In this special bonus episode of Talking Crop, host, Kathryn Seebruck, speaks with Dr. Connor Sible, Research Assistant Professor of Crop Production and Physiology at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Sible is a speaker at the 2026 Northwest Illinois Agronomy Summit in Freeport, Illinois. His presentation is titled, "Why do we fertilize? Reviewing corn and soybean nutrient needs and best fertility practices." Dr. Sible will review the nutrient needs and distributions for corn and soybean, identify the traditional focuses, and highlight new research on 4R practices to help optimize fertilizer use efficiency and return on fertilizer investment.

You can register online for the Northwest Illinois Agronomy Summit at go.illinois.edu/AGSFreeport or you can call the Stephenson County office at 815-235-4125. Registration is $25 and includes lunch. Five continuing education units will be available for Certified Crop Advisors. As of last year, this program has been adopted across the state, and you can find a list of all Agronomy Summits in the series at go.illinois.edu/AgronomySummits.

In this special bonus episode of Talking Crop, host, Kathryn Seebruck, speaks with Dan Smith, Outreach Program Manager for the Nutrient and Pest Management Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension.

Dan is a speaker at the 2026 Northwest Illinois Agronomy Summit in Freeport, Illinois. His presentation is titled, "Managing waterhemp with cover crops." Dan will discuss how you can use cover crops successfully in your current crop rotation to suppress weeds.

You can register online for the Northwest Illinois Agronomy Summit at go.illinois.edu/AGSFreeport or you can call the Stephenson County office at 815-235-4125. Registration is $25 and includes lunch. Five continuing education units will be available for Certified Crop Advisors. As of last year, this program has been adopted across the state, and you can find a list of all Agronomy Summits in the series at go.illinois.edu/AgronomySummits.

In this special bonus episode of Talking Crop, host, Kathryn Seebruck, discusses herbicide resistance as a supplement to her presentation at the 2026 Northwest Illinois Agronomy Summit in Freeport, Illinois. Her presentation is titled, "Producer enemy number one: the case against waterhemp," and will profile waterhemp and detail its modus operandi (MO) to identify the best management practices that can and should be utilized to apprehend this troublesome weed species.

You can register online for the Northwest Illinois Agronomy Summit at go.illinois.edu/AGSFreeport or you can call the Stephenson County office at 815-235-4125. Registration is $25 and includes lunch. Five continuing education units will be available for Certified Crop Advisors. As of last year, this program has been adopted across the state, and you can find a list of all Agronomy Summits in the series at go.illinois.edu/AgronomySummits.