Minnesota Crop News

The USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) Regional Office in Eagan, which oversees crop insurance in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, has made some substantive changes to crop insurance options for oats and winter rye. First, beginning last spring, crop revenue coverage for oats is now a viable option with the changes made by USDA-RMA in calculating the price for oats.  Much like you, the agency has long recognized that the CBOT oats' future contracts had little to no bearing on the price at the farm gate.  After a pretty extensive statistical deep-dive and modeling effort using historical data, the agency came to the conclusion that the CBOT soft red winter wheat futures price was a much more robust predictor for oat prices at the farmgate than the CBOT oat futures. The Regional Office will be in the second year of providing this option to oat producers. Second, as of this fall, approved hybrid winter rye varieties were insurable separately from open-pollinated winter rye variet...

More than 90% of soybeans produced in the US and globally are first processed into soybean meal for animal feed and oil for human consumption and for industrial uses. However, 5-10% of soybeans are consumed more or less directly by humans. Soybeans are used to produce tofu, soy milk, soy sauce, miso, natto, yuba, sprouts, and many other food products. Production of these foods requires specific soybeans with a narrow set of physical and chemical traits. The quality of these food products depends on the quality of the soybeans used.  Craig Tomera, an Identity Preserved (IP) specialist with Grain Millers joins Aaron Lorenz, soybean breeder at the University of Minnesota on this week’s Minnesota CropCast. David and Seth learn about IP soybean production in Minnesota from these gentlemen. They chat about yield potential, management and contracting of IP soybeans. Craig discusses cleaning and exporting soybeans at their St Peter, MN plant and describes Grain Millers other food in...

Photo: Liz Stahl Register now for the 2024 Strategic Farming: Let's talk crops series and join us to discuss key issues and questions around commodity crop production facing Minnesota farmers today. This live, online program will provide up-to-date, research-based information to help optimize your crop management strategies for 2024. The webinar series kicks off on January 10 and will run through March 27. 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.  Sessions will be informal and open to all interested. Each session will start with a brief presentation by the experts for the day, followed by discussion framed around farmer/participant questions on the topic. Topics and speakers: January 10: Grain prices and marketing strategies given current geopolitics & soybean crush capacity Frayne Olson, Crops economist/Marketing specialist, North Dakota State University January 17: Join us...

Curious about the latest independent and unbiased research findings of your Land Grant Universities and how those findings pertain to advising your clients to best manage their crops? The UofM and NDSU agronomy, entomology, plant pathology, soil, and weed science extension faculty are going on the road in the first half of January to share their data, interpretations, and conclusions with you at the Research Update for Ag Professionals in Owatonna, Willmar, and Crookston. The complete list of speakers and titles is listed below and can also be found here . Attendance at the three in-person meetings is limited to the first eighty people who register . Do not panic if you can not make it to one of the three in-person meetings.  You might miss the cookies and coffee but you will not miss the other essentials if you sign up for the online edition of the Research Update for Ag Professionals. The online edition will feature many of the same speakers and topics and is spread out over...

In this episode of the Nutrient Management Podcast, we’re talking about nitrogen management and water quality in southeast Minnesota. What is the situation in southeast Minnesota and why is it different from the rest of the state? What is the history of this work in southeast Minnesota on nitrogen issues? What is being done about the situation, and what are our current recommendations for southeast MN? Where does our panel see this issue going in the future? Transcript Guests: Brad Carlson, Extension educator (Mankato) Jeff Vetsch, U of M researcher (Waseca) Greg Klinger, Olmsted County Soil and Water Conservation District (Rochester) Additional resources: How to interpret a water test for nitrate Podcast: Watershed planning and nitrate reduction podcast Six observations from six years of tile sampling for nitrates in southeast Minnesota Nitrogen Smart online course Two on-farm research programs offer Minnesota corn growers opportunity to improve N fertilizer practices Minnesota Agricu...

Craig Sheaffer, Extension Agronomist, and Katrina Freund Saxhaug, Research Scientist, Department of Horticultural Science A field of purple coneflower grown in monoculture Production of purple coneflower ( Echinacea purpurea Moench) in mixture with native grasses and forbs on agriculture landscapes has potential to supply ecosystem services such as pollinator habitat, carbon sequestration, and soil stabilization. Ecological uses could be promoted by revenue streams from phytochemicals, seed, and biomass. Purple coneflower is a native perennial plant widely distributed in prairies throughout the Midwest. It is also grown as an ornamental plant in gardens. Medicinal use Purple coneflower was used as a medicinal plant by Native Americans and knowledge of its benefits was passed on to colonists. It was used to treat snakebites, wounds, toothaches, and respiratory illnesses. A product containing purple coneflower, Meyers Blood Purifier, was marketed in the late 1800’s as treatment for...

It is easy to deliver soybeans to a local elevator, receive a check, and not put another thought into where those soybeans go. But, the demand for those soybeans is what creates the price. Understanding who buys our soybeans and what they are used for helps us all better understand what direction prices may go in the future.  Gordon Denny has been a farm kid from southern Indiana, a Marine, and a long-term employee with Bunge. Today he is a knowledge center for the radical changes occurring in the global demand for soybeans and other oilseeds. With increased demand for vegetable oils for renewable diesel, a rapid increase in soybean processing is occurring in the U.S. A near-term increase in soybean processing of around 25% will have radical implications for the supply of oil, soybean meal, and whole soybeans for both domestic and international utilization. In this episode of Minnesota CropCast, Gordon helps us to better understand how the soybean world got to this place, and where...