Scott Shriver, one of Iowa's leading organic farmers, recently conducted research to determine optimal soybean row-width and seeding dates when roller-crimping cereal rye. The soybeans he planted the day of roller-crimping ultimately yielded higher than those planted 13 and 17 days before.

In this Practical Farmers of Iowa blog, ISU graduate student and researcher Dana Jokela writes about using a roller-crimper to terminate cereal rye.

Pre-emergence herbicides can aid in the control of troublesome weeds such as waterhemp and giant ragweed. They can also result in lower weed densities and a more uniform weed height at the time of postemergence herbicide application, aid in the management of herbicide-resistant weeds, and ultimately help protect crop yield potential and profitability. What if you want to plant a cover crop later in the season? Will a residual herbicide that controls weeds also affect your cover crop?

USDA's crop progress report for the week ended May 1 reported 14% of corn crops and 8% of soybeans have been planted.

Spraying cereal rye with common burndown products (glyphosate, paraquat, etc) prior to ryelage harvest is illegal. Consequently, termination of cereal rye that has been harvested for forage is best managed with post-harvest herbicide applications. Glyphosate is a more effective burndown option than paraquat for post-harvest termination of cereal rye.

Establishing sorghum-sudangrass in cool-season western wheatgrass pasture at the Kansas State Agricultural Research Center-Hays improved total forage production over two years, 2020-2021.

Two ongoing studies are measuring how much soil is being blown across different fields, and how much nutrients lost with wind erosion might cost farmers. Overall, preliminary data indicates that management makes a difference: leaving residue on a field or planting cover crops, and less aggressive tillage, can slow down soil movement.

In the past month, dust storms have been making headlines across the western United States. Blowing soil has created driving hazards due to low visibility, and accumulated wind-blown silt even forced boat ramp closures near Fort Pierre. The good news is that land can be managed to minimize erosion.