Palmer amaranth is native to the Southwest but has been expanding its range for at least 50 years. Most recently it has moved into the Midwest and has been reported in all Corn Belt states except for Minnesota and the Dakotas.

The cold winter has prompted farmers to ask what the influence of these temperatures might be on insect and slug populations. Hard winters will knock back some pest species, but it's difficult to generalize, and the influence of cold winter temperatures on the majority of crop pests is not very predictable.

A large body of literature has shown that genetically-modified plants that produce proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to protect themselves from insect pests have little to no effect on a wide range of nontarget insects. However, concerns about Bt crops still exist.

Orthman Mfg. announces the appointment of Randy Haarberg as Precision Tillage Systems Agronomist. Haarberg will focus on agronomic education and will assist the Orthman team, dealers and growers worldwide with crop production systems recommendations.

In 2011, University of Kentucky set up 3 commercial-scale, on-farm fungicide tests in fields of yellow and white corn in West Kentucky.

Wind chill is a measure of what the combination of wind and temperature feels like. In calm conditions, there is a fine layer of air called the boundary layer that insulates us from the cold.

DuPont Prevathon insect control powered by Rynaxypyr has received United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registration for use on cereal crops, including wheat, most other small grains and sorghum.

Nutra-Flo Co., a North American liquid fertilizer manufacturer, announces its agreement with the bioinnovation company Novozymes to nationally distribute Novozymes BioAg’s Torque and Ratchet brands bioyield enhancement products. The agreement allows Nutra-Flo to custom-blend the two brands with its liquid fertilizer and micronutrient products.

Below are brief descriptions of herbicides introduced over the past year or so. As readers are undoubtedly aware, there is currently almost no development of new active ingredients. Most of the products mentioned here are premixes of existing herbicides. Some of these seem to have a fit for Ohio situations while others do not. A brief Powerpoint video on this is covered here: http://agcrops.osu.edu/specialists/weeds.

Populations of European corn borer (ECB), a major corn crop pest, have declined significantly in the eastern United States, according to Penn State researchers.