IN THIS ISSUE OF AG UPDATE
- Cover crop termination timing
- Research opportunity: Soybean management systems with farmer data
- Roller crimping resources
- Research opportunity: Building knowledge about cover crops
- Forage Council youth poster contest
- Predictive Equations for Alfalfa Quality (PEAQ) Readings
- Badger Crop Connect
- May Small Ruminant Webinar
- Farm resources
| |
Cover crop termination timing, methods and planting green
If you planted cereal rye with weed control as a goal, the key is patience. The longer you let the cereal rye grow into the growing season, the more biomass accumulation—the gains can be substantial even a week or two, especially at the middle/end of May—you get and the better and longer weed suppression you get during the growing season.
Planting green allows you to overlap your planting and cover crop termination by planting your crop before terminating the cover crop. The decomposing cereal rye will tie up N in the soil, which has the potential to impact corn yields—soybeans have shown much less affected by the N tie up as they just get busy fixing more nitrogen—but also suppress weed growth. For more information on timing your cereal rye termination as well as some considerations on planting green, read this article by Dr. Rodrgio Werle’s team WiscWeeds.
If you planted rye as winter cover and want to avoid yield drag with your following corn crop, you want to 1) avoid N tie up from the decomposing rye and 2) decrease competition between the rye and corn, especially as rye biomass accelerates with warming temperatures. Practical Farmers of Iowa has found that farmers who plant green before rye biomass accumulation takes off (usually below 12 inches of growth) and competes with the corn, did not have the yield drag seen with a delayed planting into a heavy cover crop. Want to learn more? Click here to view the article.
| |
Developing profitable soybean management systems with on-farm data
Shawn Conley, State Extension Soybean and Small Grain Specialist is looking for farmers to provide field data, contributing to the development of a cropping system optimization decision tool. Your information is confidential and participants will get access to a beta version of the tool, which will allow growers to drop a pin in a field, enter input variables, and receive crop management decision help directly and through online scouting tools such as Sporecaster and Tarspotter.
For more information and how to participate, click here.
| |
Roller crimping
Interested in roller crimping to mechanically terminate your cover crop? With the most popular burndown herbicides in short supply, some folks might be looking for alternative cover crop termination strategies. This article goes over the basics and strategies for roller crimping, and in these videos, Erin Silva, UW Extension Specialist, describes techniques for roller crimping, including planting soybeans green.
| |
Building knowledge about Wisconsin’s cover crops: a farmer research data collection project
Data provided by citizen science farmers about their cover cropping practices is helping us improve cover crop recommendations for Wisconsin.
1. Farmers will fill out a short survey regarding their cover crops practices ($25 stipend)
2. Farmers will contribute with a few pictures (at seeding and a few weeks later), and UW Extension will collect cover crop biomass from one of the fields ($100 stipend + biomass data)
Interested in joining the project? Click here.
If you want to learn more about the project, please go to the project's website here.
| |
PEAQ Readings; When do I cut?
Determining when to cut first-crop alfalfa is often difficult because alfalfa quality, relative to flowering stage, varies greatly. To help with this dilemma, agronomists at the University of Wisconsin - Madison developed the Predictive Equations for Alfalfa Quality (PEAQ) method which predicts alfalfa’s Relative Feed Value (RFV) at the time of cutting.
Dodge County Forage Council members will be evaluating forage conditions by collecting biweekly PEAQ readings on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting May 17th, as long as hay stands. These PEAQ readings will be reported and available on the Extension Dodge County website.
We encourage area farmers growing alfalfa to report their PEAQ readings as well by calling the Extension office at 920-386-3790 or emailing Laure Dei at laure.dei@wisc.edu. Results are posted anonymously, and help strenghten data collection.
| |
| Forage Council Youth Poster Contest
| |
The Badger Crop Connect series provides agronomists, crop consultants and farmers timely crop updates for Wisconsin. CEU’s are available by topic for each presentation.
Webinars offered 2nd and 4th Wednesdays at 12:30 p.m. (March – October 2022)
May 11, 2022 - Joe Lauer & Shawn Conley. Early season corn and soybean updates.
May 25, 2022 - Late corn and soybean updates.
| |
2022 Farm Ready Research Webinar Series
| |
Farm Ready Research is Extension's agriculture winter webinar meeting series for farmers and ag professionals. Learn the most up-to-date information on topics from dairy and livestock production to forage and farm management.
Tuesday, May 10, 2022; 7:30 - 8:30 PM | Small Ruminants Webinar-All About Arlington
Join Todd Taylor, the University of Wisconsin - Madison Sheep Research Program Manager at the Arlington Agricultural Research Station Sheep Unit, and Extension Educators for an in-depth look into sheep research, teaching, and extension activities and events at the Arlington Agricultural Research Station.
| |
Wisconsin state law (Act 455) requires that any youth under the ages 12–16 who operates a tractor or self-propelled equipment on the highway for a parent, must successfully complete a Tractor and Machinery Safety program. More course offerings across the state HERE.
Testing is offered at the Dodge County office. The General Farming Wisconsin Pesticide Applicator Training Manual may be purchased through the office for $30 or online at the UW PAT store.
A roundup of regional prices for hay, published every two weeks.
A monthly digest of trends in the dairy industry economics.
Trying to find a favorable forage? Team Forage's forage trials compare species and varieties for yield, grazing intake and palatability. Often the variety of forage is as important or more important than the species!
| |
|
| Will Fulwider
Regional Crops Educator - Dodge and Dane County Extension
Email: will.fulwider@wisc.edu l Ph: 608 220 3577
| |
|
*You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website, field day, or educational program from Dodge County Extension
| |
| |
An EEO/AA employer, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension provides equal opportunities in employment and programming, including Title VI, Title IX, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act requirements.
| |
|
|
|
|
