UMN Southern Research & Outreach Center

11/13/2024

75 years of experience in one picture! Today, we held our annual Staff Appreciation Luncheon, with that came honoring the individuals who marked a years of service milestone in 2024. Pictured left to right are: Gregg Johnson - Agronomy (30 years), Kara Anderson - Agronomy (10 years), and Wayne Gottschalk - Plant Pathology/Nematology (35 years). Missing is Matt Bickell - Agronomy (30 years).

11/07/2024

Jeff Vetsch, SROC Soils Scientist, will be presenting at the upcoming University of Minnesota Extension Soil Management Summit in Mankato, MN on January 29-30, 2025.

Register now to secure the best price! You can learn more about the event and register at z.umn.edu/SMS

11/02/2024

Last week, UMN alfalfa breeder Craig Shaeffer and his colleagues from the USDA wrote a blog post for University of Minnesota Extension Minnesota Crop News. The article focuses on the beauty of alfalfa flowers and how they indicate different varieties, provide information on when to harvest for maximum yield, and benefit local pollinators.

We have several fields in alfalfa production and research plots across our acreage. Even if you don't grow alfalfa on your farm, this is a great read packed with useful information! You can read it here: https://blog-crop-news.extension.umn.edu/2024/10/the-beauty-of-alfalfa.html

10/30/2024

That's a wrap! In our final weekly crop and weather update of the 2024 season, Tom talks about this warm and dry October and makes some recommendations on fall fertilizer applications.

SROC harvest activity has been winding down the last week or so, with some corn stalk harvest happening earlier this week. These bales will go into our barns and under weather wrapping for the calves throughout the winter.

Weekly Crop & Weather Updates will return in spring 2025! You can check out the archived updates from this year (and previous years) on our website: sroc.cfans.umn.edu/weekly-updates

10/24/2024

Only 1 more week until Halloween! Have you already carved your pumpkins?

Here at SROC, we celebrate with pumpkins a bit earlier than most... thanks to Charlie and his ongoing pumpkin and clover research! Several community partners have also displayed Charlie's pumpkins in their fall decor and at local fall festivals.

We recently featured Charlie's work on our website, which you can read here: https://sroc.cfans.umn.edu/news/charlie-pumpkin-research

10/17/2024

It's corn! 🌽 Really kicking up the dust today, especially with the dry weather! You can read all about it, plus more in this week's update!

10/11/2024

Harvest season is always a busy time in farm country and we're no exception! Farm crew and researchers have been in and out of combines, harvesting both soybeans and corn from our research studies and our production acres. In these photos, our Agronomy crew harvested the Soybean Breeding trial and packaged samples to send off for genetic testing.

On October 7th, we recorded the first 32 degree temp, which marks the end of the growing season. This is a full week later than usual, partially thanks to a very warm and dry September. Read more in Tom's update!

10/10/2024

In this episode of Advancing Nitrogen Smart, Melissa Wilson, Extension manure management specialist joins Brad Carlson to discuss fall manur...

09/27/2024

Soybean harvest is well underway at the SROC! Hope everyone has a safe and happy harvest!

09/24/2024

Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is the top yield-limiting pathogen of soybean in Minnesota and throughout the Midwest, causing an estimated $7.32 million in lost yield in 2023 throughout Minnesota.

To help Minnesota soybean producers understand their risks and management options, the MN Soybean Research & Promotion Council is sponsoring the fall 2024 SCN Sampling Program, which will pay for the first 500 samples received.

Angie Peltier, Extension educator - crops Figure. Soybean roots. Yellow arrows point to swollen female SCN; white arrow points to a large...

09/18/2024

Another week of dry weather, but we have been much warmer than usual for this time... over 11 degrees warmer than normal! The warm weather has helped move crops along very quickly and SROC is starting soybean harvest in some of our ranges.

This week, Charlie and Jess harvested pumpkins in the clover/pumpkin study, which researches adding biomass nutrients into the soil to improve next year's crop (in this field, sweet corn). Several community groups in town came by to collect pumpkins for decoration in fall festivals and offices as we near October and "spooky season." 🍂🐈‍⬛

09/12/2024

A big crew a Farmers from Brazil stopped into pizzaranchrestaurants after an informational session at UMN Southern Research & Outreach Center. Thanks to Big Team Ag Experts for bringing your group to Waseca!

09/11/2024

This week's installation of the Crop & Weather Update is available below and on our website at sroc.cfans.umn.edu/weather/weekly-updates

As fall creeps in, soybeans are turning yellow across the state and April corn is only a few days from final maturity. The warm weather forecasted for the next 10 days should help corn fields mature and a continuation of the mild weather through the next three weeks would be a great way to end the growing season.

In these pictures, you can see that all 3 dates of soybeans in our ultra early planting demo look pretty similar. Soybeans are daylight sensitive, which means that as the days get shorter and the nights longer, they start to yellow much faster. It wouldn't be strange to see completely yellow fields of soybeans in the next week.

09/10/2024

With the start of the harvest season, the UMN statewide Field Crop Variety Trials have published preliminary data for select crops at https://varietytrials.umn.edu/

08/29/2024

How about that humidity, huh?🫠 While the Twin Cities and further north of us got the brunt of the storms this week, we got merely a trace of rain. You can read more about how this week holds up against normals in the Crop & Weather Update.

Additionally, we recently got a weather station upgrade! 😎 You can check out all the cool data we're collecting with the new system on our website: https://sroc.cfans.umn.edu/weather

The UMN ROC system is partnering with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture in their initiative to create MAWN, or the Minnesota Ag Weather Network. The vision is to have weather stations every 20 miles to provide farmers with real-world, current weather to help them make decisions on their farms. The MDA is taking applications for site locations to be built out over the next few years, so if you are interested... check out this webpage to see the site criteria and fill out an application! https://www.mda.state.mn.us/minnesota-ag-weather-network

08/16/2024

08/15/2024

The dry and cool weather this last week allowed the fields to dry out enough for small grain harvest... but as Tom writes in this week's crop & weather update, the yields were disappointing. He also shared some more information about soybean aphid populations this year (spoiler... it's not good news 😥). You can read more about scouting for aphids at Minnesota Crop News: https://blog-crop-news.extension.umn.edu/2024/08/considerations-for-soybean-aphid.html

We also recently shared some news about our first time exhibiting at Minnesota Farmfest, which you can read about on our website here: https://sroc.cfans.umn.edu/news/farmfest-2024

08/08/2024

We are super grateful that new University of Minnesota Twin Cities President Cunningham stopped by at Minnesota Farmfest to hear about the great research completed at the ROCs! She spoke with SROC Director Jason Stenzel and SROC Researcher Shaobo Deng about liquid plasma technology developed at the SROC with support from the MN Soybean Research & Promotion Council.

This technology has been proven to efficiently create clean biodiesel from many different types of crude oil -- soybeans included. Recently, Deng has demonstrated the technology's ability to breakdown PFAS, also known as "Forever Chemicals", in water.