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Showing posts from August, 2021

Western Minnesota Soybean IPM Survey Results

This article was written by Angie Peltier, Anthony Hanson and Jared Goplen, UMN Extension educators. UMN Extension soybean IPM scouts traveled across northwest and west central Minnesota completing another couple of weeks of data collection. When visiting each soybean field, scouts first sweep for grasshoppers in the grassy area next to the field and then begin walking in a zig-zag pattern throughout the field, stopping along the way to growth stage the crop and examine 31 plants for soybean aphids, aphids that have been colonized by parasitic wasps and spider mites. Growth stages. For the most part, soybeans in northwest counties were at the beginning seed (R5) or full seed (R6) growth stages, maturing more quickly than soybeans further south ( Figure 1 ). Further south, including in areas that have recently received rain, soybeans had all reached the full pod (R4) to beginning seed growth stages. Figure 1 . Growth stages of soybeans scouted between July 26 and August 6 as part

Quality time spent in NW MN soybean fields

It’s (obviously) still dry. The NW Research and Outreach Center (NWROC) in Crookston has collected weather data since 1890. Our drought started in the month of September last year. From September 1, 2020 through July 31, 2021, the NWROC accumulated 5.59 inches of precipitation, or 30% of the 18.78 inch normal for that time period. A recent tour of NW MN reveals problem areas usually hidden. A recent tour of soybean fields in northwest Minnesota revealed all sorts of things. This year’s drought is giving us conspicuous indications of many of those things that remain hidden in non-drought years but can have a negative impact on plant growth and development and in the end, yield. SCN infestations that in a typical growing season would not result in plants showing above-ground symptoms in a drought can cause soybean leaflets to orient themselves vertically earlier in the day and may stimulate earlier than normal maturity.   We can also easily pick out field areas that are compacted b