Minnesota Crop News

By Dave Nicolai, Extension Educator – Crops and Phyllis Bongard, Content development and communications specialist Join us January 11th, 9-10 a.m.  for the Strategic Farming: Let's talk crops! webinar series kick off when we look ahead to 2023 and discuss weather, economic and supply chain forecasts with guests Ed Usset and Pete Boulay. Ed Usset, University of Minnesota Grain Marketing Economist, Center for Farm Financial Management will review and update price prospects for old and new crop grain. He'll also analyze the upcoming expansion of the soybean crushing industry and long-term impacts on Minnesota and national markets. Will there be any drought relief this winter? Pete Boulay, Assistant State Climatologist in the Minnesota State Climate Office, will discuss the outlook for temperatures and precipitation this winter and discuss how that may impact drought-stressed areas of Minnesota this spring and the potential for recovery before final soil freeze-up.  Bring your que...

In this episode of the Nutrient Management Podcast, three University of Minnesota experts discuss biostimulants. What's new on the topic of biostimulants? What new research is there related to biostimulants? How should farmers go about testing biostimulant products? TRANSCRIPT Guests:  Daniel Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist  Carl Rosen, Extension nutrient management specialist Lindsay Pease, Extension nutrient management specialist (NWROC - Crookston) Additional resources: Compendium of Research Reports on Use of Non-Traditional Materials for Crop Production Should farmers consider biostimulant products? Biostimulants: What are they and do they work? U of M fertilizer guidelines by crop --- For the latest nutrient management information,  subscribe to the Nutrient Management Podcast  wherever you listen and never miss an episode! And don't forget to  subscribe  to the Minnesota Crop News daily or weekly email newsletter, subscribe to o...

Craig Sheaffer, Extension forage agronomist, Troy Salzer, and Nathan Drewitz, Extension educators Winter rye at anthesis. At this stage  of development, winter rye has high  yield but low nutritive value. Cereal winter rye is used in Minnesota as a winter cover crop following corn or soybeans. Because it's very winterhardy, it has the potential to reduce soil erosion and scavenge excess soil nutrients when used as a cover crop. Winter rye also can be used as an early spring forage source. While it has high yield potential, harvest timing must be managed carefully to obtain the desired forage nutritive value. Maturity affects yield and quality Maturity at harvest affects winter cereal rye forage yield and nutritive value. To obtain both reasonable forage yields and quality for hay and haylage systems, harvesting at boot stage is recommended.  Boot stage is just before seed head emergence when the head can be felt near the top of the last leaf.  Figure 1. Winter rye f...

By Liz Stahl, Extension Educator – Crops and Phyllis Bongard, Content development and communications specialist Photo: Liz Stahl, UMN Extension Pull up a chair and join in or bring the conversation with you as you go about your day. Whatever works best for you, join us this winter to discuss some of the key issues and questions around commodity crop production facing Minnesota farmers today through the “Strategic Farming: Let’s Talk Crops” webinar series. This live, online program will provide up-to-date, research-based information to help optimize your crop management strategies for 2023. Sessions will be held over Zoom, which can be accessed via your computer, phone or other mobile device, and run from 9:00 to 10:00 am Wednesdays, January 11 through March 29, 2023. Sessions will be very informal and open to all interested. Each session will start with a brief presentation by the discussion leaders for the day, followed by discussion framed around farmer/participant questions on t...

In this episode of the Nutrient Management Podcast, we’re talking about soil test myths. First, why is it important to discuss these pervasive myths surrounding soil tests? Myth 1: the Mehlich-3 test is a better test for farmers to consider: Myth 2: I can predict my nitrogen requirement with the cation exchange capacity test. Myth 3: K base saturation is the better way to predict potassium. Myth 4: I need to run an analysis of all micronutrients. TRANSCRIPT  Guests: Daniel Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist (St. Paul) Brad Carlson, Extension educator (Mankato) Carl Rosen, Extension nutrient management specialist (St. Paul) Additional resources: What is the best soil test option for phosphorus? Understanding the soil test report Fertilizing corn in Minnesota Soybean fertilizer guidelines Video: Micronutrients: Small but mighty --- For the latest nutrient management information, subscribe to the Nutrient Management Podcast wherever you listen and never miss an episode!...

Anna Cates, State soil health specialist Photo: Liz Stahl Timing is everything for farmers working in Minnesota’s short growing season. Getting into the field during a window of good weather to plant, spray, or harvest can make the difference between profitability and loss. It can also mean the difference between a frantic, sleepless night and a relaxing evening with the family, and those stressful seasons can add up to long-term differences in quality of life. To better understand how crop management affects farm operations timing and stress, UMN researchers are surveying row crop farmers . We have heard some anecdotes about farmers who no-till and plant cover crops getting into the field faster than neighbors waiting for a compacted area to dry out. We’ve been trying to address that question with field studies exploring how row crop management systems change soil response to rain, and farmer access to fields after rain. We monitored pairs of farms using contrasting management for soi...

Craig Sheaffer, Extension forage agronomist, and Nancy Ehlke, Professor, Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics Vinter hairy vetch Hairy vetch ( Vicia villosa Roth) is an annual legume used as a cover crop, green manure crop, and occasionally as a forage. In the Midwest, it is one of the few annual legumes that is used as a winter cover crop because it is moderately winter hardy. As a winter cover crop, hairy vetch can reduce soil erosion and in the spring be used as a green manure crop to add carbon and nitrogen to the soil. Hairy vetch conducts biological nitrogen fixation and can contribute from 50-150 pounds of fixed N to subsequent crops depending on the spring biomass production. Because of its viney prostrate growth habit, it is often planted with winter rye which supports hairy vetch growth. ‘Vinter’ is a new hairy vetch variety with superior winter survival and spring biomass production. It was developed from the most winter-hardy local ecotypes identified in winter su...

By: Dan Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist One word that often comes up when discussing phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) fertilizer management is “fixation.” What is nutrient fixation and what should farmers understand about it? Fixation generally refers to the tendency for nutrients to become “tied up” in the soil and therefore less available to the crop. This happens when nutrients react with the soil, or ions in the soil solution, forming compounds or holding onto nutrients very tightly. Nutrient fixation is often misunderstood to mean that once a nutrient is “fixed,” it is lost forever and will never be available to the plant. While we know that reactions occur in the soil which can bind elements, the process of fixation is more about “retention.” The so-called “fixed” nutrients may become available at some point, but it can take time. “Pools” of nutrient availability in the soil One way to think about nutrients in the soil is that they are in “pools” that vary in how...

By: Dan Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist One item I have been providing in our current corn and soybean fertilizer guidelines is estimated removal rates of phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). While our fertilizer guidelines have traditionally not been crop removal-based, growers using crop removal have told me that the concentration of P and K in grain has slightly declined compared to older values used for crop removal. One thing you need to know about calculating removal-based rates is that the so-called rules of thumb for the amount of P and K in grain may or may not represent what you have in the field. One concern I have is that some growers treat their P and K like balancing a checkbook, trying to calculate what is taken off the field and putting that amount back on in fertilizer. In almost all cases, this type of accuracy is not needed for removal-based guidelines. Here is why: 1. The amount of P and K in grain can vary greatly While rules of thumb or standard fa...

Bruce Potter,  Extension IPM Specialist, Robert Koch - Extension Entomologist, and Gloria Melotto and Sarah Lisak, Graduate students Figure 1. Recording growth data on sentinel plants before placing them in a soybean field. Two species of bean (Phaseolus) were identified as additional hosts of the soybean gall midge (SGM), Resseliella maxima, during the 2022 growing season .  SGM was able to colonize several dry bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris ) cultivars and a lima bean ( Phaseolus lunetus ) cultivar in a study using “sentinel” (i.e., potted) plants placed in a soybean field with a history of significant SGM infestations Rock County (Figure 1). Additionally, SGM-infested plants were found in two navy bean fields in Lac Qui Parle County. The DNA of collected larvae matched SGM as did the morphology of adults emerging from infested navy bean stems. SGM symptoms Figure 2. Soybean gall midge infestation in navy bean stem (Lac Qui Parle County) The external symptoms ...

 Ken Hellevang, Extension agricultural engineer, North Dakota State University Reprinted with permission  Producers may want to condition soybeans that were harvested at lower moisture contents to bring the moisture content up to the market standard of 13 percent. On a 40-bushel-per-acre yield, harvesting soybeans at 9 percent moisture content, rather than 13 percent, is equal to 1.8 bushels of lost weight per acre. At $13 per bushel, that is $0.59 per bushel or $23.40 per acre. In addition, soybeans become more brittle, increasing the potential for handling damage when they are too dry. However, conditioning low-moisture soybeans in storage can damage the grain bin. Conditioning causes the beans to expand, which can damage the grain bin’s bolted connections or even cause the bin to rupture from the increased pressure on the bin wall. The forces on the bin increase more rapidly than by the percentage of moisture content increase. Therefore, a moisture content increase of more ...

By Anna Cates, State soil health specialist, and Jodi DeJong-Hughes, Extension educator Chopping cornstalks higher and leaving larger size residue will make it easier to plant no-till soybeans in spring 2023 Farmers across Minnesota are quickly moving through harvest. Soybeans are mostly done and corn is well underway, if not completed, in most areas. How you leave your fields in the fall is the beginning of planning for the 2023 planting season. Consideration for the very dry weather we’ve had in 2021 and 2022 should be top of mind as farmers plan for a successful spring planting in 2023. Leave a blanket of residue Our soil profile is very dry after record-low rainfall in September. For example, at Lamberton the soil down to 60” is holding less than half of normal . Snow is coming, but the soil can only capture about 25% of the moisture that comes in snow over the next few months. It’s important to leave a blanket of crop residue in the field to hold in the limited moisture you’ve go...

 Craig Sheaffer, Extension forage agronomist, and Nathan Drewitz, Extension educator - crops Planting alfalfa alone or in a mixture with grasses in late summer is recommended because the potential for optimal air temperatures and soil moisture for establishment is good. In addition, there is much less competition with annual weeds compared to spring seedings; therefore’ herbicide use is seldom needed. Typical recommended seeding dates for central and southern Minnesota range from August 15th to September 1st. Drought effects on seedling survival Figure 1. An 8-week-old alfalfa seedling with four fully developed trifoliolate leaves and a unifoliolate leaf. Seedling is undergoing contractile growth leading to formation of a submerged crown. It has a high probability of successfully overwintering. Drought during late August and September will delay germination until favorable soil moisture is available. To germinate, alfalfa seeds must absorb over 100% of their weight in wat...

In this episode of the Nutrient Management Podcast, we discuss surgarbeet nutrient management. How did Minnesota become the nation's top sugarbeet producer? What are some highlights from past sugarbeet nutrient management research in Minnesota? What current studies does the U of M have on sugarbeet nutrient management? What else should growers know about sugarbeet nutrient management? Transcript Guests: Daniel Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist (St. Paul) Melissa Wilson, Extension manure nutrient management specialist (St. Paul) Lindsay Pease, Extension nutrient and water management specialist (Crookston) John Lamb, professor emeritus, Department of Soil, Water and Climate (St. Paul) Additional Resources: U of M sugarbeet fertilizer guidelines Cover crop options for pre-pile sugarbeet Is Minnesota really one of the nation's top sugar producers? (Star Tribune) --- For the latest nutrient management information, subscribe to the Nutrient Management Podcast wh...

By: Dan Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist High fertilizer prices can lead some farmers to prioritize specific fertilizer applications based on their experience in fields. When it comes to phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), most growers seem to prioritize P even though soil test results may show a greater need for K. We know that P is important for early plant development, especially in corn. Starter fertilizer research has consistently shown that the addition of P early in the growing season can boost early plant growth. In most cases, however, the increased growth does not translate into greater yield. The effect of P on yield is solely dependent on the ability of the soil to supply the nutrient to the crop. If soils test medium or lower in P, there is a greater likelihood that P will increase yield. Interpreting P and K soil test results When we look at all our data, it is much easier to predict where crops will need P compared to K. When I look at a P soil test, I have...

Craig Sheaffer, Extension forage agronomist, and Jake Jungers, Assistant Professor, Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota. Intermediate wheatgrass ( Thinopyrum intermedium ) is the first commercially-viable perennial grain crop. The grain harvested from new varieties is called Kernza®, which can be used as a substitute for annual grains like wheat for production of baked goods, breakfast cereals, and snack bars. Kernza has also been fermented for beer production. “MN-Clearwater” is the first Kernza-producing variety developed in Minnesota and has grain and straw yields potential of 800 lb/acre and 8000 lb/acre, respectively. As a perennial, Kernza is planted once and provides several years of harvestable grain and straw. For more information can be found at https://kernza.org/kernzacap/ In addition to producing Kernza grain, intermediate wheatgrass can be harvested for forage. It has been used as a pasture and hay crop in the western USA for nearly a cent...