Minnesota Crop News

By: Angie Peltier, Extension crops educator Did you miss last week’s Strategic Farming webinar on climate factors and nitrogen management? Don’t worry! This blog post features written highlights from the episode as well as a link to a full video recording of the webinar at the bottom. The episode featured Extension water quality educator Brad Carlson and Extension nutrient management specialist Dan Kaiser, joined by Extension crops educator Ryan Miller. This was the third episode of Extension’s 2023 Strategic Farming: Let’s Talk Crops! webinar series . This year’s episodes include a variety of topics related to crop pests and pest resistance concerns, agronomic issues, and soil fertility questions. Register now to watch the live online webinars every Wednesday from 9-10 am on Zoom. Climate factors that influence nitrogen loss Climate plays a huge role in the fate of applied nitrogen fertilizer. The two primary loss processes of nitrogen in the soil are both water-based: Leaching, wh...

Signs of a healthy ecosystem in the field with soil health management (left), compared to signs of crusting and compaction in the plowed field (right). By: Bailey Tangen, graduate research assistant, and Anna Cates, Extension soil health specialist Climate change is projected to change the timing, frequency, and severity of spring precipitation in Minnesota, and farmers might notice those changes first. Increases in the  number and quantity of rains are expected early in the growing season in Southern Minnesota, where acres of corn and soybean dominate the landscape. Besides increasing the risk of water erosion in these fields, erratic rain patterns cause a lot of stress to farmers looking to plant corn and soybeans in May. “Weather has always been unreliable, but the extreme weather throws us for a loop. I still remember a really wet year in the early 80s where we planted on April 28th and didn’t get wheels in the field until June 6th, because of all of the rain,” remembers Mark ...

By: Dan Kaiser, University of Minnesota Extension nutrient management specialist, & Jeff Vetsch, University of Minnesota soil scientist Nutrient management decisions can become difficult when land tenure comes into play. While the soil is typically thought of as a “bank” that stores nutrients such as phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), the bank analogy isn’t completely accurate. You don’t always get back what is put into the soil. Also, with short-term land tenure, it doesn’t make sense to greatly increase soil test values if it will benefit another renter on the ground at a later date. What is your attitude towards risk? Soil tests for P and K help farmers understand how likely it is that a fertilizer application will increase crop yield. As soil test values increase towards what we call the critical level the need to apply fertilizer to achieve optimal yield should be low. It should be noted that some people consider the critical level to be at 95% of maximum yield while others con...

By: Angie Peltier, UMN Extension crops educator On January 18, 2023, Bruce Potter, University of Minnesota Extension IPM specialist, and Dr. Anthony Hanson, UMN Extension IPM educator, joined UMN Extension crops educator Ryan Miller for a wide-ranging discussion of insect pests of corn in Minnesota. This was the second episode of the 2023 Strategic Farming: Let’s talk crops! webinars in this series. Alternatively, cut and paste this link: https://youtu.be/_R9Hbb7M5lA European corn borer (ECB) In recent years, UMN Extension entomologists, specialists and educators have conducted a European corn borer survey in Minnesota, continuing a tradition that began in 1963 by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. This survey serves multiple purposes, including improving our understanding of:  Whether ECB Bt traits are still effective How Bt hybrids affect ECB population dynamics in fields planted to hybrids with and without ECB Bt traits The footprint of different ECB biotypes (uni...

By: Dan Kaiser and Carl Rosen, UMN Extension nutrient management specialists Sweet corn and peas are major crops grown primarily for processing in Minnesota. The state currently ranks second in the U.S. for both sweet corn and pea production with approximately 93,100 acres of sweet corn and 53,400 acres of peas harvested annually. View the updated fertilizer guidelines: Sweet corn Peas For the most part, these crops are grown under rainfed conditions on fine-textured soils in southern and south-central Minnesota, often in rotation with field corn and soybean . Relative to field corn and soybeans, sweet corn and peas have a relatively short growing season because the crops are harvested at an immature stage of growth and then processed for canned or frozen products. Nutrient requirements will therefore differ relative to the other major agronomic crops produced for grain. The updated guidelines for sweet corn are based on a three-year study funded by the Agricultural Fertilizer Resea...

By: Phyllis Bongard, Extension content development and communications specialist After three dry years, can this winter’s snowfall mitigate the drought? How does the grain market look considering world events? Ed Usset, Extension grain marketing specialist, and Pete Boulay, Assistant State Climatologist for the Minnesota DNR, joined Extension Educator Dave Nicolai for a wide-ranging discussion in the 2023 Strategic Farming: Let’s talk crops! webinar series launch. Grain market observations and outlook The bullish argument Several factors favor a bullish argument for rising crop prices in the next six months, according to Usset. Ending wheat stocks are projected to be the tightest in 15 years, excluding China’s stockpiling. The same is true with world corn ending stocks. In addition, basis is strong and in southwestern Minnesota, the best on record in over 30 years, with the exception of the drought years of 2012-13. The bearish argument Other factors favor a bearish argument. The do...

In this episode of the Nutrient Management Podcast, we’re talking about variable rate technology. What are some reasons that farmers might want to use variable-rate fertilizer instead of applying a single rate? Is there a difference between variable-rating different nutrient types? What are the technologies that are used to prescribe variable-rate fertilizer and what is the theory behind them? If farmers apply fertilizer at a variable rate, how should they evaluate those outcomes? Transcript Guests Brad Carlson, Extension educator (Mankato) Daniel Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist (St. Paul) Jeff Vetch, Extension nutrient management researcher (Waseca) Additional resources: Variable rate nitrogen and nitrogen advisory tools: Do they work? Fertilizer recommendation technology: What is success? On-farm precision ag research update: In-season site-specific side-dress nitrogen rate recommendations for corn --- For the latest nutrient management information, subscribe to the ...

Craig Sheaffer, Extension forage agronomist, and Nathan Drewitz, Extension educator - crops Figure 1. An alfalfa field covered with 4 inches of snow. Alfalfa stubble can  catch snow in the field and can also reduce injury  from ice sheeting. Photo: Nathan Drewitz Winter snowfall provides recreational activities, snow shoveling, and travel disruption, but for hibernating alfalfa, it provides a blanket of protection against winter air temperatures. So far this winter, the risk of alfalfa winter kill is minimal because throughout much of Minnesota the plants have been well insulated by snow during periods of very low air temperatures. Snow as an insulator -  Snow is a mixture of air and ice and has low thermal conductivity compared to pure ice and soil. It is a natural insulator of the soil and buffers against low and fluctuating air temperature. Snow cover protects dormant alfalfa plants from freezing and desiccating and reduces the depth and duration...

By Dave Nicolai, Extension Educator – Crops and Phyllis Bongard, Content development and communications specialist Photo: Liz Stahl Join us this Wednesday,  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 recover...