This week we decided to follow-up on Tar Spot after first asking about it back on June 29. The disease can appear late and spread quickly when it does so it's a critical one to keep an eye on as the season progresses.…

Given the rise of online chatter around Western Bean Cutworm over the last couple of weeks we sent an additional poll yesterday to capture the footprint of this reported emergence. The results show Western Bean Cutworm presence in its known Western Corn Belt range with Nebraska as the clear hotspot. Roughly 69% of participants in Nebraska confirmed pest presence with secondary pressure in eastern…

Much like 2025, reports of Japanese Beetles began popping up early in 2026 with reports starting to show as early as early-June. This week we asked FBN members for their observations. Of the over 700 participants, 48% say they have seen Japanese Beetles this season. While presence isn’t active everywhere, well over 70% of respondents of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana have observed the pest and…

This week we asked FBN members what best describes your approach to POST herbicide applications in corn. With over 700 contributions to the poll, the overwhelming majority say they will “Always Spray POST”. Very few identified a “PRE ONLY” strategy while some isolated pockets seen on the map prefer a “Spot Spray” approach. Let us know in the comments below what influences your approach and what…

In-season agronomy polling made its return this week with the help of over 1,200 FBN members. On Tuesday we asked how you plan for fungicide applications in corn and soybeans. As you can see from the map of results, the bulk of the central Corn Belt takes a very proactive approach while areas further away from that core lean more towards a wait and see approach.…

This week, we asked FBN members how corn yields have faired vs. expectations so far in 2025. Right at 50% indicated yields are below expectations while only 20% say yields are above expectations. Depending on how you define your own expectations this starts to poke some holes in the September USDA numbers that indicated yields trending above last year in many of the key corn producing states.…

With an absence of data coming from the USDA due to the current government shutdown, we decided to poll FBN members this week on the progress of their 2025 corn harvest. With just over 1900 members responding, national corn harvest appears to be at roughly 56% completion. This is up between 10-15% vs. some of the other independent polls released across the industry on October 15, but down from…

As of June 5, soybean planting progress comes in at ~88% which is up 4% from the USDA report this past Monday and 8% ahead of the 5-year average. Despite continued progress nationally, areas of the southern U.S. are still falling victim to heavy rainfall.…

The final corn planting progress poll of the season dropped yesterday and with just over 2,300 members responding we show corn planting at ~86% complete. With the USDA report from this past Monday showing 87% I suspect those still working to get corn in didn't make much progress this week. With with warm and dry weather finally on the horizon for those areas still going in KY, IN, OH and PA,…

With nearly 2,500 member responses this week, soybean planting progress is sitting at roughly 74%. This represents an 8% increase from the USDA report issued this past Monday.…

This week's corn planting progress shows nearly 74% completion across the 18 states we surveyed representing a doubling of acres planted vs. this time two weeks ago and an increase of ~12% since the USDA's report this past Monday.…

This week we polled FBN members about their soybean planting progress. With over 2,300 responses there are a few things that stand out. The first is the most obvious, and that is that where it's been raining, it's still raining! When you overlay this week's soybean map to last week's corn results, the general trend of who has planted and who hasn’t is almost identical and aligns with the wet…

The first FBN Planting Progress Poll was completed yesterday, May 1. With over 2,000 members responding, we show national corn planting progress at ~38%. When you look state-by-state, almost everyone at least has a start, but several areas from mid-Missouri through the Ohio River Valley have been slammed with record rainfall amounts in April leading to very slow progress. You can see the complete…