Crop Talk by IAS
Crop Talk by IAS
What You Need to Know from People You Know.
Step into the field with the agronomists who are walking it every day.
Hosted by Nicholas Giesseman and Nick Thompson, Crop Walk by Innovative Ag Services (IAS) delivers timely, boots-on-the-ground insights from across our four service regions. Each week, our agronomy team shares what they’re seeing, hearing, and recommending right now—from crop conditions and pest pressure to nutrient management and weather impacts.
Featuring IAS agronomists from across our territory, this weekly update brings local perspective, real-world experience, and practical recommendations you can use immediately.
Because when it comes to your operation, the best insights come from people who know your ground—and know you.
Do you have questions you would like to ask our hosts? Email CropTalk@InnovativeAg.com
To learn more about Innovative Ag Services and our agronomy services, visit InnovativeAg.com/Agronomy.
Produced by IAS Communications in partnership with My Four Creative.
Crop Talk by IAS
First Field Scouting Update of the Season
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The season is starting to shift—and so are the decisions that matter.
In this first episode of Crop Talk by IAS, our agronomy team shares real-time updates from across the region as fields begin to warm up and early spring activity gets underway. From anhydrous safety reminders to soil conditions, fertilizer timing, and early weed pressure, this episode is all about helping you start the season strong.
You’ll hear boots-on-the-ground insights from our agronomists across northwest, southwest, northeast, and eastern Iowa, including what they’re seeing in the field today—and what to watch in the days ahead.
This week’s highlights:
- Early-season field conditions and soil temperature trends
- Why patience matters when it comes to spring application timing
- Anhydrous safety reminders as application begins
- Early signs of weed germination and what to plan for now
- Alfalfa checks and spring readiness considerations
As always, these are practical, local insights you can use right away—because the best decisions start with what’s happening in your fields right now.
Listen Now: 👉 https://www.innovativeag.com/agronomy#crop-talk-podcast
Hosted by IAS agronomists Nicholas Giesseman and Nick Thompson, with updates from Owen Heetland, Melissa Schumann, and agronomists across the IAS service area.
Do you have questions you would like to ask our hosts? Email them to CropTalk@InnovativeAg.com, and our team might address them on an upcoming podcast.
To learn more about Innovative Ag Services and our agronomy services, visit InnovativeAg.com/Agronomy.
🎧 Listen now
Have a question for the team? Send it to CropTalk@InnovativeAg.com
To learn more about Innovative Ag Services and our agronomy services, visit InnovativeAg.com/Agronomy.
Produced by IAS Communications in partnership with My Four Creative.
Welcome to Crop Talk, brought to you by Innovative Ag Services, and this is our first field scouting special. Each week from March through October, our agronomy team shares timely, boots on the ground updates from across the IAS geography so you can make confident decisions as the seasons change. Today you'll hear a quick regional update from our IAS agronomist, including what we're seeing in the fields right now, what to keep an eye on next, and a few practical scouting reminders you can put to work this week. I'm your host, Nicholas Giesman, and I'm going to pass it over to my other host, Nick Thompson.
SPEAKER_03This is Nick Thompson from the Ellsworth area, covering Story County, Harden County, and Hamilton County. We'll kick it off with some quick safety guidelines. As we know early in the season, we're about to pick up on anhydras. And with anhydris starting up, a lot of it has to do with the safety of yourself and your applicators. Make sure you always have water on hand. You're using a correct PPE, including face masks, gloves, and make sure to check the tanks and lines to ensure that nothing could break on you out in the field and leave you with some tough decisions to make. As we move along here to our regional updates for scouting, I'll pass it along here to Owen with our Northwest region.
SPEAKER_02Hi, I'm Owen Heatland in the Cleves location that cover Harden, Grundy, Franklin, and Butler County. Around here, it is starting to warm up. Starting to see a few guys trying some ammonia here and there. Probably start to try some dry fertilizer here in the next couple days. As we continue to see trends moving forward, I think that will only increase. You know, the seasonal reminder or watch out this week is make sure that we're not pushing things too early. I've seen a lot of times where it may be a little bit too wet and we run a little too early, and that those compaction lines, that sidewall compaction, all of those issues will present later and show up all year long. So that's the biggest thing is just making sure we're patient enough and doing things when we need to be doing, not pushing things a little bit too early. Other than that, I will kick it back to Nick. Thanks, Ellen.
SPEAKER_03Here's my update for the southwest region. It's a little bit wet out here at the moment, but we're still out running dry fertilizer and any three on the fields that have dried out. My biggest watch out would be not every field is built the same. While you have one field that may be dry just a mile down the road, whether it's topography or tiling or any sort of drainage, that field might be a little bit wet. So just like Owen said, make sure you're walking those fields before you're getting out in them. There's still plenty of time before plant. We don't need to be pushing a whole lot of stuff. Just be sure that if you're getting out there, you're getting out there at the right times. Soil temps around here are looking to be around anywhere from 40 degrees up around 46 degrees as you get more south in the story county. And I'll kick it over to Melissa in our northeast region.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Nick. My name is Melissa Schumann, covering the northeast corner of Iowa, specifically the Clayton and Fayette County regions here. We are seeing warming up soils down here. We are still having some snowbanks around our terrace lines and our waterways. So guys are kind of holding tight as there is a lot of moisture in the ground that needs to dry up before field conditions are fit to start pulling ammonia and dry fertilizer. But the calendar is starting to make guys a little bit nervous that they should be out doing something. So trying to just calm everybody down that planting is still a little ways away and we've still got time. Let the weather do what it's gonna do. The alfalfa fields and the cover crops are starting to green up. So that's a nice thing to see as we're driving through the hillsides and see that holding on to the soil. And just gonna keep updating everyone as we get last-minute fixes on our machines and get ready to hit the ground running when the fields are fully fit here. Hopefully, pretty soon. I'll kick it down to you, Nicholas, in our eastern region.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Melissa. I'm Nicholas Giesman covering Dubuque, Jackson, and Jones County here in eastern Iowa. About the same. We're seeing some soils drying up, some stuff staying wet. Mostly guys are starting to ammonia on some sandier stuff, looking to get some dry fertilizer started as things keep drying out. Looking to start with our best foot forward here when it comes to spring tillage and hydris and dry application. As Owen hinted at, if we are out there too early before the soils are fit, that you might see some compaction issues, whether it's sidewall or otherwise, all season long, just by starting a couple days too soon. So making sure we put the brakes on and wait till our fields are ready to go before we hop in there. One big thing that I'm looking at right now as alfalfa comes out of dormacy is doing some stand counts, checking some roots because now is the time if we're gonna spray off an alfalfa field or reseed some stuff down, is making those calls here this week or next to judge if that hay stand is good enough to go another year. And that's all I have from the eastern side. Is there anybody else that has some watch outs for the next upcoming weeks?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, looking at the weather here as we start to warm up and we're gonna see the sun come out here a little bit more out on this western front. I'm getting a little concerned about weed germination as I've been digging in some of these fields and taking soil temps. I have started to see some roots from both Marestail and Pennycrest start to germinate. And in these next coming weeks, here there's a chance that we could see them come up. So just make sure that you're getting with your agronomist and having your pre-emergent herbicide put on and timed correctly so that we can get this season off to a right start.
SPEAKER_01That's it for this week's Crop Talk by IAS. Thanks for tuning in to our first ever episode. Be sure to like, follow, and subscribe so you don't miss next week's update. And if you know a fellow grower who value a quick field snapshot, share this episode with them. For more agronomy resources and to connect with your local IAS team, visit innovativeag.com and follow InnovativeEgg services on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. We'll catch you next week on our second episode of Crop Talk.
