Minnesota Crop News

Angie Peltier, UMN Extension crops educator and Anthony Hanson, UMN Extension IPM educator Crop scouts are out and about in western Minnesota soybean fields this summer scouting for pests and disease symptoms through a Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council sponsored scouting program. Last week’s field visits have provided indications about what pests and diseases are becoming more prevalent in western Minnesota soybean fields. As planting dates and soybean varieties varied throughout the state, what was observed in scouted fields may differ significantly from what is ailing the plants in your own fields. There is no substitute for scouting your own soybean fields. Joint maps from University of Minnesota and North Dakota State University scouts can be viewed here from previous weeks and into August for soybean and wheat pests. Soybean aphid Figure 1.  Low-level soybean aphid infestation on a single leaf. Photo: Robert Koch and Bruce Potter, UMN. The percentage of plan...

Phyllis Bongard, Educational content development and communications specialist, Bruce Potter, Extension IPM specialist, and Melissa Wilson, Extension manure management specialist SCN-resistant soybean on left and SCN- susceptible soybean on right. Wet weather continues to impact the soybean crop in the state. Meanwhile, high fertilizer prices may affect how we think about manure management this late summer and fall. To address these issues and discuss management strategies, Bruce Potter, IPM specialist, and Dr. Melissa Wilson, Extension manure management specialist, joined moderator, Dave Nicolai, Extension educator-crops, in the July 24 session of Strategic Farming: Field Notes. Got yellow soybeans? Soybeans have been under a great deal of water stress this season, leading to a high degree of in-field variability and increased vulnerability to disease. While some soybeans purely drowned, other hidden causes may be at work on this season’s crop. The potential culprits Excessive moist...

In this episode of the Nutrient Management Podcast, we’re talking about manure application in 2024. What’s the value of manure today, given that fertilizer prices are still elevated compared to 2018 and 2019? What does long-term research show us about manure’s value, and how might this information benefit growers and producers? Which manure best management practices (BMPs) help growers be most efficient? In what ways has ManureDB benefited farmers since its launch one year ago? What’s on the horizon for manure management? TRANSCRIPT Guests: Melissa Wilson, Extension manure nutrient management specialist (St. Paul) Chryseis Modderman, Extension educator (Morris, MN) Mary Keena, Extension livestock environment management specialist, North Dakota State University (Carrington, ND) Amy Schmidt, Livestock manure management engineer, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Lincoln, NE) Additional resources: Manure Management ManureDB Long-term Cropping Systems Study (NDSU) Manure and minimum ti...

In the 5th episode of the Advancing Nitrogen Smart series, we’re talking about the ways the soil stores water, and how nitrogen transforms in that soil under different climate conditions. We’ll discuss field saturation and the water budget, heat units and how to track them, and how these trends have changed throughout MN over the last 60 years. TRANSCRIPT Guests: Brad Carlson, Extension educator (Mankato) Daniel Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist (St. Paul) Additional resources: Nitrogen BMPs, MN Dept of Agriculture Ecological and Water Resources Mesonet, MN Dept of Agriculture National Weather Service Temperature and Precipitation Map --- Click here  to listen to all Advancing Nitrogen Smart podcast episodes. For the latest nutrient management information, subscribe to the Nutrient Management Podcast . And don't forget to subscribe to the Minnesota Crop News daily or weekly email newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube channel, like UMN Extension Nutrient Management o...

Anthony Hanson, UMN Extension crops IPM educator; Jeff Coulter, UMN Extension corn agronomist; Dean Malvick, UMN Extension plant pathologist The following information was provided during the July 17, 2024 Strategic Farming: Field Notes session. Use your preferred podcasting platform or listen online to a podcast of this Field Notes session hosted by UMN Extension crops educator Claire LaCanne that featured Drs. Jeff Coulter and Dean Malvick. Corn development Jeff Coulter discussed what to expect with corn development with the wet conditions this year. This has been a difficult year with too much water resulting in potential nitrogen issues and variability in development in areas where growth was delayed due to saturated soil. This staggered development also complicates management decisions.  Growers have been asking Coulter if applying extra nitrogen is worth it in these conditions. If additional nitrogen is to be applied, it should be done no later than V14. Pollination status i...

Are you curious about how healthy your soil is? There are fascinating tests to explore the microbial activity, organic nitrogen pools, and physical stability of your soil, but they are expensive compared to traditional soil nutrient tests. Luckily, there’s funding from Minnesota Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for producers who want to test their soil health! Known as Crop Evaluation and Monitoring Activity-216 (CEMA-216) , this NRCS activity can help cover much of the costs associated with sampling and lab analysis for many soil health tests. However, a qualified individual must do the sampling. University of Minnesota Extension is partnering with MN NRCS to bring training on CEMA-216 sampling procedures to certified crop advisers (CCAs) or other individuals who would like to perform CEMA-216 sampling. Registration and Location: The training will be August 16, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s “Farm at the Arb” in Chaska, MN . For this free trainin...

  Fusarium Head Blight Risk The risk for Fusarium head blight remains moderate to high for highly susceptible varieties for most of Minnesota through the coming weekend (Figure 1). The marked difference in the risk of infection between highly susceptible and moderately resistant varieties remains the same (Figure 2).  Figure 1. Fusarium head blight risk for very susceptible varieties for July 9 through 12. Darker orange indicates moderate risk and red indicates high risk. Figure 2. Fusarium head blight risk for moderately resistant varieties for July 9 through 12. Darker orange indicates moderate risk and red indicates high risk. Harvest Management It isn't hard to find scab in the University of Minnesota spring wheat and barley variety trials across the Red River Valley that were seeded in the second half of April.  It's a bit too early yet to see symptoms of infection in the yield trials trials that were seeded in May.  None of these trials are sprayed wi...

Angie Peltier, UMN Extension crops educator; Fei Yang, UMN Extension corn entomologist; Bruce Potter, UMN Extension IPM specialist; and Robert Koch, UMN Extension soybean entomologist The following information was provided during the July 10, 2024 Strategic Farming: Field Notes session. Use your preferred podcasting platform or listen online to a podcast of this Field Notes session hosted by UMN Extension crops educator Claire LaCanne. How a mild winter and a rainy spring impacts pests Western corn rootworm Mild winter The 2023-24 winter was a mild one in areas where agronomic crops are produced when compared to the average Minnesota winter. To help them survive cold winter temperatures, those insect pests that spend their winters in Minnesota tend to concentrate the fats and alcohols in their blood to produce a natural ‘antifreeze.’ However, the recent warmer than normal winter likely helped these pests’ (think alfalfa weevil, bean leaf beetle and European corn borer, etc.) survival...

Robert Koch, UMN Extension soybean entomologist; Bruce Potter, UMN Extension IPM specialist; and Fei Yang, UMN Extension corn entomologist Questions continue to be raised about the potential to use chlorpyrifos-containing products against crop pests. Chlorpyrifos was taken off the market for a period of time after the US EPA removed all tolerances for food and feed. Then, tolerances were reinstated after the EPA’s decision was challenged in court; however, this occurred after many manufacturers had already voluntarily canceled their products at the federal level. Minnesota has conditionally registered the following products that still have federal registrations for 2024. These products may be used through 2024 according to the directions on their labels. Check the MDA webpage or Kelly Solutions webpage for current listing of registered products for Minnesota. As of July 12, 2024, the ten chlorpyrifos-containing products registered for agricultural use in Minnesota were: DURAGUARD ME...