Iowa Farmer Today
05-12-07
IFT, ISU team for Internet crop report
By Kevin Blind, Iowa Farmer Today
Crop conditions can change rapidly during the growing season.
Sometimes waiting for the week’s edition of Iowa Farmer Today to arrive in the
mail, bringing you news of what’s happening in Iowa corn and soybean fields can
cost you yield and profits.
In response, Iowa Farmer Today and Iowa State University’s Corn and Soybean
Initiative are launching CropWatch Blog. On this Web site, a team of 13
agronomy specialists from ISU and industry partners of ISU’s Corn and Soybean
Initiative plan to post reports of crop conditions, weed problems, and disease and
pest threats as they arise in fields across Iowa.
The reports will be accessible through Iowa Farmer Today’s Web site,
http://www.iowafarmertoday.com, where readers can click through to the
blogging site. Reports also will be directly accessible by visiting:
http://www.iowafarmertoday.com/blog.
Initial reports from the specialists appear on the site. Those specialists are:
# Palle Pedersen, ISU Extension soybean specialist/assistant professor of
agronomy in Ames;
# Roger Elmore, ISU Extension corn specialist/professor of agronomy in
Ames;
# Mike Owen, ISU Extension weed specialist/professor of agronomy in
Ames;
# Clarke McGrath, ISU Corn and Soybean Initiative partnership manager in
Ames;
# Jim Fawcett, ISU Extension crops field specialist in Iowa City;
# John Holmes, ISU Extension crops field specialist in Clarion;
# Virgil Schmitt, ISU Extension crops field specialist in Muscatine;
# Mark Licht, ISU Extension crops field specialist in Carroll;
# Amy Asmus, owner/certified crop adviser, Asmus Farm Supply in Rake;
# Ryan Lemke, precision ag manager, Heartland Co-op in West Des Moines; and
# Chad Hartzler, seed sales and marketing manager; Tony Licht, regional seed
specialist; and Larry Christensen, regional seed specialist, West Central Co-op in
Ralston.
The blogging site will be continuously updated throughout the growing season,
as the crop experts become aware of changing conditions important to Iowa
farmers across the state.
Visitors to the CropWatch Blog site also will have the opportunity to pose
questions to the bloggers or report conditions in their areas which the blogging
team may not be aware.
Questions and farmer reports can be added by clicking on the “Comments”
button on the Web site and following the instructions.
All comments will be reviewed before being posted on the site.
Subscribers to Iowa Farmer Today’s MarketWatch Online e-mail newsletter will
receive alerts with their twice-a-day newsletter to new postings on the Web site.
A weekly summary of the reports also will be published in the print edition of Iowa
Farmer Today.
We hope this new service provided by Iowa Farmer Today and ISU’s Corn and
Soybean Initiative will become another vital tool for crop farmers across Iowa.