The Nebraska Soybean Board and Nebraska Extension would like to invite you to attend your local Soybean Management Field Day being held this Friday, August 11, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the following location: August 11th – DeWitt, NE – Randy and Blake Huls farm – Google map: http://go.unl.edu/googlemapsmfd4 The 2023 Soybean Management Field Day will begin with registration at 9 a.m. and conclude at 2:30 p.m. Free registration will be available on the day of the event. Each stop on the field days tour will feature demonstration plots, opportunities for questions, lunch, and a ..read more

The U.S. Drought Monitor map shows parts of the U.S. that are in drought, how intense it is, and short-term and long-term impacts. As the Water & Cropping Systems Extension Educator for Gage, Jefferson, and Saline counties, I contribute reports for this area directly to the weekly authors in Nebraska through our internal Nebraska drought discussion group email listserv or online meetings. I regularly communicate my observations and those shared with me by local stakeholders, which can help justify moving areas into higher or lower intensity classifications. The map uses intensity classifi ..read more

Happy holidays from your land-grant university, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and your outreach arm of UNL called Nebraska Extension. As you wrap up your holiday plans and 2022, it is already time to start thinking about attending some winter educational programs offered by Nebraska Extension. If you are a landowner, farmer, or agricultural professional in Gage, Jefferson, and Saline counties, I encourage you to register and attend two upcoming Nebraska Extension programs in early January. The first program is a workshop covering agricultural land management and leasing considerati ..read more

Nebraska Extension released results from the 2022 surveys on farm custom rates, cash rent rates, and real estate values. Jim Jansen, Extension Educator for Agricultural Economics, led the 2022 Nebraska Farm Real Estate Report, and Glennis McClure, Farm and Ranch Management Analyst Extension Educator, led the 2022 Nebraska Farm Custom Rates Report. These are two highly sought publications because they provide farmers and landowners baseline information to help facilitate discussions and make decisions around land sales, cash rent, and custom farm operation rates. The 2022 Nebraska Farm Real Est ..read more

The Lower Big Blue Natural Resource District (NRD), in partnership with Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (NDEE) and Nebraska Extension would like to notify landowners in Turkey Creek watershed that applications for conservation work are now being accepted.  Turkey Creek is one of two priority watersheds through the National Water Quality Initiative (NWQI). The goal of this initiative is to improve water quality in impaired watersheds located in eastern Nebraska. Participants have until July 15th to apply at the NRCS in ..read more

Chemigation is the process of applying chemicals to land/crops with water from an irrigation system. Chemical is broadly defined as any fertilizer, herbicide, fungicide, or pesticides mixed with the irrigation water during application. In southeast Nebraska, the most common chemigation process is applying liquid nitrogen fertilizer through a center pivot. Applying nitrogen fertilizer through pivots during the growing season can match corn hybrid nitrogen uptake demand and can improve nitrogen use efficiency. The Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (NDEE) requires certified chemigati ..read more

What do you think about when you hear or read the word weather? In my role as an agronomist or more specifically as the Water and Integrated Cropping Systems Extension Educator for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, I think of complexity and integration. Of the over 500 stakeholder calls I have received this year, weather or climate was something that I had to consider when answering most of them. New weather station being installed near Wilber. Photo credit: Stonie Cooper, Applied Meteorologist, with the Nebraska Climate Office. The Nebraska Mesonet (https://mesonet.unl.edu) is a statewide w ..read more

Chemigation is the process of applying chemicals to land/crops with water from an irrigation system. Chemical is broadly defined as any fertilizer, herbicide, fungicide, or pesticides mixed with the irrigation water during application. In southeast Nebraska, the most common chemigation process is applying liquid nitrogen fertilizer through a center pivot. Applying nitrogen fertilizer through pivots during the growing season can match corn hybrid nitrogen uptake demand and can improve nitrogen use efficiency. The Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (NDEE) requires certified chemigati ..read more

One minute short summary aired on KWBE Radio I introduced the weekly series in September and have since wrote about boron, chloride, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel and zinc. I covered how each micronutrient is essential to soybeans, known deficiencies or toxicities in the region, factors of micronutrient availability in soil, soil and plant tissue testing, and fertilizer recommendations. Interest and concern about micronutrient needs of soybeans is common due to higher yields than in previous decades and the increased availability of micronutrient fertilizers in both liqui ..read more

Figure 1. 2020 boron (B) toxicity in demonstration plots at the Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center in Saunders County from surface banded boron application at planting. One-minute summary aired on KWBE Radio Welcome to part two of the micronutrients in soybeans column series. Last week I introduced the series and set the stage for discussing boron (B) this week, our first micronutrient of nine that I plan to cover. I will cover how boron is essential to soybeans, known deficiencies and toxicities in the region, factors of boron availability in soil, soil and plant tissue testing, a ..read more