Last week took me on a trip to northern Minnesota soybean fields with problems in need of a diagnosis. In a field of otherwise phenomenal looking soybeans, there was a very large patch of soybeans that were visibly paler, shorter and thinner (nowhere near closing rows) from the road. First things first. Upon entering the field, I made a beeline for the dividing line between the gorgeous, healthy soybeans and the sickly soybeans. It is this area of a field of plants that can provide the quickest clues as to the cause of the problem. I gently dug up the plants to inspect the roots, as pulling plants from even moist ground may help to obscure the cause of the problem. There was evidence of the plant encountering a compacted layer of soil. This could be easily observed by all of the taproots taking a sharp turn to the right or left and not growing straight down. However, the taproots prevailed, breaking through the compacted layer of soil to again grow downward ( Figure 1 ). Figur...
Now is the time to check alfalfa stands Late last week, as I walked through an alfalfa field on my way to a 2024 corn field that will be planted to a soybean experiment this spring, alfalfa re-growth was spotty at best (Figure 1). A look from a distance hinted at decent survival and regrowth, but upon closer inspection, many of the green plants observed were dandelions.... Figure 2 illustrates that the lack of insulating, protection-providing snow cover didn't kill every plant. Figure 1. An alfalfa stand near Gary, MN in late April 2025. Note: most of the green is dandelions. Figure 2. Some lone alfalfa crowns showing signs of life surrounded by many more that were not. Assess plant health, plant population and stem density There are three things that one should look at to determine whether an alfalfa crop is likely to be productive enough to keep, needs rehabilitation or should be scrapped and another forage crop seeded. Briefly, from multiple areas of the field, 1) d...