John Thomas, Extension Educator, Box Butte County
Jeff Bradshaw, Extension Entomologist, Panhandle Research and Extension Center
Karen DeBoer, Extension Educator, Cheyenne County
As winter wheat harvest progresses in the Nebraska Panhandle, it is becoming clear that 2020 is another year of significant wheat stem sawfly infestation and cutting. Infestations are moderate in the north and heavier in the south.
Robert M. Harveson, Extension Plant Pathologist
Xin Qiao, Water and Irrigation Management Specialist
University of Nebraska, Panhandle Research and Extension Center, Scottsbluff
On July 13, 2020 we found symptoms characteristic of Cercospora leaf spot (CLS) on lower leaves of sugarbeets from research plots at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center at Scottsbluff.
CLS, a foliar disease of the beet, has long been a problem for sugarbeet production in more humid areas of the United States. But it has been a sporadic, but potentially severe problem for us in western Nebraska. The disease is caused by the fungal pathogen, Cercospora beticola, and is spread by spores moving in wind currents throughout and among fields.
Gary Stone, Jessica Groskopf, and John Thomas, Extension Educators; Dr. Xin Qiao, Extension Water & Irrigation Management Specialist; and David Ostdiek, Extension Communications
July 17 will mark the one-year anniversary of an event that many irrigators in western Nebraska will not forget – the Goshen / Gering-Ft Laramie Irrigation Districts Tunnel No. 2 collapsed, causing a breach in the main canal that dried up water deliveries for irrigators on the south side of the North Platte River under these two districts.
The farmers lost water for 42 days during the critical crop growing time, affecting over 107,000 acres in the North Platte River Valley of Nebraska and Wyoming.
Soil health advocates say interest is growing in nurturing the health of the vital natural resource. But there’s no standard way to measure soil health or predict its potential for improvement.
Now, a soil scientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is proposing a name and a concept that could help establish the parameters for measuring baseline soil health and its potential for improvement.
