With over 30 years of experience in the seed industry, Technical Team Agronomist Greg Peters has seen both the good years and the bad. While this year’s crop looks fairly good across his region in western Iowa, Greg is keeping his trained eye on a field that appears to be struggling.

“In 2012 we saw a lot of corn rootworm issues in this area,” says Greg. “I spent that entire summer doing root-digs. In order to determine the rootworm presence in this field today, I think the best thing to do would be to dig up some roots.”

The field looked patchy from the hill above. As we stepped into the rows of corn, the lodged stalks were a tell-tale sign of the pest.

While the corn rootworms feed on the roots earlier in the season, they then develop into corn rootworm beetles. These beetles can clip fresh silks or strip leaves. All-in-all, these pests are not what you want to see in the field.

Greg started chatting about hybrid resistance variations, DNA technology and other concepts that proved he knew much about genetic traits. Basically, our job was to test the roots for a protein that confirmed the plants were meant to ward off corn rootworms.

“We dug up ten plants, manually evaluated the nodal damage, and tested the roots,” says Greg. “Car washes make for a great lab!”

While this issue is not desirable for any field, steps taken now can help prevent the same from occurring in the future.

The LG Seeds team of TTA’s are a great resource for any issue in the field. Reach out to your local TTA with any questions throughout the season.