Cropping Issues in Northwest Minnesota

Small Grain Production Update AND 
Private Pesticide Applicator Training/Recertification

Minnesota’s hard red spring wheat acreage rebounded to 1.6 million acres in 2018. This 40% jump is probably easiest explained by the record yields the previous year and the lackluster futures for corn and soybeans for much of the 2018 marketing year. The large carry forward of soybeans and continued uncertainty in the export market mean that a further increase of wheat acres is possible, if not likely.

The University of Minnesota Extension has teamed up with the Private Pesticide Applicator Training program to help (re)acquaint farmers with spring wheat and provide the latest production and management tactics for the upcoming growing season. 

The combined PPAT/Small Grains Update meetings will be held at the Morris West Central Research and Outreach Center, Comstock Community Center, the Ada Event Center, the Marshall County Courthouse in Warren, and the Roseau City Center on January 21, 28, 29, 30 …

A Research Update for Ag Professionals will be held from 12:30 to 4:40 PM on Thursday, January 17 at the University of Minnesota Northwest Research and Outreach Center’s Youngquist Auditorium (2900 University Ave., Crookston).

While all are welcome to attend, this program is geared primarily toward certified crop advisors (CCA) in need of continuing education units (CEU). CCAs in attendance can earn up to 5 CEUs.

Topics and speakers include:

With razor thin margins farmers are under pressure to reexamine every penny included in their 2019 crop budgets. To examine one of these expenses – land rental – in more detail farmers in northwest Minnesota are invited to join University of Minnesota Extension ag business management personnel for upcoming Affordable Land Rental Seminars.

These events will help attendees to determine a fair and profitable rental agreement by examining historic and projected trends in land rental rates, farmland values and sales.

Angie Peltier, Jared Goplen and Phillip Glogoza, Extension educators

Now is crunch time for row-crop producers: harvesting, hauling and drying the crop, fall tillage and perhaps fall fertilizer applications need to take place before the snow sticks around. With recent rain events leaving fields unfit for heavy machinery traffic now might be a perfect time to collect soil samples to monitor soybean cyst nematode (SCN).

SCN is the top yield-limiting soybean pathogen and can cause up to 30% yield loss without obvious symptoms. Recently some SCN populations have shifted to overcome the most commonly available source of varietal resistance (called PI88788) resulting in higher SCN egg counts and yield losses. Knowing your SCN numbers is an essential component of an integrated SCN management strategy.