We have been receiving reports since corn harvest began this fall about an unusual phenomenon: yields of the outside 8 to 24 rows on the south or west edges of corn fields show lower or much lower yields than corn farther into the field. The damage tends to be relatively uniform down or across the field, and is on field edges that border a soybean field, road, ditch, or another short-growing crop (such as forage legumes or grasses) other than corn.

If we could predict or know that the planting season during 2014 would be like it was in 2012 (the dry spring), then we would say don't treat your seed at all. But if the season is like this past year, wet, the combinations of seed treatments did a much better job and at the higher rates. There have been lots of questions over the past few days on what fungicides to apply; what rates to use; and are insecticides always necessary. Here we try to parse it all out for you.

Corn growers need to scout their fields to determine wireworm populations before planting so they don't miss the optimum treatment window, a Purdue Extension entomologist says. Wireworms, or click beetle larvae, feed on corn seed germ and may prevent plants from sprouting. The pest becomes active when soil temperatures warm into the upper 40s.

In recent years, some no-tillers have criticized strip-till, pointing to instances of severe soil erosion in fields that were strip-tilled up and down hills. But more than 25 years ago, a study by three agricultural engineers at the University of Illinois showed that strip-tilling on the contour effectively minimized soil erosion and limited losses of herbicides and insecticides.

Dutiful cooperators have captured an inordinate number of black cutworm moths in traps in Indiana and Illinois in the last couple weeks.