News

The SWROC is hiring an Agricultural Research and Production Manager reporting to the SWROC Director of Operations (DO). The position is a full-time, 12-month (A-term), annually renewable (K-type), academic professional and administrative (P&A) exempt appointment.  Reappointment contingent upon satisfactory performance and availability of funding. This is an exempt position (not eligible for overtime). A BS/BA degree in agronomy, farm management or related field plus a minimum of six years of experience is required.

U of MN Releases ‘MN-Rothsay’ Wheat

ST. PAUL, Minn. (6/16/2022) — The University of Minnesota has released a new hard red spring wheat variety called ‘MN-Rothsay.’ MN-Rothsay features a good combination of yield, protein, and disease resistance and exceptional straw strength. 

The SWROC held its 2022 Winter Crops & Soils Day program on Wednesday, February 2nd from 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Presentations for the day are listed below. Click on the presentation title to view the speaker's handout.

A recording of the event is available on the SWROC YouTube channel

Each summer, we hire college and high school students as summer student plot technicians. These technicians normally work 40 hours per week and are responsible for assisting in the preparation, planting, caring for, sampling, and harvesting of crops and collection of research data. This is a great resume-building opportunity and gives students hands-on experience with research.

View the job description for specific duties and tasks

Apply to be a student plot technician

Hot and dry. Those words describe the 2021 growing season here at the Southwest Research and Outreach Center, as well as across much of Minnesota. 

Redwood County, where the SWROC is located, spent much of the summer in the U.S. Drought Monitor’s moderate and extreme drought categories, with portions of the county reaching extreme drought levels at the end of July. 

While the drought’s impact can only be seen as a negative for most corn and soybean growers in the region, the dry growing season presented exciting research opportunities for Professor Jeff Strock, who conducts drainage water quality research at the SWROC. 

Ken Ostlie and Bruce Potter are involved in a project to determine whether sticky trap data from individual fields can be combined to draw inferences on general geographic and historical trends of CRW populations and Bt resistance. They're looking for collaborators to contribute data to this work. To participate:

• If you would like to run a CRW trapline(s) but need traps, they can supply trapping kits (first come/first serve basis), recommended sampling procedures and a data entry spreadsheet. 
• If you have purchased your own traps to sample CRW and would be willing to share data for fields where a minimum of 3-4 traps were checked weekly for a 3–4-week period after silking, it will be appreciated. 
• If you so choose, you have the option to contribute data to a multi-state CRW monitoring network.

You will have the management information derived from the fields you trapped. Individual field locations will not be made public and only composite images of risk geography will be shared among cooperators.  

If you would like to participate, or have questions, email [email protected] or [email protected].

This project is funded, in part, by Minnesota farm families and their checkoff dollars.

The 2021 UMN Cooperative Black Cutworm Trapping Network is now active. Traps picked up the first migrants on March 30. Weekly newsletters, and a revised PDF version of black cutworm facts can downloaded on the Black Cutworm Reporting Network web page.

A new soybean pest, the soybean gall midge has been found in many counties in SW Minnesota. The soybean gall midge infestations that have been detected are not uniformly distributed geographically and most of these have been minor. You can help entomologists better understand where and why soybean gall midge infestations occur by filling out the Minnesota Soybean Gall Midge Survey. Please only complete one survey per farm.   

(WNAX Radio) IPM Specialist Bruce Potter discusses corn rootworm and other pests with WNAX Radio.

Several educational events put on by the SWROC and events that feature our researchers are now available on YouTube. Watch the recordings of these virtual events:

• SWROC Corn Rootworm Plot Tour
• 7th Soil & Water Management Field Day
• Cover Crop Virtual Field Day