Minnesota Crop News

Liz Stahl, Extension educator-crops and Phyllis Bongard, Educational content development and communications specialist Photo: Liz Stahl 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 2025. Sessions will be held over Zoom, which can be accessed via your computer, phone, or other mobile device, and will run from 9:00 to 10:00 am Wednesdays, January 8 through March 26, 2025. 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 the to...

Join us at the 20th annual Soil Management Summit on January 29-30, 2025 at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center in Mankato, MN. As this year’s harvest wraps up and we begin to prepare for the next season, it’s time to reflect on ways we can change and adapt our management to better our profits, yields, soils, and water resources. There’s no better place to get these questions answered and learn from the experience of others than at the Soil Management Summit!  The annual Soil Management Summit (formerly the Conservation Tillage Conference) emphasizes the sharing of lived, practical experience among farmers, researchers, and advisors. Whether you prefer to get your information from several of the 15 breakout session presentations, the 3 panels, 13 table talk topics, or at the evening's Beer and Bull, the Soil Management Summit has something for everyone. Presentation and Panels Choose from a wide variety of presentations and panels. Some topics include:  Strategic tillag...

Come join Minnesota Crop Production Retailers and the University of Minnesota Extension! The three-day Minnesota Crop Pest Management Short Course program & Minnesota Crop Production Retailers Trade Show starts Tuesday, December 10th and continues through Thursday, December 12. The trade show and educational sessions will take place at the downtown Minneapolis Hilton Hotel. All the program details, including registration and hotel information for the 2024 Crop Pest Management Short Course & MCPR Trade Show can be found on the Minnesota Crop Production Retailers website. Briefly, the educational program offers a diverse assortment of sessions and opportunities. For example, the general session on Wednesday morning will include panel discussions on “MCPR Legislative Policy Discussion and Elections Update” and “Soil Health and Climate Smart Ag: What’s in it for me?”, and a presentation on “AI Guided Advancements in Agriculture”. On Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, severa...

A rotating mill attached to the combine separates weed seeds  from crops at harvest time and pulverizes the seeds so they cannot  sprout new weeds. Left to Right: Debalin Sarangi, Nathan  Zellmann, Ryan Mackenthun. In growing crops, much hinges on what happens down under — as in the soil. A McLeod County farmer is taking it a step further, exploring solutions from Down Under — as in Australia. Ryan Mackenthun operates a 2,200-acre corn and soybean farm with his brother-in-law, Nathan Zellmann. There, they’re piloting a new method of destroying weeds called harvest-time weed seed control, which relies on a rotating mill attached to the combine that separates weed seeds from harvested crops. The mill pulverizes weed seeds to the point where they no longer pose a threat to fields. “Being in the next generation of farmers, if you’re not looking for new ways of doing things, you shouldn’t expect different results,” says Mackenthun. “Working with the Univers...

Today Brad and Dan explore the background and rationale behind nitrogen rate recommendations in Minnesota. How have Minnesota's N rate recommendations evolved over time? What data does the MRTN approach take into account? How are these N rates organized?  TRANSCRIPT Guests: Brad Carlson, Extension educator (Mankato) Daniel Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist (St. Paul) Additional resources: What to know about the MRTN approach Are you overspending on fertilizer? Corn Nitrogen Rate Calculator Corn fertilizer guidelines - U of M --- 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 on Facebook , follow us on X (formerly twitter) , and visit our website . If you have questions or commen...

By: Chryseis Modderman, Extension educator Manure is a first-rate, albeit smelly, treasure trove of nutrients, with all the macro- and micronutrients plants need to grow (though not necessarily in the right concentrations). While phosphorus often plays second fiddle to nitrogen, it is a vital nutrient for plant growth and worth managing carefully. Understanding how manure phosphorus behaves after application is important to know how best to manage manure. A crop farmer piped up from the back row of a meeting, “If phosphorus sticks to soil, why can’t I just bank it up in my soil and have it forever?” While it’s true that phosphorus is far less mobile in the soil than nitrogen, it can still be lost to the environment through runoff and erosion. In high-phosphorus soils, leaching can also occur. When excess phosphorus ends up in freshwater, it can cause harmful algal blooms and hypoxic zones where plants and animals can’t survive. Phosphorus management in manure poses a unique challenge a...

Save the dates:  The 11th annual Nitrogen: Minnesota's Grand Challenge and Compelling Opportunity Conference will take place on Tuesday, February 4, 2025 in Mankato, MN The 17th annual Nutrient Management Conference will be on Tuesday, February 18, 2025 in St. Cloud, MN University of Minnesota Extension and the Minnesota Agricultural Water Resource Center (MAWRC) bring together experts from the U of M, other land-grant universities, and the ag industry to present important soil fertility, nitrogen, and water quality research projects. Topics range from N-P-K, sulfur, and micronutrient fertilizer management for various cropping systems to soil health, cover crops, and manure and irrigation management. These two annual events offer opportunities to learn about the latest research and current university guidelines while networking with local and out-of-state researchers, farmers, and crop advisors, among others. Both conferences offer continuing education credits (CEUs) in soil and ...

Nitrogen loss: Lessons learned from the 2024 growing season is the big topic on today's episode of the Nutrient Management Podcast. What N application practices looked particularly bad in 2024? Some farmers are saying they are no longer going to apply fall N based on how 2024 played out. Is this warranted, or is it an overreaction? Is there any data back from split-application trials, or evaluations of rescue treatments? What did it tell us? In hindsight, what would have been ideal practices to have used this past year? What can we take away from the 2024 growing season with respect to how to manage fertilizer in the future? TRANSCRIPT Guests: Fabian Fernandez, Extension nutrient management specialist (St. Paul) Jeff Strock, Extension soil scientist (Lamberton) Jeff Vetsch, U of M researcher (Waseca) Lindsay Pease, Extension nutrient and water management specialist (Crookston) Brad Carlson, Extension educator (Mankato) Additional Resources: Supplemental nitrogen worksheet for c...