best advice for variety selection just does not drastically change from year to year. Don't get overly emotional about one field or one set of strip-trial research results (good or bad). Use data to select varieties from multiple locations, multiple sources, and when possible multiple years. Of course to check multiple sources, the University of Illinois Crop Sciences department tests soybean varieties and publishes the results to use freely every year at http://vt.cropsci.illinois.edu/index.html Just like everyone else, results are delayed this year but the some of the 2009 soybean results will be posted soon.

Now, a couple of thoughts that should be considered due to the conditions of 2009 relate to seed quality. It is too early to tell what the overall conditions of seed quality are across the greater seed industry will be in 2010. It is certain that too many seed beans are still in the fields, and the longer beans are in these fluctuating temperatures and wet conditions, the more risk we are for increasing molds and loosing viability. It will certainly be a good year to know you are using a reputable seed supplier and understanding germination rates could become very important in 2010 – especially as we want to reduce seeding rates to minimize costs. As I learn more about seed quality concerns for 2010, I will communicate them. First, we have to get them out of the field.

I am off to the Agronomy meetings in Pittsburgh, PA. I hope while I'm gone soils dry and weather allows soybean harvest in Illinois. I will surely post some news from Pittsburgh over the next week. Good Luck - Vince

I drove home this evening in a light drizzle. Today has been another day unsuitable for soybean harvest in Central Illinois. There were a few combines harvesting corn today in some disregard for soil and grain moisture conditions, but like I said in my previous post, understandably, it's just time to go. Unfortunately, the forecast for much of Central and Southern Illinois does not look promising for getting back to soybean harvest for several more days. The NASS crops report released today indicated 30% of the state has adequate topsoil moisture while 70% has surplus moisture. Surplus moisture – a great way of saying WET. However, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the progress of soybean harvest increased more than I expected. We went from 13% complete on October 18^th to 33% complete in today's report. Most all of that harvest progress was made prior to last Thursday and it also came at the expense of harvest progress in corn. While 33% sounds much better than 13%, the five year average for this same date is 86% complete so we are still behind by over half the state. I hope the weather clears up soon and we still have a few good warm and sunny days to cut beans. I admit, though, I have spent a lot of time hoping the weather is soon to improve to no avail so far this year.

What can I really say at this point? It just continues to be a frustrating year, and given the heavy rains across much of Illinois Thursday and Friday, it just seems it isn't going to improve soon. We know we are extremely behind in soybean harvest. Only 13% of our soybean acres were harvested as of October 18, and the five year average for that date is 79%. Assuming 8.5 million acres of soybean in Illinois that means there were 5 and a half million acres that were still in the field that shouldn't have been for that date. Unfortunately, given there has been very little progress in the last four days, we can only be further behind by now. I am in the same position as farmers as my Soybean Production Research team has still only harvest one research experiment. I wanted to be nearly done by now as well!

There are several concerns that continue to increase. First, resisting the temptation to make ruts in fields is going to be almost impossible for many farmers, but don't forget that compaction will cost you again later. The worst thing about rutting fields at this point is the reality that there will not be much, if any, time for fall tillage. But appropriately, there is little doubt that harvesting your crops from the field should take very high priority at this point in time. This is particularly true for your soybeans. Many soybeans in the field have already sustained several wetting and drying cycles.

The second concern is ground conditions are saturated in many fields, daily temperatures will not be getting very high, humidity levels tend to not get very low in late October, and there will be more and more soybeans harvested at higher than normal moisture levels. Here is a recent newsletter article including information from Lizabeth Stahl and Bill Wilcke, University of Minnesota, and Ken Hellevang, North Dakota State University, on Storing, Drying, and Handling Wet Soybeans.

Last, there is also increasing risks of reducing yields and seed quality the longer harvest is delayed. Dr. Anne Dorrance, an Ohio State University Extension plant pathologist reported Phomopsis Seed Rot of Soybeans started showing up in Ohio fields last week. Here is an Ohio State (Phomopsis fact sheet), and information from the University of Illinois Soybean Disease Research Laboratory: Phomopsis. On average, many of our fields were further behind in development than some of Ohio so we may not have experienced as many wetting and drying cycles past first possible harvest moisture (15%) here in Illinois, but the development of Phomopsis is a concern for us as well.

The best advice in this situation is probably to just make sure you have a well formulated plan of harvest and equipment remains maintained and ready so you are ready to take advantage of the opportunity once it presents itself. –Vince

Soybean harvest is progressing at a very slow pace in Illinois this year due in part by the late developing crop, but more importantly by relentless, rainy weather patterns over the last two weeks. The state was over 50% behind in soybean acre harvest (or over 4 million acres behind) according to the NASS crops report at the beginning of last week. When the next report comes out in a couple of days I expect we will be much further behind as harvested acres have not increased much in the last five days. I drove around Champaign county this afternoon and there were several combines rolling in corn, but I did not see any combines in soybeans. I suspect there will be a lot more soybeans harvested soon if the weather forecast for the next couple of days is correct.

Many soybeans have been in the fields ready for harvest for between one and two weeks under wet conditions. For the most part these fields seem to have soybeans that are standing well and maintaining good mature plant integrity. One question that has come up in recent conversations is how long soybean pods will remain intact before shattering (pod splitting) will occur? Of course it is always best if soybeans are combined when moisture gets below 15% for the first time. But if weather and logistics do not allow this, the time allowed before seed shattering starts will depend on variety, days of delay, and temperature and moisture fluctuations (wetting and drying cycles). The more wetting and drying cycles that occur, and the faster they occur, the more shattering will occur.

Soybean breeders have done a great job of breeding the seed shattering trait out of soybean and newer varieties are better at keeping pods closed than older varieties. However, if harvest is delayed too long, pod splitting will still occur. This has been the case under lengthy wet conditions in Mississippi this fall. Trey Koger, Soybean Extension Specialist with Mississippi State University elaborated on problems with pod splitting and premature seed germinating in this newsletter article: http://agfax.com/updates/ms/2009/mcsnl/0925.pdf. I don't expect we could have as many problems in Illinois with germinating seeds in the pods because our air temperatures are not likely to stay warm enough. However, if pods split open, seeds will certainly drop to the ground and yield is lost all the same.

I hope this weather improves and soybean harvest is soon completed so none of these issues will become a problem. However, if adverse weather continues to keep you from harvesting your soybeans, examining pods in fields closely may provide you with indication of fields should be harvested first to minimize harvest loses. Again, I hope this will not become a problem, but is something you should watch for as we are in a fall with harvest much later than normal. Good luck with continuing harvest - Vince

There is no doubt that frost has halted crop growth in much of Northern Illinois. I have been looking at several fields today in Knox and Henry county. I have taken several great pictures; however, I am in Northern Henry county tonight and the cord to download those pictures are in Champaign county as I type. (Not happy with myself for that one) Temperatures dipped as low as 28 F over the night last night in central Knox county. The forecast predicts temperatures possibly as low as 22 F in some areas overnight tonight. There are some areas also currently receiving freezing rain and snow tonight coming through the quad cities and north.

This morning, Lyle Paul, our Agronomist at the University of Illinois, Northern Illinois Agronomy Research Center, also provided this message regarding the DeKalb, IL area "overnight temperatures were below 30 degrees for about 4 hours. On the way to the field this morning, all of the green corn leaves looked water soaked and very shiny. They are predicting lower temperatures for the overnight tonight. It appears that all additional yield accumulation has stopped. Field conditions are wet at this time. Most of the soybeans on the Center were nearing maturity, at least within a week or so of being there. The corn is another matter. Very little corn in the general area or at the field has black layered naturally."

This message from Lyle is accurate with the fields I have looked at today in the Northwestern region. I have driven greater than 100 miles today and have seen less than a dozen soybean fields that have likely sustained a loss of quality and yield due to this sudden end to the season. Given the calendar date, it is really not all that sudden, but in terms of crop growth it's more sudden than some fields would like. An overwhelming majority of soybean fields in this region (like Lyle mentioned for DeKalb in the Northern region) are mature or nearly mature. A couple fields that were most affected were in southern Knox county and they were double cropped fields in the early R6 growth stage. The plants were only affected in the top 1/3 of the canopy like I wrote about in my previous post. However, in Henry county, cold temperatures affected the entire plants. So by in large, the freezing temperatures were certainly not a wide-scale catastrophe, but there were a few fields 'caught with their pants down' so to speak.

There is; however, one bright spot to this killing frost. There are many fields with volunteer corn (as well as other various weeds) this year and the heavy prevalence of volunteer corn has been written about in many newsletter articles this summer. This frost will make those soybean fields just a little easier to combine since those plants were also killed by the frost. Bundle up, Vince

I have heard a few conversations about the potential frost and a few people may be concerned. There is a potential for nighttime low temperatures to dip to freezing this weekend and through several nights next week in the Northern half of Illinois. This is slightly concerning, but I think the bigger problem is the continued rain pattern most of Illinois continues to experience. This morning we are under a flash flood watch in Urbana. The harvest season has been shortened enough as it is, and muddy fields will not help farmers end the season on a good note. I suggest you check your local area weather forecast for the most detailed information www.accuweather.com; however, it is roughly just the Northern half of Illinois most at risk.

In my previous post and recent newsletter article, I did not address this potential frost because, well, it is that time of year. Moreover, as I already hinted, I do not think it will be too big of an issue for an overwhelming majority of acres. For the large part, soybean acres that are most at risk (the least developed) are in the Southern third of the state. It looks like night time temperatures will be pretty cold on a few nights but a hard frost is still 8 - 10 days away in the southern regions - as of today's forecast anyway.

So, what is a 'hard' frost you might ask? If soybeans are still green (65% moisture), they can be slightly damaged at temperatures in the low 30's (F). Slightly damaged means there will be some effect to color, coat, reduced test weight, and reduced oil composition. Temperatures in the low 30's will also only affect the top portion of the soybean canopy. How deep the damage can go into the canopy will depend on how thick the canopy is and how long the low temperatures remain. The cold temperatures (resulting damage) will work down in the plant canopy pushing against rising heat from the soil surface. However, temperatures below 28 F will kill green tissue, and can even kill the entire plant if the canopy is too thin or the rows are too wide.

If you are concerned, here are some thoughts to assess if your soybeans are ready for the cold temperatures. The first thing is to know their developmental stage. The R6 stage is when green soybean seeds fill the pod cavity on the upper four nodes of the plant. The beans are most at risk for yield loss before they reach this growth stage. Plants stay in R6 for 18 days on average but this can range from 9 to 30 days depending on temperature. In my last article I said many soybean fields sped through R6 this year. This was true because of decent early September temperatures and sunshine. However, I suspect that a majority of even the greenest of fields in Illinois are somewhere in the R6 stage and yield losses will be minor at the temperatures predicted over the next 10 days. The next developmental stage is R7. R7 is when one pod anywhere on the plant is at mature pod color. This is usually brownish or grayish. Once soybeans reach R7, yield losses due to frost are very minor to basically negligible. A frost, light or hard, in the R6 or R7 stage will speed the development of maturity along. The result will be lighter test weights. So, if your beans do get some frost somewhere in the R6 or early R7 stage, the first sign you'll likely notice is low test weights (upper 40's to low 50's) at harvest. This will likely calculate out to be a minor yield impact.

So far, many early yield reports I have been hearing for soybean have been good, or at least better than expected. I suspect, and in some cases know, that these good yield reports have been from the earlier planted fields so reported yields may go down for the later planted fields.

If you are still concerned about frost in later planted fields, you can also check out a September 2009 article "Impact of Cool Temperatures on Soybean Seed Fill" in the Soy Report by Dr. Shawn Conley. He did a nice job of summarizing effects to soybean due to cold and freezing temperatures.

Also the Grain Quality Fact Sheet No. 1 from October 1995 written by Marvin R. Paulsen University of Illinois explains some of the grain quality concerns, composition effects, and storage recommendations for damaged, green beans. An Iowa State Extension publication #PM1635 Frost Damage to Corn and Soybeans also a useful resource.

Again, think safety and have a safe harvest. - Vince

I am posting my newsletter article for this week on my blog before it will be published in the Bulletin. Please visit the Bulletin in a couple of days; however, to read all the other important articles. I know there will be a couple about soybean aphids coming from Dr. Mike Gray.

The sun is shining here in Urbana and I am going to leave this office soon and harvest some soybeans myself. I am very anxious to collect yield data on my first year of experiments. I have heard several 'unoffical' yield results and many are better than expected. I received a call yesterday about a very happy farmer with 80+ bu/acre in some areas of his field, and I have been told some plots have broke 90+ bu/acre at our NorthWest UI research center. However, I know there are some fields that will be disappointing as well so it is still too early to out guess how the 'averages' will end up.

Soybean harvest activities will be in full force in the coming weeks as weather permits. NASS reported 6% of soybean acres were harvested as of October 4^th which is 34% behind the 5 year average. Soybean development has been a couple weeks behind the five year average all season long and 2009 will go down as a 'unique' season to say the least. Soybean development remained a few days to a week behind 2008 development until the end of August when it slipped two weeks behind 2008 because of cold August temperatures. Interestingly, the development progressed at a seemingly accelerated pace in September closing the gap to 2008 development as maturity approaches. These state data are consistent with observations in my research plots where it seemed the R3 to R5 stages developed slowly but R5 to R7 developed fast. I know the latest planted fields still need some more heat and sunshine, but unfortunately, in the last week or so we have been back in weather patterns with 3 to 8 degrees (F) below average temperatures. Cool and wet weather, and crop development that is behind average has been the same story all season long. Nonetheless, harvest is narrowly here and an answer to the question "What can this 2009 soybean crop yield?" is soon to be answered. I hope that answer is a favorable answer for all of you as I wish you a plentiful and safe harvest.

Here are some meandering thoughts regarding soybean harvest:

· Make certain your combine is properly adjusted and in good working condition. The most common loss of soybean yield due to harvest operations is at the cutter bar. Pay particular attention to the adjustments and condition of that.

· As you harvest, monitor your harvest loss to make necessary adjustments. This can simply be done by counting the soybeans left on the ground behind the combine. Harvest loss can't be eliminated, but a good goal is to lose no more than 1 bu per acre which is 30 to 40 soybean seeds per square yard depending on seed size. For more information check out "Combine Settings for Minimum Harvest Loss" available at: [http://extension.agron.iastate.edu/soybean/production_combineset.html]

· Combines are also good at spreading problems across fields or to different fields. Make a harvest plan that accounts for reducing movement of weed seeds and/or sclerotia from white mold infection. If you have patches of weeds that were difficult to control, or if you are among the many growers that has white mold (Sclerotinia stem rot) this year, combine those patches or those fields last if possible. If you can't harvest them last because of deteriorating crop conditions or logistics, clean out the combine as best as possible before leaving the infested areas and moving to other areas. Both weed seeds and sclerotia from Sclerotinia stem rot can survive in the soil for many years and limiting their spread can help future management challenges.

o Sclerotia are the small hard black irregular shaped structures found on the outside or inside of a soybean plant infected with white mold. For more information check out Carl Bradley's previous July 24^th issue 18 Bulletin article or Westphal et al. BP-43-W Purdue Extension Publication "White Mold" available at: [http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/BP/BP-43-W.pdf]

· First, Last, and Always, Think Safety. - Vince