Quad County Crops Newsletter
If you’re willing to wait for your overwintered cover crop to flower, roller crimping or mowing can be your termination method. With either method, it’s critical that your cover crop begins to flower but does not set seed. Often, waiting for cover crop flowering results in late-May or early-June cash crop planting, which may be undesirable in some cropping systems. The image to the right is of a cereal rye head at anthesis. You can see a yellow anther covered in pollen hanging from the flower. Anthesis is the best time to mow or roller-crimp cereal rye.
Strategic Farming: Let's Talk Crops!
Join us 9 to 10 a.m. on Wednesdays, now through March 25th for up-to-date, research-based information in an informal webinar format; please bring questions. The live Zoom sessions can be accessed from almost anywhere, and if you miss any, a recording will be posted online. Register for Strategic Farming once, and you'll have access to all of the sessions. Previous Strategic Farming recordings can be found here.
Multi-Generational Farm Transition Retreat
March 13th and 14th | St. Cloud Technical & Community College
The Farm Transition and Estate Planning workshops and retreats are designed to help farm families build a clear path toward farm business succession, retirement and estate planning, and farm and property transition. These events provide practical tools, discussions, and expert advice on topics like business structure, tax implications, and estate planning. Join us to gain clarity, confidence, and a roadmap for your farm’s future.
Midwest Soybean Gall Midge Research Update
Thursday, March 19th, 2026 | 9:00 am to 11:00 am | Webinar
Join Extension entomologists and their graduate students from three Midwestern universities to get the latest updates on soybean gall midge (SGM). This free, live webinar will feature new research results and emerging management insights from ongoing field and laboratory studies across the region. Get the latest research-based updates on biology, ecology, and management, including:
- Updated information on SGM distribution and regional monitoring efforts
- Impacts on soybean production and yield loss under field conditions
- Biology and ecology updates, including cold tolerance and overwintering survival
- New insights into adult biology, including emergence timing and behavior
- Results from commercial soybean variety testing under SGM pressure
- Updates on biological control efforts
- Evaluation of new and emerging cultural control strategies, along with other management tools
Learn more and register on the Soybean Gall Midge Webinar webpage.
Cover Crop Academy
Register now for the University of Minnesota Cover Crop Academy! This innovative program is a year-long, hybrid course offered at three statewide locations for those who work with farmers. The academy kicks off with a meeting at Lamberton, Waseca, or Westport (attend one of your choice) to visit cover crop research plots and develop a trial at that location. Every other month, there’s an online, cover crop dive deep, and in May 2027, the program concludes with a visit to your designated trial site.
Irrigation Management Assistant Tool
The Irrigation Management Assistant (IMA) uses daily estimates of crop water use, local precipitation data, and soil characteristics to track available soil moisture in your fields. You can register multiple fields, draw their boundaries on the map, and set crop, planting date, and irrigation details. The app continuously updates soil moisture balances and growth stage estimates, and provides clear visual charts and tables for irrigation, rainfall, and crop maturity. Regardless of your current irrigation scheduling method, IMA is a free and anonymous tool that can help improve the accuracy and ease of your irrigation records.
Improving waterhemp control by managing spray water pH
How often do you check the pH of your spray water before mixing? Many factors are influential in the efficacy of herbicide applications, but pH might be too often overlooked. In a recent Minnesota study, spray water with a pH of 5.8 outperformed the same product applied with spray water at a pH of 7.5 in the short- and long-term. By lowering and buffering spray water pH, more herbicide can readily pass through the leaf surface and into the plant. If waterhemp control has been inconsistent on your farm, spray water chemistry may be part of the issue.
Is sulfur a mobile nutrient?
Corn, alfalfa, and canola are three crops that tend to benefit most from sulfur application. In long-term trials in Minnesota, 10 lbs of sulfate per acre was sufficient for the first and second year of continuous corn. While sulfur has some similarities to nitrate, it doesn’t leach as quickly in medium and fine soils. Soybeans did well with 20 lbs per acre applied to the previous corn crop. Sulfur applied to soybeans directly was rarely cost-effective. Another interesting note is that elemental and bentonite sulfur must oxidize to become plant-available, so incorporation should be avoided for two weeks after application.
Over-the-top dicamba use registered for 2026 on soybeans
Over-the-top dicamba use returns to Minnesota for the 2026 season. New mitigation measures are required for use to reduce drift, minimize volatility, and protect the environment. There are also state-specific restrictions in place for OTT applications of dicamba in Minnesota. If you are planning to use one of the restricted-use dicamba products, licensed applicators must complete annual training specific to OTT dicamba use offered by dicamba registrants, which keeps users informed of label requirements, best practices, and environmental protection guidelines.
