Crop Talk by IAS – 05/13/2026

Crop Talk by IAS – Field Scouting Update | May 13

This week on Crop Talk, IAS agronomists across Iowa are shifting from planting progress to emergence checks, crusting concerns, and early replant conversations. While most growers are nearing the finish line on planting, changing soil conditions and uneven emergence are creating a new round of scouting priorities.

In this episode, the team discusses:
 • Crusting concerns showing up in both corn and soybeans
 • Why April 23 planting dates are getting extra attention
 • Rotary hoe considerations and when it can help
 • Uneven soybean emergence and patchy stands
 • What “leafing out underground” means in corn
 • How moisture, soil type, and temperature swings are impacting emergence
 • Herbicide activation concerns in dry conditions
 • Why targeted scouting matters field by field
 • Stand count and replant conversations starting across Iowa

As always, these are real-time insights from local IAS agronomists sharing what they’re seeing right now across Iowa fields.

Featured this week:
Nicholas Giesseman (Host)
Nick Thompson
Owen Heetland
Erin Recker
Adrianna Herlache

🎧 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.

Transcript

Nicholas Giessman 0:00

Welcome to Crop Talk, brought to you by Innovative Egg Services, and this is our Field Sky 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.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Hey, this is Nick Thompson from the Southwest region. I cover Story County, Harden County, and Hamilton County. Right now, around Ellsworth, we're sitting at about four inches above our year-to-date average on rainfall, with a little bit of showers coming here this morning, and some coming next week as well. So my biggest watch out is gonna be make sure it's still dry to go out into the fields. I saw some in my scouting last week that trenches didn't close up as fast, furrows didn't close, and we may have some sidewalk compaction. Just make sure that the ground is fit when you're going out there. And when you go to spray your pre's, make sure it's not terribly windy. It looks like we're gonna have a few red flag days coming up here. Pre's, it's a little easier to get it to stick to the ground, but just make sure it's not terribly windy out when you're getting those out there. That's all I have right now for the southwest region. Everything's looking pretty good. Just make sure that you're checking your fields if they're dry enough and if you're gonna have any crusting. We've seen a few planting dates with crusting in it recently, and you need to make sure you stay on top of that with a rotary hoe or whatever you need to come back with. I'll send it up to our northwest region and Owen.

Owen Heetland 1:57

Thanks, Nick. This is Owen Heatland in the Cleves location covering Harden, Grundy, Butler, and Franklin County. As Nick said, we've received a little bit of rain this morning. Sounds like more Thursday and then more into the weekend, which would be much needed. We've got a fair amount of corn here that's got a little bit of crust on it, and some beans that have been planted into some dry dirt and a lot of herbicide sitting on top of the ground that's going to need some rain to incorporate it. I would peg corn at 95% complete, beans at 80 to 85% complete. It's been cold, so crops have been slow to come out of the ground. And as Nick said, we do have some crusting replant issues that we'll talk about later in the podcast. Weeds have continued to grow, so it's important that we stay on top of them with preherbicides, burndowns if necessary, etc. With that, I will pass it on to the northeast region and Aaron.

Erin Recker 2:54

Thanks, Owen. I'm Aaron Wrecker. I'm out of the Masonville location. I cover Buchanan, Delaware, and parts of Fayette and Clayton County. It has been a busy week here with planters, sprayers, and spreaders running hard. I would say we're about 95% planted on our corn and about 80% on our beans. Here in Masonville, we are getting pretty close to wrapping up our pre-applications. Just a reminder for the guys who planted a little earlier, as those crops are starting to come out of the ground, doing stand counts is important. We've had some weather that could have possibly created some issues with emergence. We've had rain, wind, and even some cooler temperatures. So getting out in the field to check as they are emerging will be important. If you're thinking a replant might be needed, reach out to your agronomist. We'd be happy to come do some stand counts. With that, I'm going to pass it over to Adriana in our southeast region.

Adrianna Herlache 3:39

Thank you, Erin. I'm Adriana Prulash of the Monasello location covering the southeast region, mainly Jones County and parts of Delaware County. I think everyone around here is excited for a little bit of rain that we're got forecasted. I'm starting to see some soil crusting going since we've been pretty dry the last two weeks. Most of the growers around here are finishing up or at least have started their planting. Here at the co-op with the dry weather run that we've had, we've been lucky and moving at a steady pace, getting our pre's. Soon enough, we'll be out there on our post second pass. Just a friendly reminder to growers that if you're concerned about possibly needing a replant or concerns about herbicide efficiency, please reach out to your local agronomist. We are here for you for every step of the way and want to make sure that you have everything you need. Thank you. And I'll kick it back to your host, Nicholas.

Nicholas Giessman 4:26

Thank you very much, Adriana, for that update. Uh, like everybody kind of said, me and Owen are gonna get into it here about some replants and what kind of options we have, you know, whether it's corn or beans. Owen, I know on the east side over here in particular, we're looking at two dates April 22nd, April 23rd. Is there a couple specific dates on the west side that are really hard? Really watch out dates for having some crusting or some replant possibilities?

Owen Heetland 4:49

I would agree, probably April 23rd. There are a few guys that maybe planted on the 24th, 25th, but the big issue is the 23rd over here. Does not appear to be, you know, a super hard crust like last year. We just see a lot of plants that were planted then and then went through a lot of cycles of up and down soil temps and just harder soil, and they're just having a hard time pushing over that way on the east side. Nicholas, have you seen many rotary hose running or had guys ask about it? Or what do you use for a gauge over that way?

Nicholas Giessman 5:22

There's a few rotary hose out that are moving right now or have been the past week here, touching up some of that early stuff, trying to get that crust, just that top little bit of soil broken up to get that seed a chance to get up and out of the ground when you're going out and gauging stuff. If it's trying, you know, you have the opportunity to go out, you know, and corn to kind of break up that top layer and get that seed to come up and have a decent emergence or at least a chance to. As far as on the beans, I know a lot of guys are seeing one spot looks really good. You turn around and there's nothing for 100 feet, 200 feet. You know, it's patchy in spots, and that that could have been due to moisture in the soil, different soil types, things that occurred at the time of planting. I know on the bean side, a lot of guys are just going out there and interceding or replanting that field to get it up to the population that they desire.

Owen Heetland 6:09

On here on the west side, I would say that first on corn, that what you're looking for is a lot of the corn is starting to leaf out underground, or what we call leaf out underground. So what's happening is the radical grows down, the mesocato grows up, and that mesocato is covered by the coliupile. As it pushes through the soil, it can't get through. So it sees a crack of light, starts to leaf out underground. So the thought process is by running the rotary hoe, you can break up that call it crust and get that leaf to get sunlight and get pushed up and out of the ground. Essentially, is what you're trying to do is save some of those plants that otherwise wouldn't make it to save your stand. So, as you do that, that is most effective earlier on, and those plants won't last that terrible long once they start to leaf out underground. So you're really going to look to make sure that that seedling is still healthy, the seed is still firm and white, not yellow and mushy. And then after that is done, a couple days later, the hope would be take stand count, and the stand count looks better. Iowa State has done a really good job of having stand counts and dates. So you can look at this was planted say April 23rd. If we replant on May 20th, what kind of stand would we have to have? And you can evaluate a stand that way after you rotary hoe, but you got to give that corn a couple days after you rotary hoe to really see what the stand is gonna be. As we transition over to beans, rotary hoeing in beans is not as common. I think we've seen more of it over here in the west because the beans were planted a little deeper, they're still a ways from the surface. So guys have been rotary hoeing a little earlier to try and get them up and out. The problem with beans is if you rotary hoe them and break the cotyledon off up top, you kill the beans because once that's gone, it's unlike corn, the growing point is is above the ground. And so what'll happen in beans is as they grow up, they will push so hard that they break the cotyledon, the mesocotyl breaks and breaks cotyledon off, and they just die. So rotary hoeing beans is much more in depth. You have to be careful that they're not close enough to the surface that you're gonna break them off because you'll do more damage than good. That's why a lot of people will just go in next to the row and spike more beans in. So those are kind of the different things you want to look at. Talk to any of your agronomists, we can help you make that determination and see what you need to do. Nicholas, have you had any other questions or anybody kind of experiment with anything else that way?

Nicholas Giessman 8:34

As far as experimenting, I'm not sure if it's something totally new, but I know a lot of guys they run their planner right over that same row, just not planting anything, just to break up that top little bit rather than rotary hoe in the field. That's something that people are using just to kind of help that emergence if you're having trouble. I think GPS has played a lot of that in these last few years when you can actually follow the same row and know you're gonna do what you want it to do.

Owen Heetland 8:54

Yep, and I wouldn't make sure that you're using targeted scouting. You know, I happened this weekend to look at a field that was planted April 23rd, need to be rotary hoeed, had the Bayer agronomists come out and look at it. And then we looked at a field that was planted April 21st, and it looked just fine. So for whatever reason, we always have those couple days every spring that you probably shouldn't have planted, and it seems like we have that again this year. So start there and then work through your seeds as far as emergence goes, or work through, you know, maybe fields have soil types that would crust or get hard. Use that to your advantage and and start scouting that way. Hopefully, we get some rain this weekend, that will definitely help that situation. If not, you know, continue to look through those fields and and contact us to help you where you need help.

Nicholas Giessman 9:42

That's all for this week's Crop Talk by IAS. Thanks for tuning in. If any of our listeners have questions, feel free to email them to crop talk at innovativeag.com. Be sure to like, follow, and subscribe so you don't miss next week's update. And if you know a fellow grower who'd 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 Innovative Ag Services on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. We'll catch you next week on Crop Talk.