It is a beautiful day in SW MN today. Then it looks like a long wet spell coming up.
Fortunately, the soils at the SWROC started out dry this spring. We are already at 12.54 inches since April 1st. Weather details here can be found at: https://swroc.cfans.umn.edu/.
Pre-emergent herbicides have been working well. Rain, wind, and mud have made post-emergent weed control difficult for some. Larger weeds will be hard to control. To complicate things, some early-planted soybeans are blooming.
Soybean aphids - I found the first-of-season soybean aphids on April 12th-planted soybeans today. The soybeans were in the V4-V5 stage and beginning to bloom. I found only very few newly deposited nymphs. Numbers were lower than I expected to see. I suspect they have been moving from buckthorn since last week, but they haven't had many low-wind days to make the trip.
It is too early to worry about aphids yet. Based on previous year's observations, the wet, windy spring may hinder aphid colonization of soybeans.
Those visiting the website may notice some multicolored strips in the soybeans at the lower right of the home page picture. This is a replicated insecticide trial where we found the 1st pyrethroid-resistant soybean aphids in 2015.
Potato leafhoppers have been in SW for a while and nymphs are now present.
Happy Trails!
Bruce