This information was summarized from a July 6, 1998 teleconference with the 14 ISU extension field specialists in crops located statewide.

• More localized winds, thunderstorms, and tornadoes caused heavy damage to crops in southeast (Jim Jensen), east (Virgil Schmitt), east central (Jim Fawcett), south central (Mark Carlton), and central (John Creswell) Iowa counties. The main problem is broken corn stalks, or green snap damage. In some fields up to 95 percent of the stalks were broken off. Other corn is bent over and as it tries to grow straight it forms a gooseneck at the base of the plant. Some damage from hail occurred in Howard County according to George Cummins (north central).
• Corn is starting to tassel or getting very close to tasseling in most areas of the state. Yellow corn is showing up in low, wet areas of fields and in many of these fields it has been too wet to apply more nitrogen.
• First-generation European corn borer larvae were reported below the economic threshold, but that does not mean that second-generation numbers will be low.
• Western corn rootworm beetles are emerging. Bill Lotz (northeast) observed root feeding by corn rootworm larvae in scattered fields. Brian Lang (northeast) reported a significant number of fields with root injury ratings of 4 or higher. Some rescue treatments with Furadan were applied.
• Soybean replanting continues, especially in the southern third of the state and in "ponded" areas. Damping-off, root rot diseases, leaf diseases, and soybean cyst nematodes continue to cause problems in some soybean fields.
• Except for recently replanted soybeans, most plants have started to flower.
• Herbicide injury and carryover problems are still be being reported.
• Jim Jensen (southeast) reported an 80-bu/acre winter wheat yield at a site in Des Moines County. Carroll Olsen mentioned yields averaging 50 bu/acre in southwest Iowa.
• Oats are in the milk to dough stage. There are more reports of harvesting oats as forage.