Everything we do at planting sets the stage for the rest of the year. With tight economics, it’s important to make wise decisions with the factors we can control during planting season.
Growers that switched to planting green, say it was much easier to plant compared with planting into the decomposing-dying cover. In spite of these observations, planting green is not for everyone and one needs to assess the risk of doing so.
Soybean planting is about to start in Nebraska and it’s time to select pre-emergence herbicides to be applied in soybean. Protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO)-inhibiting herbicides are one of the key components of weed management in soybean.
Canada thistle is a designated noxious weed under the Nebraska Department of Agriculture’s Noxious Weed Program. Prevention is the best and cheapest management option.
Pheromone traps have been established at several locations in eastern Nebraska to monitor for several spring migrants to Nebraska; black cutworm, variegated cutworm and true armyworm moths. Find the latest report here.
Difficult challenges in the dairy industry such as those resulting from COVID-19 result in times when a market is not available for milk. When those occur, using milk as a crop fertilizer may provide a short-term option for gaining some value from milk.
The labor department says the new temporary pandemic assistance will be administered like the Disaster Unemployment Assistance Program. So, one can expect that farmers will be eligible under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program.
It takes a number of warm days (a week or more depending on temperatures) after freezing to determine the condition of the winter wheat crop, so don’t make any quick decisions after a freeze.
Water Resources
Pockets of southwestern Nebraska and the Panhandle saw minor groundwater level declines, but the latest Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report shows a wealth of increases in groundwater supply across the rest of the state from spring 2018 to spring 2019. On average, wells measured in spring 2019 saw a 2.63-foot increase in groundwater levels statewide.
Groundwater levels across much of Nebraska continue to rebound from the historic 2012 drought, according to the 2019 Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report.
Organizers of the Scottsbluff-Gering United Chamber of Commerce 2020 Water Tour and of the Nebraska Water Center’s (NWC) Water Conference, in consultation with public health experts, have postponed both events until 2021.
