Minnesota Crop News

University of Minnesota Extension’s popular Nitrogen Smart program is available as an interactive online course, featuring short videos and quick quizzes to test your knowledge. Now, you can take two advanced courses: one on manure management and the other a deep dive into the 4Rs. The objective of Nitrogen Smart is to help growers understand how nitrogen behaves in the environment for the purpose of customizing management to fit your soil and weather conditions. The most efficient nitrogen management is also the most profitable, and participants will learn how to adjust rates and application practices to achieve optimal efficiency. The online courses are self-paced. You may register at any point and complete the coursework when it is convenient for you. Thanks to the generous support of the Minnesota Corn Growers, these courses are available to participants at no charge. Manure management Livestock manures have been used as a crop fertilizer source for thousands of years and continues...

Angie Peltier, UMN Extension educator, Ed Usset, UMN Extension grain marketing specialist and Ken Hellevang, NDSU Extension agricultural engineer Photo: Angie Peltier The following information was provided during a 2023 Strategic Farming: Field Notes session. Use your preferred podcasting platform or listen online to a podcast of this Field Notes session. Preparing grain bins before harvest Making sure that your grain bin is ready to accept grain is a positive step toward protecting your 2023 season-long investment. Best practices for making sure that your grain bins are ready include: Inspect your grain bin from the inside out on a sunny day, looking for sunlight shining through revealing any holes to be patched. The region of the bin that is most at risk of failing is where the steel meets the concrete. Make sure that the bin is clean of all remaining material left from your 2022 crops. As a general rule, if you can tell what 2022 crop had been in the bin, it needs to be cleaned. I...

The intermittent rains, heavy dews, and cooler nighttime temperatures may have you wondering about the risk of sprout damage and low Hagberg Falling Numbers. We have not reached that point just yet but below are two articles I put together in 2019 and 2020 that detail the mechanisms that trigger low HFN and ways to manage the harvest and storage of wheat with low HFN. The 2019 post, titled 'Help, My Numbers are Falling', can be found here . The 2020 post, titled 'Are My Numbers Falling....Again?', can be found here . Good luck with the remainder of the harvest. 

  Anthony Hanson, Field Crops Extension Educator - Integrated Pest Management Each year in September and October, U of M research and extension scientists conduct a state-wide survey to determine the percentage of plants infested with European corn borer (ECB) in growers' fields. This survey is also used to assess disease prevalence, such as tar spot. This year, we plan to sample approximately 125 fields primarily across the state. A handful of fields are randomly selected in each county to represent the primarily predominant Bt acres where ECB populations are usually low due to the protection conferred by Bt traits specific to ECB. However, because ECB populations are inherently low in fields with protection,  non-Bt  fields are also needed in the survey  to get a more accurate snapshot of populations and potential risk. Scouts visually inspect stalks for feeding damage and larval presence, so no effort or specialized plots on the grower's part is needed for a field...

Join us Wednesday, August 23th, for guidance of grain storage preparation with Dr. Kenneth Hellevang, Professor and Extension Engineer at North Dakota State University and for grain marketing updates with Ed Usset, U of MN  Grain Marketing Economist  on  Strategic Farming: Field Notes. The webinar runs from 8:00 – 8:30 a.m. This will be the last webinar of the year, but be sure to join us for Strategic Farming: Let's Talk Crops later this winter and when Field Notes resumes in the spring. Learn more and register Can’t make the live session? No problem. The discussion-based series will be posted immediately following the webinar to your favorite podcast-streaming service to listen at your convenience. Thanks to the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council and the Minnesota Corn Research and Promotion Council for their generous support of this program. 

Phyllis Bongard, Educational content development and communications specialist, Jeff Coulter and Seth Naeve, Extension agronomists A wet spring followed by dry conditions has resulted in a challenging growing season. Drs. Jeff Coulter and Seth Naeve, Extension agronomists, gave crop updates during the August 16 Field Notes session. They were joined by moderator Anthony Hanson, Extension crops educator. Corn update In general, Coulter feels the crop is looking better. However, conditions continue to vary widely around the state. Some areas have received timely rains, while others continue to be excessively dry.  Conditions were warm and dry during pollination, resulting in some kernel abortion near the ear tips. While corn can continue to lose kernels through the end of the milk stage under stressful conditions, most of the crop is now at the late milk to early dough stage and kernel numbers are set. As the crop transitions into grain filling, sufficient moisture will result in big...

Anthony Hanson - UMN Extension Educator (hans4022@umn.edu) - Integrated Pest Management, Ian MacRae - UMN Extension Entomologist, Bruce Potter - UMN Extension IPM Specialist, Robert Koch - UMN Extension Soybean Entomologist, and Fei Yang - UMN Extension Corn Entomologist Differential grasshopper. Photo: Bruce Potter High grasshopper populations have been observed in several areas of Minnesota in 2023. If grasshoppers are a concern in your fields, a recently updated extension guide on grasshoppers in field crops will give in-depth guidance on grasshopper species, how to scout, and what thresholds and insecticides should be used for each crop. Grasshoppers generally prefer areas with undisturbed soil to lay eggs such as in pastures, hay ground, field edges, road ditches, and sometimes cropland. The immatures (i.e., wingless nymphs) and adults feed on live grasses and forbs. The depletion of their food source from grasshopper feeding, roadside and hay land mowing, and small grain harvest...