Have you ever wondered why school students are routinely given a series of year-end tests when it may already be too late to help them master the material? Or why doctors insist on an annual medical check-up?

This is the third year of the past four that wet soil conditions have forced many producers to make a decision to seed or not seed a crop when it is well beyond the optimal planting time. The question is whether to plant the crop and accept the risk of lower yields and reduced crop insurance coverage, or to collect a prevented-planting crop insurance indemnity payment and idle the ground, says Andrew Swenson, farm and family financial specialist with the North Dakota State University Extension Service.

Hail storms with up to baseball-sized hail hit corn and soybean fields across portions of central and eastern Nebraska on Tuesday afternoon and evening, June 3.

All spring we've been discussing deficiencies on corn plants and trying to determine if they are to blame on the weather or something else.

Trimble announced a new agronomic service that is part of its Connected Farm solution. Soil Information System (SIS) solution provides farmers and their advisors with in-depth 3-D soil data they can use to make more informed decisions about their crop production goals.

Iowa Learning Farms will host a Strip-till and Cover Crops for Nutrient Management field day on Tuesday, June 17 at the farm of Mark Thompson near Badger, Iowa from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Topics that will be discussed include the use of strip-tillage and cover crops as conservation farming techniques, and how these methods reduce water impairment and pollution. The event is free-of-charge and open to the public, and dinner will be provided.

As soybean planting wraps up, it's time to consider evaluating soybean stands. Planting conditions were not always ideal this year. Soil conditions were a little wet when planting started and now have turned fairly dry in most areas. Here are some points to keep in mind when evaluating soybean stand.

Corn planted in early May under "less than ideal conditions" or pounded by rain is just coming up. There are undoubtedly some questionable stands, but what can be done at this late date?

Early season weed control is imperative to maximize soybean yield. Many soybean growers were unable to apply pre-emergence, residual herbicides prior to soybean emergence.

Northern growers continue to get hammered for the second year with awful planting weather.