Nathan Drewitz, Local Extension Educator - Crops, Stearns, Benton, and Morrison Counties The Alfalfa Harvest Alert Program is now underway. This project aims to provide timely alerts on the current conditions of alfalfa throughout the participating areas and help identify the current quality and yield potential of those stands. Farmers should make decisions on their own farms based on their specific feed and market needs and field observations. Sampling starts when alfalfa is 14 - 16 inches tall and continues until the first cutting. Currently, we have cooperators in Sibley, Nicollet, Carver, McLeod, Wright, Stearns, Benton, Morrison, and Yellow Medicine counties. We have Wright and Carver counties reporting in with stands between 14 and 16 inches tall. Most of the remaining cooperators will begin sampling next Monday. Alfalfa Harvest Report from May 16th and 18th: Alfalfa Harvest Report May 18th You can also compare the different counties, and farms that have participated in the Alfal
By Angie Peltier, UMN Extension crops educator Photo: Liz Stahl, UMN Extension Some Minnesotans are experiencing a bit of ‘weather whiplash’ as some areas that experienced a historically severe drought in 2021 are currently experiencing very wet weather. In addition to delaying spring planting, the weather also impacts when crop pests will emerge or arrive. On May 11, 2022, Dr. Dennis Todey, Director of the USDA Midwest Climate Hub, Bruce Potter, University of Minnesota Extension IPM specialist, Drs. Jeff Coulter, UMN Extension corn agronomist and Seth Naeve, UMN Extension soybean agronomist, joined UMN Extension educators David Nicolai, Anthony Hanson and Jared Goplen for a wide-ranging discussion of how the wet 2022 spring weather and forecast for the rest of the growing season will affect spring field operations, summer crop growth and development and the arrival and emergence of crop pests. This was the first episode of the 2022 Strategic Farming: Field Notes program in this serie