Minnesota Crop News

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 Flooded field in southern Minnesota. Photo: Liz Stahl 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 floode...

By Dave Nicolai, University of Minnesota Extension Educator, Crops and Matt Jorgenson, Inspection Unit Supervisor, Minnesota Department of Agriculture As they say, “With much power comes much responsibility”, and the various herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides that growers have in their toolbox for managing their crops are indeed powerful tools. These pesticides also have inherent risk when it comes to their movement off target whether it be through drift caused by decisions made by the applicator or just bad luck caused by an unpredictable shift in the weather. In any case, if you observe damage, it’s important to respond appropriately. An argument can easily be made that if you observe drift damage to your crops, you have a responsibility to report it. Reporting drift is important for several reasons , such as: ensuring that food and feed are safe when they enter commerce developing pesticide education and compliance assistance by the Minnesota Department of Agricul...

By: Extension nutrient management specialists Dan Kaiser & Fabian Fernandez June is a good time to start thinking about sidedress application for corn. Identifying which situations sidedress applications can be beneficial and which products are more cost-effective are critical to get the best results with any in-season N application. In discussions with consultants and farmers this spring, the use of ammonium thiosulfate (ATS) liquid with urea ammonium nitrate solutions (UAN) has come up more than once. The primary question has been about the potential inhibition properties of ATS when mixed with a UAN solution.  While we typically suggest ATS as a sulfur source for crops, there has been research showing that ATS has urease and nitrification inhibition properties. However, unlike a true urease inhibitor, ATS does not directly affect the urease enzyme and is only indirectly inhibiting after interacting with soil. As a urease inhibitor, the product inhibits the hydr...