Hot humid weather covered the Great Lakes state bringing back signs of summer while we move into the first of September. Corn continues to mature, soybeans are beginning to turn and third cutting alfalfa is over half finished with at least 10 percent of the fourth cutting harvested.

According to NASS there were multiple reports of corn and soybeans starting to yellow in fields, but it was difficult to tell whether that was due to maturity or lack of nitrogen and micronutrients. Dry beans were starting to turn color and harvest was expected to begin in the next week in several parts of the state.

Sugar beet harvest continued; reported yields continued to be excellent. Chopping for corn silage is just beginning in some areas of the state.

Later-season varieties of peaches were being harvested in the south, including Glowingstar and Beaumont. In the northwest, the peach crop was reported as light, and split pits were reported in some varieties. Plum harvest is under way in the southwest.

Apple harvest of Zestar, Paula Red, Ginger Gold and SweeTango were under way; fruit size at many farms continues to be good. Apple growers in the northwest who suffered hail damage to their fruit were removing those from trees in order to improve tree health.

According to Bruce MacKellar of Michigan State University extension, minor SDS infestation rates are on the rise in southwestern Michigan soybean fields. While significant yield-affecting infestations impacting widespread areas within a field remain limited, they are also increasing across the region.

SDS, a fungal disease that infects soybean plants, continues to spread to new fields across southwestern Michigan. Similar to 2014, the disease is not expected to cause significant yield losses in most of the fields that show symptoms of infection. However, there has also been an increase in the number of fields that do have moderate to high levels of later-onset SDS symptoms, including levels that will cause yield losses this season.