Just like you are worried about your kids getting sick before school starts, farmers are closely monitoring their crops for diseases in the months before they are harvested. According to the USDA’s Crop Progress and Condition Report earlier this week, Wisconsin’s corn and soybean crops continue progressing near their five-year average. Corn and soybeans are rated 82 percent good to excellent, slightly better than last week. Corn silking is 95 percent complete, while soybeans are 93 percent blooming. Farmers hope the crops’ quality can stick with them through the fall, though this is also when pests like corn rootworm and diseases like white mold can appear. Rio Creek Feed Mill agronomist Adam Barta says farmers should closely monitor disease and pests, especially as the plants begin to fill out.

In other fields, about 94 percent of winter wheat and 72 percent of oats has been harvested, which is right around last year’s pace. Farmers are also closing in on completing their third cutting of alfalfa, with about 20 percent already starting their fourth.