Farmers can readily see the negative impact of adverse weather, plant disease and pests on their yields. As its name implies, “invisible loss” can’t be observed but can be prevented by harvesting early and drying their grain

Overly optimistic assumptions about transgenic crops that produce two or more Bt toxins active against the same pest can lead to inadequate strategies for delaying evolution of pest resistance, says University of Arizona.

As we gear up for planting this week and next there are two insect pests that need to be on our radar. First, reports from Purdue, Penn State and elsewhere have noticed significant flights in black cutworm. This is a migrating moth that lays eggs in corn, which can cause severe cutting of the plant. Stand loss of corn is generally associated with below-ground feeding injury, which occurs below the growing point.

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.