Farming Fridays! - The Farmer's Daughter USA

Aphids

The soybeans are coming along and getting close for harvest! As you can see in this photo, they’re starting to change color and dry out:

It won’t be long now! I know there are some parts of the states that are already harvesting soybeans. If that’s you, I’d love to hear how it’s going!

Before we get into harvest though, I wanted to talk about another problem encountered by soybean farmers – aphids. This is a newer pest that we are dealing with and they can certainly impact fields.

See those little white spots? Those are called Aphids.

If you can see those little spots on the leaf in the picture, those are aphids. Aphids are fairly new the Midwest; they showed up in 2000. Originally, they were found in Asia. One of the trickiest tactics by the Aphids is the ability of females to reproduce genetically identical clones.

The Aphids specialty is feeding on the plant by sucking out “plant juices.” Typically, when the soybean plant is already stressed by other factors in the field, such as a drought, the Aphids can really have a big impact on a field. Estimates of damage range from 10 to 15% lower yields. Lower populations of Aphids are harmless, but if the conditions are right and the population goes up, the yields go down.

There are natural enemies of the Aphids, including ladybugs! Unfortunately, higher populations can be too much for natural predators, so they are not always helpful. On the other hand, rain is helpful, because it essentially just washes the Aphids off the leaves. Obviously, they can come back, but it helps. Of course, for a more complete coverage, there are insecticides that can be used if the Aphid populations get too high.

(Sources: Purdue Extension Office, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences.)

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A Little Romance in the Field

Everyone has been talking about the royal baby this week, but the corn has been up to some “baby” making itself!

Obviously, the corn has SHOT UP in the last couple weeks. Can you believe how tall it’s gotten just since the Fourth?

I’ll try to explain the mechanics of corn pollination without going into way too much details. The fun thing, however, is that corn is self-pollinating. That means it doesn’t need a bee or some external mechanism because it has both male and female “parts.”

Essentially, the corn has sprouted these:

Those are known as tassels (the male part). If you’ve ever been up close to one, you know they have these little things that look like rice. When the conditions are right, the wind blows those little guys all over the field. Since each piece of “rice” has pollen on it, the field gets covered with pollen. You can’t see it, of course, but it would be like a cloud in the corn.

That pollen gets picked up by the silk (the female part) on the stalk. The silk (or “the hair”) picks up the pollen. Each piece of silk is connected to what will eventually become a kernel of corn. So, each kernel of corn has a piece of pollen.

As you can see, we’re already growing ears:

Just think that each one of those strands of silk are connected to what will eventually become a kernel of corn!