Two sources of weekly crop updates are available from the Carrington Research Extension Center.

1. Facebook: Weekly notes are placed on the ‘NDSU Extension Service – CREC Agronomy’ page. Information includes crop and trial status (during growing season), research and recommendation briefs (primarily during winter), and tour/meeting announcements. As an example, the entry posted on June 6 was a picture and narrative regarding corn as a poor choice for production on salt-affected soils. Please ‘like’ the page, which can be found at www.facebook.com/NDSUExtServ.CRECagronomy.


2. NDSU Crop and Pest Report: Weekly updates on south-central ND crop development and pest incidence are published in the ‘Around-the-state’ section of this publication. As an example, the following is the article for June 12.

The region’s NDAWN stations indicate rainfall ranging from less than 0.1 inch (Jamestown) to 0.5 inch (Oakes) during the past week (June 4-10). In general, the region has adequate soil moisture. As of June 10, corn planted on May 15 has about 80-110 accumulated growing degree day units greater than the 5-year average for the period. Alfalfa is in the bud to early flower stages (see picture). Winter wheat is beginning to head – time to prepare for application of early flower fungicide. Early seeded small grain is in the 4 leaf to jointing stages. The recent cool weather will help increase spikelet number in wheat and barley heads - increasing yield potential. First-half of May planted corn has 4 collared leaves (V4 stage). Soybean and dry bean planting is near completion, while sunflower planting continues. Early planted soybean have 1-2 trifoliate leaves (V1-2 stages). Besides finishing planting, main farm activity is application of POST herbicides. There still are a few fields of corn from 2013 left to be harvested. 

The Crop and Pest Report is electronically released each Thursday during the growing season. Subscription is free and can be obtained by accessing this website: www.ag.ndsu.edu/cpr/. You can also receive the information by ‘liking’ the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ndsuextcpr.

Greg Endres
Area Specialist, Cropping Systems