The 2014 crop season had its fair share of severe weather across southwest Michigan. Heavy thunderstorm winds in combination with driving rainfall caused severe lodging in many corn fields in the southern two tiers of counties across Michigan in both the mid- and later vegetative growth stages.

Fungicides applied with herbicides at tillering in wheat may not always result in a profitable investment partly due to low disease pressure at this point in time.

With temperatures in the Midwest about 20 degrees below normal at the beginning of spring people will soon start to consider the weather impact on spring planting.

It was the one thing that was on the mind of most everyone at the 2013 annual outlook conference of the U.S. Agriculture Department.

Field history and weather patterns are important in determining how to best manage crop diseases, says a Purdue University plant pathologist.