agriculture

Sunday was my birthday and I was out to the farm planting sweet corn. The evening before, Birds Eye Foods came in with their 40-foot air drill and planted my peas. It was a nice birthday present to get the last of the planting done. In addition, my mom and all my brothers and sisters except Deb were back for a "clean up weekend" at the farm...

Over the weekend I was out to the farm working over the sweet corn and pea ground. Saturday evening my peas were planted and Sunday I planted the sweet corn. It sure is nice to finally have all the planting done for the year. Unless of course there is some replanting that needs to be done...

This is a field I drive by going out to the farm. A few days ago I noticed the farmer working this land no-tilling beans into this terminated cover crop. There is a lot of interest in trying to incorporate cover crops into our corn-soybean rotation...

I read with interest the weekly weather and crop update from the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca. The best way to describe last week's weather, a wasted week! Temperatures averaged 50.9 degrees, 9.6 degrees below normal. It rained every day last week and we accumulated 2...

The annual soybean planting broadcast will be this afternoon from 1-3PM at Keith and Carol Schrader's farm by Nerstrand.  We always try to pick a time when the crop would be pretty well planted so it is more relaxed for the farmer and all the people they do business with...

Last summer, Palmer amaranth was confirmed in Minnesota for the first time. Some landowners in southwestern Minnesota bought some "pollinator seed" from outstate and it was contaminated with Palmer amaranth seed. Palmer amaranth is a member of the pig weed family, as is waterhemp...

Sunday afternoon I drove by the Faribault Woolen Mill Dam to see how high the Cannon River was. This is not what you would like to see, especially in May. Just seeing the Cannon River this high tells you a lot about how much water would be standing in the fields, especially in low areas...

Last week corn had a couple of down days and then a good day Friday. Thursday corn follower beans lower as news of the corruption scandal in Brazil hit the market. The corruption goes all the way to the president of Brazil. Beans were down more than 30 cents and the Brazilian currency also dropped sharply...

This stretch of cold wet weather is getting old again. We are fortunate that the corn is pretty well all planted and a large percentage of the beans are in the ground, so it could be worse. It would appear that some lower areas or "potholes" drowned out and some of those might be replanted depending on how large they are...

The Minnesota Soybean and Research Council has funded a study at the University of Minnesota to look at the relationship between buckthorn density and soybean aphid populations. The long-term goal is to look at treatment and control of buckthorn to see if that will reduce soybean aphid populations...