Volume 25 Issue 3 | April 20, 2022
This newsletter and the advice herein are free. You usually get what you pay for.
Crop Weather
Rainfall, air and soil temperatures, degree-days, soil moistures, and other current and historical weather data for the University of Minnesota Southwest Research and Outreach Center (SWROC), a little spot about two miles west of Lamberton, MN, can be found at http://swroc.cfans.umn.edu/weather.
Spring seems to be having a bit of a tough go this year – (Capt. Obvious).There is still some frost here but that might go with forecast heart (temporary) and thunderstorms. They start calculating degree days (Base 50F) on May 1. Hopefully, we can keep some average daily temperatures above 50 F by then.
Some reading material for while you’re waiting for things to warm up and fieldwork.
Hurry up and wait. Some interesting data from down under (including Texas).
In the last issue of IPM Stuff, I summarized some of the ways corn rootworms developed strategies to overcome overused management practices. Obviously, they are not as bright as your average corn rootworm, but it seems that even a weed species can adapt to chronic selection pressure.
The Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) and a just published a summary of some recent research on grass weeds delaying emergence to escape consistent weed control tactics ( https://www.ahri.uwa.edu.au/predictable-farming-equals-dormant-weed-seeds/). Researchers at the AHRI and a Texas A&M collaborator did the work. Some suspect that giant ragweed has been doing similar in southern MN.
I did find the analogy of a redcoat army and guerilla tactics on an April 19th dated article a bit odd. I believe that was the date of a little kerfuffle at Lexington and Concord.
Migratory insect trapping
Pheromone trapping for black cutworm and armyworm network trapping has started. Weekly reports of moth immigration and projected dates for crop injury, as well as other black cutworm information, can be found at: https://swroc.cfans.umn.edu/research/ipm/bcw-network.
With this spring’s weather reports, are the more intellectual black cutworm and armyworms discussing the merits of following one’s instincts to head north.
Happy trails,
Bruce