Minnesota Crop News

Jeff Vetsch, Soil Scientist, Southern Research and Outreach Center

Plan to attend the Virtual Agronomy Field Tour hosted by the Southern Research and Outreach Center tomorrow, July 1 from noon to 1 p.m. You'll get a look at four current research projects at the SROC on the webinar and each project will have a question and answer session.

The webinar is free, but you must pre-register online at https://z.umn.edu/sroc-ag-tour. An email address is required to register and you can join the webinar from a computer, tablet or phone.

Research topics covered at the Virtual Agronomy Tour include:
Sulfur fertilization of corn in Southern MN: Sulfur source and time of application interactions
Daniel Kaiser, Extension specialist, nutrient managementCombining 4R Nutrient Management and Ecological Intensification to Advance Corn Production
Jeff Vetsch, SROC Soil ScientistCorn and soybean weed control: A look at 2020 research plots
Tom Hoverstad, SROC ScientistCover Crop Research - a review of resu…

By David Nicolai, Extension educator - crops, Seth Naeve, Extension Soybean Specialist, Dean Malvick, Extension plant pathologist and Liz Stahl, Extension Educators-Crops

Adapted from “Flooded fields and saturated conditions impact crops” (July 9, 2018)
By Liz Stahl, , Jeff Coulter, Seth Naeve, and Fabian Fernandez

After exceptionally good spring conditions allowing for early planting, the 2020 corn and soybean crops are off to a very good start. Soil conditions were very good across the southern third of the state through June, with some lighter soils beginning to show a little drought stress. Small, but timely rains, have kept the crop growing well in most areas, until this week.

Heavy rainfall occurred overnight on June 28 and the morning of the 29th in south central Minnesota. Large swaths received more than five inches of rain with localized rainfall amounts of up to ten inches. Low areas of farmland are now flooded. Fortunately, dry soil profiles accepted several inches of rainf…

In my travels last week across southern Minnesota, I found little to no disease in the spring wheat trials or fields that I walked.  I found net blotch in one of the barley varieties (Pinnacle) that is very susceptible to this foliar pathogen and here and there was some tan spot in some of the winter wheat varieties.  The most common and widespread, however, was BYDV.  In production fields, these virus infections were the typical small circular patches or individual plants that showed the typical bright yellow flag leaves.  In individual plots, these were often individual plants along edges of the plot. I found no leaf or stripe rust and it was a bit too early to see whether there were any of scab infections.
The risk of FHB increased in especially north of US Hwy 2 and across much of southern Minnesota (south of US Hwy 12), while conditions for tan spot remained high across much of the state. The notable exceptions for increased risk for FHB infections, or the foliar diseases, were th…

Reports of true armyworm infestations continue to come in (Figure 1). At this time the infestation is not as widespread as in 2018. Most reports have been in wheat, pasture roadsides, and other grasses.
Armyworms (Figure 2) cannot overwinter in Minnesota and moths migrate into the state each spring. Lush grasses are preferred egg-laying sites for the armyworm moth and lodged areas of small grains or the grass field borders of corn and soybeans should receive special attention when scouting. When they have defoliated an area, larvae will move from field borders or between fields. They feed on grasses and seldom damage broadleaf crops. The risk of armyworm infestation in corn is increased when a live grass cover crop or grass weeds are present when the egg-laying moths are active. Only the Agrisure Viptera (Vip3A) Bt trait is labeled to protect corn from armyworm. See the handy 2020 Bt Trait Table for more information.
Most of these infestations are likely from moths arriving on the syste…

Jared Goplen, Extension educator - crops, and Jochum Wiersma, Extension small grains specialist

The recent heat wave has some concerned about the fate of the small grain crop. While there are many reports of a “short” crop in southern Minnesota, the timing of the warm (>90F) weather this year has likely not significantly reduced yield potential. Although few of us enjoyed the hot and windy conditions last week, the last several days have brought us ideal small grains weather, which looks to extend for at least the remainder of this week.
Short small grains? There have been many reports of short small grains in southern Minnesota. Both heat stress and drought stress will speed up plant development, meaning either of these stressors will affect the crop. The heat wave that came through southern Minnesota the first week of June is largely responsible for the shorter crop, which coincided with stem elongation. Hot weather during stem elongation tends to shorten the crop compared to no…

The UMN Southern Research & Outreach Center will hold a Virtual Agronomy Field Tour on Wednesday, July 1 from noon to 1 p.m. This webinar will give participants a look at current research projects at the SROC in Waseca and will include a question and answer session for each project. The webinar is free, but participants must pre-register online.

Research topics covered at the Virtual Agronomy Tour include:
Sulfur fertilization of corn in Southern MN: Sulfur source and time of application interactions - Daniel Kaiser, Extension specialist, nutrient managementCombining 4R Nutrient Management and Ecological Intensification to Advance Corn Production - Jeff Vetsch, SROC Soil ScientistCorn and soybean weed control: A look at 2020 research plots - Tom Hoverstad, SROC Scientist Cover Crop Research - a review of results to date - Gregg Johnson, Associate Professor, Agronomy and Plant Genetics The Virtual Agronomy Tour will be recorded and available for viewing for those who cannot partic…