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Showing posts from May, 2020

Alfalfa Harvest Alert 5-29 and May Hay Auctions

Nathan Drewitz, Local Extension Educator-Crops, Stearns, Benton, and Morrison Counties ndrewitz@umn.edu or (608) 5151-4414 This will be the last samples collected for many of the fields in the program. There will still be a few left on Monday to collect however, many fields in the program are planned for harvest over this weekend. Below is the Alfalfa Harvest Report for samples collected on May 28th Alfalfa Harvest Report May 28th Below is each farm's progress up to samples collected on May 28th Individual Farm Progress 2020 Keeping up with local hay prices is also important for livestock producers along with monitoring hay quality. The Mid-American Hay Auction in Sauk Centre, MN provides an excellent opportunity to get a glimpse of what current hay prices are for the region. That hay auction information is organized, summarized, and is listed below. Click the links below for the results of the May 2020 Hay Auctions May 7th, 2020 May 21st, 2020 Click the links bel

Managing agricultural PPE needs when supplies are short

Lizabeth Stahl, Extension educator - Crops Photo credit: Tim McCabe, USDA Personal protective equipment, or PPE, is necessary to protect farmers and other agricultural workers from pesticides, grain dust, mold, and other hazards. The COVID-19 global pandemic, however, has stressed the supplies of PPE since the emergency needs of our medical care providers and first responders must be met. The following are some considerations if you are a farmer, applicator, or other agricultural professional facing a shortage of PPE. What level of PPE do you need? For pesticide applications, a long-sleeve shirt, long pants, shoes and socks are typically the minimum required PPE when mixing, loading, and applying a product. Protective eye-wear including goggles or a face shield, chemical-resistant gloves, additional clothing such as a chemical resistant apron or coveralls, and/or a respirator may also be listed on the label. Always check the pesticide label for specific PPE requirements

Alfalfa Harvest Alert 5-27

Nathan Drewitz, Local Extension Educator-Crops, Stearns, Benton, and Morrison Counties ndrewitz@umn.edu or (608) 515-4414 Alfalfa stands made good strides over the Memorial Day weekend. All of the cooperators in the program have submitted samples as of Tuesday. Harvest also started today in Wright County. Remember that stored hay and haylage usually has a Relative Feed Value 15 to 25 points lower than the fresh-cut sample. Make sure to take this into account when determining your own harvest date. Below is the Alfalfa Harvest Report for samples collected on May 26th. Alfalfa Harvest Report May 26th Below is each farm's progress up o samples collected on May 26th. Individual Farm Progress 2020 The goal of this program is to encourage growers to be strategic with alfalfa hay crop harvest. This is not to determine the date hay harvest should occur. If you are interested in receiving regular updates on the Alfalfa Harvest Alerts and Sauk Centre Hay Auctions please co

Nitrogen fertilizer economics: Urea vs. anhydrous ammonia, on-farm storage options, & more

In this episode of the Nutrient Management Podcast, three U of M researchers and a special guest from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture discuss nitrogen economics. How does the sale of nitrogen fertilizer in Minnesota break down by source, and what trends have we seen in nitrogen use for crops in Minnesota? Are farmers shifting towards more on-farm storage of nitrogen fertilizer, and what do farmers interested in storing and applying their own fertilizer need to be aware of? Listen to the podcast View the podcast transcript Guests: Dan Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist  Fabian Fernandez, Extension nitrogen management specialist  Brad Carlson, Extension educator  Jane Boerboom, agricultural chemical consultant, Minnesota Department of Agriculture Subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode on  iTunes  and  Stitcher ! For the latest nutrient management information,  subscribe  to Minnesota Crop News email alerts, like UMN Extension Nutrient Ma

COVID-19 resources for farmers and small ag business owners

By Megan Roberts, Extension educator Extension’s Ag Business Management team writes timely updates regarding risk management topics, including COVID-19 economic programs, on their blog. You can sign up for email alerts at blog-abm-news.extension.umn.edu . You’ve likely seen that both the Minnesota state legislature and the federal government recently passed bills in response to the COVID-19 situation. But what do they mean financially for farmers and other agricultural small business owners? This article offers a short summary of some of the recent legislation. Families FIRST The Families FIRST act requires all employers to offer paid sick time for eligible absences related to COVID-19. Farmers are not exempt from this requirement. CARES act The CARES act created the Payroll Protection Program, which can cover up to 8 weeks of payroll and certain other eligible expenses. An additional law in late April included more PPP forgivable loan funding and made agricultural enterpr

Alfalfa Harvest Alert 5-24

Nathan Drewitz, Local Extension Educator-Crops, Stearns, Benton, and Morrison Counties ndrewitz@umn.edu or (608) 515-4414 Things are really starting to heat up with alfalfa stands across the area. The first few stands hit the budding stage this past week which means harvest is not too far ahead. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and give us a few decent days to get alfalfa cut and stored. Below is the Alfalfa Harvest Report for samples collected on May 21st. Alfalfa Harvest Report May 21st Below is each farm's individual progress up to samples collected on May 21st. Individual Farm Progress 2020 The goal of this program is to encourage growers to be strategic with alfalfa hay crop harvest. This is not to determine the date hay harvest should occur. If you are interested in receiving regular updates on the Alfalfa Harvest Alerts and Sauk Centre Hay Auctions please contact Nathan Drewitz.

Fusarium Head Blight, Fungicides and Rye?

Rye too is susceptible to Fusarium head blight or scab. Likewise the presence of deoxynivalenol or vomitoxin will result in steep discounts in rye too.  Interestingly enough the presence of vomitoxin does not influence the suitability to mash it and distill it for whiskey.  Unfortunately very little research has been done to date to look at the efficacy of fungicides in rye. Rye reaches heading and the grain fill period even a bit sooner than winter wheat; the first hybrid rye fields in southern Minnesota are heading as I write this. Like winter wheat, rye will escape the scourge of FHB most years in Minnesota, simply by being this early. And while escape is a perfectly good approach it is not a failsafe method is a climate as variable as Minnesota’s. The question of whether a fungicide can help reduce the incidence and severity of FHB rye therefor warrants some attention.  Unlike the other small grains rye is a cross-pollinating species.  If an application of a fungicide to reduce

Alfalfa Harvest Alert May 20th

Nathan Drewitz, Local Extension Educator-Crops, Stearns, Benton, and Morrison Counties ndrewitz@umn.edu or (608) 515-4414 The Alfalfa Harvest Alert program is in full swing. All of the cooperators in the southern region have submitted samples and the northern region started this week. The frost and colder weather last week slowed alfalfa growth some but stands still made progress. Below is the Scissor Cut Report for samples collected on May 18th. Alfalfa Harvest Alert Report May 18th Below is each farm's individual progress up to samples collected on May 18th. Individual Farm Progress 2020 The goal of this program is to encourage growers to be strategic with alfalfa hay crop harvest. This is not to determine the date hay harvest should occur. If you are interested in receiving regular updates on the Alfalfa Harvest Alert and Sauk Centre Hay Auctions please contact Nathan Drewitz.

Weeds ready, set, go! Test your ID savvy!

Liz Stahl Extension educator - crops, Phyllis Bongard, Educational content development & communications specialist, Lisa Behnken, Jared Goplen and Dave Nicolai, Extension educators - crops Waterhemp emergence occurred earlier (May 1-4) than in previous years in both North Dakota and Minnesota. Consult the interactive weed seedling quiz at the end of this article for comparisons of seedling identification characteristics of waterhemp, redroot pigweed and other weed seedlings. Photo: Dr. Tom Peters Warmer temperatures and adequate moisture have set the stage for rapid weed growth in the coming weeks. Since very few weeds were present at the time of pre-plant tillage this year, timely and effective herbicide applications will carry much of the weight in most weed management programs. Scout fields now for weed emergence, regardless if a preemergence (PRE) herbicide was not applied or not. In much of southern Minnesota, insufficient rain fall was received until recently,

Variable rate nitrogen and nitrogen advisory tools: Do they work?

By: Brad Carlson, Extension educator, and Fabian Fernandez, Extension nitrogen management specialist There has been an explosion in the availability of tools and advisory services intended to make nitrogen recommendations for corn over the past several years. While soil scientists know in general how these products are making their recommendations, the specifics of how these products work, and therefore, how well they work, is usually a mystery due to the proprietary nature of any commercial product. This has left us on the university-side to not pass judgement on these products, pending careful research and evaluation. Now that several years have passed since the introduction of many of these technologies, some of that data is starting to emerge. There are three general categories of N advisory tools: sensing, modeling, and sample-based. The sensing tools have been around the longest and include devices that measure light and color in the plant or use photography or imag

Alfalfa Harvest Alert May 15th

Nathan Drewitz, Local Extension Educator-Crops, Stearns, Benton, and Morrison Counties ndrewitz@umn.edu or (608) 515-4414 Stands were slowed down by this recent cold snap. That should change as temperatures and rainfall are predicted this weekend. Below are the scissor cut reports for samples collected on May 14th. Alfalfa Harvest Report May 15th Below are each farm's progress up to the samples collected on May 14th. Individual Farm Progress 2020 The goal of this program is to encourage growers to be strategic with alfalfa hay crop harvest. This is not to determine the date hay harvest should occur. If you are interested in receiving regular updates on the Alfalfa Scissor Cut and Sauk Centre Hay Auctions please contact Nathan Drewitz.

"Bunches" of black cutworm moths finally arrive in Minnesota: Start scheduling scouting

Figure 1. Black cutworm moth 5/02 -5/08/2020 (maximum moths/2 nights/county). Bruce Potter, Extension IPM specialist Once again this spring, cooperators across Minnesota have been checking pheromone traps for black cutworm (BCW) moths migrating into the state from overwintering areas in the south. Last week, their traps have picked up more immigrating black cutworm moths; particularly in the western part of the state where two traps had significant captures (Figure 1). The southerly system on May 4-6 provided the largest number of moths. A Lac Qui Parle County trap captured 9 moths May 5th-6th and a Murray County trap captured 12 moths over the same period. Traps in other counties also captured moths throughout the week. Fortunately, when and where, these larger flights arrived in Minnesota, most corn and sugarbeet, and many soybean fields, had been already been worked and planted, thereby reducing their attractiveness to moths laying eggs. Risk of economic damage Whi

5 things to know about the Haney soil health test

By: Anna Cates, Extension soil health specialist The Haney soil health test, named for USDA scientist Rick Haney, includes more than a dozen different soil test values. These include standard macro- and micro-nutrients for plant consumption, but what’s different about the Haney test is that it also estimates nutrients for microbial consumption, focusing on how much carbon (C ) and nitrogen (N) is in the soil. These are sub-pools of the total soil organic matter (OM), like soil respiration, water-extractable C, and water-extractable N. Generally, these pools are correlated with total soil organic matter, so if you have a higher percentage OM, you should have higher microbially-available OM. The Haney test is intended to pick out robust soil biological activity even if your overall %OM isn’t very high. But it’s an open question of what “enough” biological activity is, so interpreting tests like the Haney can be difficult. Below are some points to keep in mind if you’re looking

Preemergence herbicide injury on soybeans? Or maybe not?

Jared Goplen, Dave Nicolai, Extension educators, crops and  Bruce Potter, IPM specialist Figure 1. Preemergence herbicide injury on emerging soybeans that had been treated with a sulfentrazone-containing herbicide at planting in western Minnesota. Photo: Jared Goplen Many soybeans in southern Minnesota were ready to emerge when the recent cold weather brought concerns of both frost and herbicide injury. Most soybeans were still below ground and protected from freezing temperatures. However in some areas of the state, seedlings may show injury after extended contact with preemergence herbicides in the soil (Figure 1). When evaluating soybean stands in the coming days, keep an eye out for herbicide-induced crop injury, especially in wetter areas of the state. Dry areas unlikely to have herbicide injury Figure 2. Accumulated vs. normal precipitation at SROC in Waseca, MN in the spring of 2020. Figure 3. Observed precipitation in Minnesota from April 29 – May 13.

Alfalfa Harvest Alert May 13th

Nathan Drewitz, Local Extension Educator-Crops, Stearns, Benton, and Morrison Counties ndrewitz@umn.edu or (320) 968-5077 Despite the recent cold snap, samples were still submitted last Monday. Alfalfa stands are still around the 10 to 14-inch height across the fields in the program. Below is the scissor cut report for samples collected on May 11th. Alfalfa Harvest Alert May 11th Below is each farm's scissor cut progress updated to May 11th. Individual Farm Progress 2020 The goal of this program is to encourage growers to be strategic with alfalfa hay crop harvest. This is not to determine the exact date hay harvest should occur. If you are interested in receiving regular updates on the Alfalfa Scissor Cut project and Sauk Centre Hay Auctions please contact Nathan Drewitz.

Nitrogen economics

In this episode of the Nutrient Management Podcast, three U of M researchers and a special guest from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture discuss nitrogen economics. How does the sale of nitrogen fertilizer in Minnesota break down by source, and what trends have we seen in nitrogen use for crops in Minnesota? Are farmers shifting towards more on-farm storage of nitrogen fertilizer, and what do farmers interested in storing and applying their own fertilizer need to be aware of? Thank you to Minnesota's Agricultural Fertilizer Research and Education Council (AFREC) for supporting the podcast.

Frosted alfalfa?

Jared Goplen, Extension educator, Crops The recent cold weather has caused stress for many emerged crops in Minnesota, including forages. The warm weather earlier this spring allowed many alfalfa stands to produce significant spring growth, with stands in some areas approaching one foot, or more, in height. Some alfalfa fields have experienced frost damage with the recent sub-freezing temperatures, with the greatest potential for frost injury occurring this morning (5/12) (Figure 1). Alfalfa is relatively tolerant of cold temperatures, especially smaller plants. Most stands should recover just fine with no more than a few frosted leaves (Figure 2). Figure 1. Forecasted low temperatures for Minnesota the night of May 11th, 2020. Figure 2. Frosted alfalfa leaves can have a yellow appearance. Note only some of the upper leaves were affected by frost. Photo: Krishona Martinson This article includes several important points on managing frosted alfalfa stands. Air tem

Seed corn maggot forecasting for 2020

Anthony Hanson, Extension Postdoctoral Associate, Entomology Seed corn maggot in a soybean cotyledon. Overlap between how temperatures affect planting timing and pest development frequently affects management decisions, and our warm spring of 2020 is no different in that case. Seed corn maggot feeds on newly emerging seedlings where adult females lay eggs in disturbed soil beginning in spring, and multiple generations continue throughout the growing season. Infestations are most common in cool wet springs and areas with high organic matter (e.g, manure or recently incorporated plant material). Corn and soybeans are the most economically affected crops, but seed corn maggot has a wide host range on various agronomic and horticultural crops. To predict pest risk, two questions need to be answered: When will the pest show up? Will it have sufficient population size to cause significant damage? Predicting damage timing Figure 1. Seed corn maggot degree-days as of May 11,

Plant pathogens ignoring social distancing recommendations

This photo, taken thorough a microscope at the PDC, shows bacterial streaming from a corn leaf that tested positive for Goss’s Wilt. As we slowly but inevitably enter the Minnesota growing season, the Plant Disease Clinic (PDC) is happy to announce that we are still open and ready to help! The PDC is housed on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota and since 1956 has provided plant disease diagnostic service to MN growers as well as those outside the state. Along with disease diagnosis we will pass along the current management recommendations for the diagnosis. We can currently receive samples by mail or by pre-arranged no-contact drop-off. For further description of services, list of fees, mailing address and other submission instructions please consult our website at pdc.umn.edu .

Alfalfa Harvest Alert May 8th

Nathan Drewitz, Local Extension Educator-Crops, Stearns, Benton, and Morrison Counties ndrewitz@umn.edu or (320) 968-5077 The Alfalfa Harvest Alert Program is now underway. The goal of this project is to alert alfalfa growers to start first crop harvest when the crop is at a level of quality and yield potential that meets their specific needs. Keep in mind, the goal of this project is not to try and name the day that you should harvest. Rather the goal is to encourage growers who are busy with the management of other crops to be more strategic with hay crop harvest as it relates to their needs. Attached below is the scissor cut reports for samples collected on May 4th and 7th. Scissor Cut Report May 4th Scissor Cut Report May 7th Attached below is each farm's scissor cut progress updated to May 7th. Individual Farm Progress 2020 If you are interested in receiving regular updates on the Alfalfa Scissor Cut project and Sauk Centre Hay Auction, please contact Nathan Drewitz.

Cool and dry forecast: How does that impact weed control?

by Lisa Behnken, Jared Goplen, Dave Nicolai, and Liz Stahl, Extension educators - crops Planting has progressed rapidly this spring across much of Minnesota and a considerable amount of corn and soybean acres were planted by May 4. Progress has been much faster compared to recent years, thanks to below-average precipitation the last 30 days for much of the state. Warming soils in late April promoted early crop growth but also early-season weed growth, with flushes of giant ragweed, lambsquarters, and even waterhemp occurring in some areas. The most recent monthly outlook from the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center indicates drier than normal conditions with below normal temperatures into the first several weeks of May. What does this scenario mean for weed control? Timely rains for timely control Where preemergence (PRE) herbicides have been applied, timely rainfall after application will allow “activation,” or movement of the herbicide into the weed seed ge

Frosty forecast for May, 2020

Seth Naeve, Extension soybean agronomist, David Nicolai, Extension educator - crops and Tom Peters, Extension sugarbeet agronomist What a difference a year (or two) can make. This year's spring planting conditions have been a real blessing for most Minnesota farmers after two absolutely miserable planting seasons.  Where conditions were good, farmers were ready to take advantage of the extended period of warm and dry weather at the end of April. The May 4 USDA-NASS Crop Progress report showed Minnesota corn acreage to be 76% planted. Only Iowa and North Carolina had larger fractions of corn planted at 78 and 79%, respectively. The average planting rate for Minnesota over the past five years was 36%. Minnesota soybeans were 35% planted compared with 10% in the previous five years. However, weather patterns have changed, and the Northwest winds have been blowing. High temperatures in the 50's have arrived, and they look to hang around for a week or so. More concerni