Cropping Issues in Northwest Minnesota

Traveling throughout Kittson, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake and Roseau Counties in northwest Minnesota this week to survey soybeans, revealed various pest and disease issues.  Soybean aphid.  Figure 1. Soybean aphid. Courtesy of: Christina DiFonzo, Michigan State University, Bugwood.org. Soybean aphid ( Figure 1 ) population densities remain either undetectable or very low, with most plants housing fewer than 20 aphids. With so few soybean aphids present, I was also unable to find Asian lady beetles or their larvae or aphid “mummies” that had been parasitized by the Asian parasitic wasp, two of the many insects that provide biological control of the soybean aphid . Spider mites.  Two-spotted spider mites were widespread throughout the lower and middle canopies at all except northernmost locations. One may notice that infested leaflets have a duller appearance than those that aren’t infested due to the dull-yellow ‘stippling’ symptoms characteristi...

With so many of the things that we were accustomed to taking for granted (like kids being able to go to school) changing due to COVID-19 the UMN Extension family resiliency team is planning to host a series of free family resiliency webinars later this August, September and October.  AUGUST WEBINARS ADVANCE CARE PLANNING: NOW MORE THAN EVER Now is the time to make known end-of-life health care wishes in writing--a process called advance care planning. Thursday, August 27 : AM: 11 am-noon . To register: https://z.umn.edu/ACPam   PM: 7-8 pm . To register: https://z.umn.edu/ACPpm SEPTEMBER WEBINARS COMO ORGANIZAR Y GUARDAR EN UN LUGAR SEGURO LOS DOCUMENTOS IMPORTANTES Esta presentacion en linea y en espanol esta culturalmente orientada en como ordenar y guardar los documentos importantes en la vida diaria y para casos inesperados.   Wednesday, September 2; 10-11 am https://z.umn.edu/Organizardocumentos ----------------------- RELIEVING PAYDAY LOANS Are you stuck with a hi...

  Photo: This picture was taken at at soybean plot tour in Marshall County before social distance was part of our vocabulary. Here are the details regarding three upcoming soybean plot tour events next Monday and Tuesday, August 24 and 25: Norman County - Monday, August 24, 2 PM   Swenson Farm, GPS coordinates: N 47.44175, W -96.79442 Approximately 1 mile east of US 75/Shelly and 1 mile south of Hwy 3. Refreshments will be served.

The first painted lady butterfly (Figure 1) made its way into my side yard (8 miles east of Crookston) in early June. Painted lady butterfly. Photo credit: Whitney Crenshaw, Colorado State University, Bugwood.org Pretty butterflies to some, to those that have battled their thistle caterpillar (Figure 2) offspring they are anything but. Figure 2. Thistle caterpillar in a leaf that it rolled to provide protection (Crookston, MN, 2019). Recently I have heard from trusted crop advisors in Mahnomen, Marshall and Norman Counties that in certain client fields, injury caused by both thistle caterpillars and green cloverworms have reached treatment thresholds. During the middle of August in 2019, Extension entomologist Bob Koch, wrote an article that I quote here, "To obtain an estimate of the level of defoliation for a field: Select at least ten plants (more for larger fields) spread throughout the field. From each plant, select a leaf from the top, middle and bottom third of the plant....

COVID-19 = Monkey wrench COVID-19 threw a monkey wrench into the gears of the annual Northwest Research & Outreach Center's (NWROC) Crops & Soils Day program.  Rather than risk having this day meant for education and networking become some sort of COVID-19 super-spreader event, Extension and College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) personnel and the NWROC's director Dr. Albert Sims decided to bring the program online. Short videos summarizing research projects CFANS and Extension faculty members from both the NWROC and the St. Paul campus were captured on video discussing some of their 2020 research projects, what they hope to learn and how the projects will provide value to crop producers in northwest Minnesota and beyond. These videos are hosted on the NWROC website .  There are 10 videos total and individual topics and speakers include: Conservation Drainage Research: Lindsay Pease, NWROC Management of Rhizoctonia in Sugarbeet - Ashok Chan...