Cropping Issues in Northwest Minnesota

A black cutworm pheromone trap will be deployed at the Northwest Research and Outreach Center in Crookston, the northernmost location in the UMN Black Cutworm Trapping Network.


The article below was originally posted in the MN Crop News Blog by Bruce Potter, University of Minnesota Extension Integrated pest management specialist.


The black cutworm can be a significant pest of corn, sugarbeets and other crops. Because they cannot survive our Minnesota winters, the risk of economic crop loss depends on how many moths arrive and when they arrive with respect to crop development.

The article below about corn was originally posted as a MN Crop News article by Jared Spackman, University of Minnesota (UMN) graduate student, and Fabian Fernandez, UMN Extension Specialist.

Wet conditions last fall and this spring have limited the number of acres that received nitrogen in preparation for the upcoming growing season. This creates the challenging dilemma of whether to delay planting in order to get fertilizer down. Most Minnesota soils can supply sufficient nitrogen to meet early corn growth without a yield reduction. The best bet is to plant corn on time to optimize yield potential and come back later to apply nitrogen.

This article was originally posted on the MN Crop News Blog by Jared Goplen, University of Minnesota Extension Educator in crops.
It really can be that simple. Last summer I was introduced to an app / website called iNaturalist, a tool commonly used by those working in natural resources. While it can be used to help identify nearly any species, it works especially well to identify weeds. Best of all it is free!

The article below was originally posted in the MN Crop News Blog by Gregory Klinger, University of Minnesota Extension educator in ag water quality protection.

I was recently asked how growing cover crops can impact the nitrogen credit we give to corn grown after soybeans. This credit, which is often incorrectly assumed to be based on soybean adding nitrogen to the soil, is mostly related to the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of soybean residue. The main issue to consider is: what is happening to soil nitrogen as that cover crop is decomposing? A lot of this comes down to what the cover crop is, how much biomass is out there, and what stage of growth it is at.