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Showing posts from May, 2018

IPM Podcast: Early Season Weed Control in Corn and Soybeans

Welcome to the second in a series of IPM Podcasts for Field Crops – this Podcast is sponsored by the UMN Extension Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program. Giant ragweed seedlings. Photo: Lisa Behnken Our goal with these Podcasts is to alert Growers, Ag Professionals and Educators about emerging pest concerns on Minnesota Field Crops - including corn, soybean, small grains and alfalfa - and offer some useful pest management strategies. This podcast was hosted by Bill Hutchison, Coordinator of the MN IPM Program,  Dave Nicolai, Crops Extension Educator & Coordinator for the Extension Institute for Ag Professionals and Ryan Miller Crops Extension Educator based at Rochester, MN. Special thanks to Anthony Hanson, Extension Post-Doctoral Associate in Entomology for the recording technical assistance.

Why Is My Rye Short?

Rye is generally known as being unwieldy tall and prone to lodging.  Yet this spring the crop appears to be extremely short with some of the earliest crop already heading while just being knee high. What gives? The much shorter crop is an outflow of the very cool months of March and April.  The very late spring has resulted in very little (vegetative) regrowth this spring.  Now that spring finally has arrived, its photoperiod response in combination with high temperatures is forcing the rye crop to immediately transition to reproductive growth, resulting in a very short crop.  What is photoperiod sensitivity?  Photoperiod sensitivity is an evolutionary adaptation to avoid adverse conditions.  Flowering plants use photoreceptor proteins to sense changes in night length rather day length and use this information to transition from vegetative to reproductive growth, i.e. flower. Long-day plants flower when the night length falls below their critical photoperiod. The progenito

Central MN Hay Auctions May 2018

by Randy Pepin, UMN Extension Educator, Stearns, Benton, and Morrison Counties pepin019@umn.edu  or (320) 333-1369 Keeping up with current hay prices is important for most livestock farmers. We calculate price averages, quality averages, and the corresponding ranges of the various hay lots from recent hay auctions in Sauk Centre, MN. We also keep an updated history of recent years of some selected hay lots and create graphs of four different quality types of medium square alfalfa bales. This is posted every month, about a week after the last auction of the month.

Alfalfa Scissor Cuts May 24-25, 2018

by Randy Pepin, UMN Extension Educator, Stearns, Benton, and Morrison Counties pepin019@umn.edu  or (320) 333-1369 Harvesting high quality alfalfa hay is a prime concern of most dairy farmers.  The ideal time to cut first crop alfalfa has many variables such as: spring weather, severity of the winter, the weather last fall, how the field was managed last fall, age of the alfalfa stand, alfalfa variety, fertility level, and each farmers criteria on desired hay quality.  Collecting a series of scissor cuts samples of an alfalfa stand beginning early in the growth stage will monitor the progress of the alfalfa maturity.  We harvest scissor cuts on a number of fields throughout central Minnesota to help dairy producers observe the maturing progress across several fields.

Will Wheat Catch Up to the Calendar?

Jochum Wiersma and Michelle Meijer A few weeks ago, I was asked whether the wheat crop would catch up in its growth and development now that planting was delayed compared the last few years.  To explore this question we went back into the NASS crop progress reports between 1990 and 2017 and gleaned the date that seeding commenced, reached the halfway mark, and was near completion in Minnesota.  We then used those three dates to calculate the heading date using the Fargo NDAWN station. Figure 1 shows the three regression lines that resulted from this exercise.  The blue line represents how much quicker the spring wheat cropped reached heading when planting was delayed from April 1 through the end of the month of April. The green line represents how much quicker the cropped reached heading when planting was between April 15 and May 15 and the red line represents how much quicker the crop reached heading when planting was delayed from the beginning of May through early June.  Eac

Alfalfa Scissor Cuts through May 23,2018

by Randy Pepin, UMN Extension Educator, Stearns, Benton, and Morrison Counties pepin019@umn.edu  or (320) 333-1369 Harvesting high quality alfalfa hay is a prime concern of most dairy farmers.  The ideal time to cut first crop alfalfa has many variables such as: spring weather, severity of the winter, the weather last fall, how the field was managed last fall, age of the alfalfa stand, alfalfa variety, fertility level, and each farmers criteria on desired hay quality.  Collecting a series of scissor cuts samples of an alfalfa stand beginning early in the growth stage will monitor the progress of the alfalfa maturity.  We harvest scissor cuts on a number of fields throughout central Minnesota to help dairy producers observe the maturing progress across several fields.

Integrated Pest Management Podcast: Black Cutworm Alert, Reporting Network - 2018

Welcome to the first in a series of IPM Podcasts for Field Crops – this Podcast is sponsored by the UMN Extension Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program. Black cutworm damage to a young corn plant. Photo: W.M. Hantsbarger, Bugwood.org Our goal with these Podcasts is to alert Growers, Ag Professionals and Educators about emerging pest concerns on Minnesota Field Crops - including corn, soybean, small grains and alfalfa - and offer some useful pest management strategies. The podcast is hosted by Bill Hutchison, Coordinator of the MN IPM Program and Dave Nicolai, Crops Extension Educator & Coordinator for the Extension Institute for Ag Professionals.

Prevented plant resources

Dave Bau, Extension educator Heavy spring rains resulting in flooded fields have delayed planting for many farmers in southern Minnesota. Many of these farmers will have to decide what to do when the final planting dates of May 31 for corn and June 10 for soybeans. The USDA’s Federal Crop Insurance Corporation policies have prevented planting provisions for payment if planting cannot occur before the final plant date. There are also options to plant after the final planting date, but with reduced insurance coverage. For most of Minnesota, the final planting date for corn is May 31. It is May 25 for northern counties. The final planting date for soybeans in Minnesota is June 10. The late planting period extends for 25 days after the crop's final planting date. At this point the insurance coverage is reduced to 55% for corn and 60% for soybeans.

Assess your risk for fertilizer N loss and manage N application decisions with late planting

Brad Carlson, Extension educator Continued wet weather and increasing temperatures in southern Minnesota are raising concerns about potential nitrogen fertilizer loss. Extension Educator Brad Carlson discusses how the risks of nitrogen loss differ with fall vs. spring applications, weather conditions and sources in the new video, Spring 2018 nitrogen concerns .

Soybeans and the Spring of 2018: One for the books

Seth Naeve, Extension soybean agronomist Photo: Liz Stahl Spring came late to all of Minnesota, but for farmers in Southern Minnesota, it came with too many May showers. This has made #Plant18 an especially tough one for farmers in the region. Many seasoned farmers have reported that this will be the latest start in their long memories. It is natural to feel anxious and frustrated with the weather, but it’s important to know that fields will get planted and yields can still be quite good. For the most part, farmers should proceed as normal when windows of good weather allow. Hold your current soybean varieties An often-asked question revolves around moving to earlier soybean maturities as planting is delayed. Remember, that soybeans have an incredible ability to respond to short seasons by hastening maturity. A shortened seed-filling period is often offset for yield by a longer vegetative period that leads to larger plants. On the other hand, moving to too short of a

Central MN Hay Auctions April 2018

by Randy Pepin, UMN Extension Educator, Stearns, Benton, and Morrison Counties pepin019@umn.edu or (320) 333-1369 Keeping up with current hay prices is important for most livestock farmers. We calculate price averages, quality averages, and the corresponding ranges of the various hay lots from recent hay auctions in Sauk Centre, MN. We also keep an updated history of recent years of some selected hay lots and create graphs of four different quality types of medium square alfalfa bales. This is posted every month, about a week after the last auction of the month.

Corn Fertigation: How Much and When?

Anne Struffert, Extension Educator Fabián Fernández, Nutrient Management Specialist In the Central Sands of Minnesota, planting is under way. With a week of warm and windy weather, things are drying out and warming up quickly. While most growers have made decisions on variety and tillage, one thing you may not have nailed down is when and how many times should you fertigate nitrogen on corn. Loss potential in the spring is almost always high on sandy soils. With a combination of snow melt, excess rain, and a crop that is not yet needing much water or nitrogen, much of the nitrogen that we apply can leach out of the profile because it has nothing to hang on to. Because of this we suggest delaying any nitrogen application until the V2 development stage. If you need a little peace of mind and want to apply 10 to 20 pounds at planting, that is fine, just remember to keep that rate low.

Soil compaction: What can you do?

by Jodi DeJong-Hughes, Extension educator As you head back into the fields this spring, plan to reduce your soil compaction. As the weight of farm tractors and field equipment becomes larger and heavier and as the annual precipitation increases in Minnesota, there is a growing concern about soil compaction.

Large influx of black cutworm moths arrive in Minnesota

by Bruce Potter, Integrated pest management specialist Figure 1. Maximum black cutworm moth captures by county April 27 - May 4, 2018. The past week brought rain and black cutworm (BCW) moths to many trap locations, both unwelcome. This is as large and widespread early-season influx of moths as we have seen for several years. Many counties have more than one trap operating. The reported maximum 2-night moth capture for all traps in a county during the week are shown in Figure 1. Table 1 shows counties that reported significant (numbers indicating potential risk for economic damage to row crops) captures and dates.

Gearing Up for the Use of Dicamba Tolerant Soybean Technology in 2018

Andrew Thostenson, Pesticide Program Specialist, North Dakota State University and Liz Stahl, Extension educator Note: Andrew Thostenson, Pesticide Program Specialist with North Dakota State University, recently posted the article “ Gearing Up for the Use of Dicamba Tolerant Soybean Technology in 2018 .” He discusses some very good points pertinent to Minnesotans, considering the delayed start to planting this season, in his article reprinted below.

Do you still need training or certification to apply dicamba?

For the 2018 growing season in Minnesota, there is a special training needed to use the new dicamba products. Specifically, these dicamba products are: Engenia®Herbicide, FexapanTM Herbicide plus VaporGrip® Technology, and Xtendimax® with VaporGrip® Technology. If you haven’t been trained yet this year for dicamba, or if you still need to be certified or licensed to use Restricted Use Pesticides, this information will help you get started.

Respirator fit testing resources in Minnesota

Certain pesticides and agrochemicals require handlers to wear a respirator. In order to safely wear a respirator,  you must be fit tested to make sure that the respirator fits to your face correctly. Fit testing can be hard to find in Minnesota; the following map shows locations around the state that are offering fit testing to farmers.