When: Thursday, June 6, 2024 from 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm Location: Field is 1/4 west of 57135 716 Rd, Fairbury NE 68352 GPS: 40.204409°, -97.121368° Driving Directions: From Fairbury, go north on Hwy 15 for 1.2 miles, turn east on Road 715 and go three miles, turn left on 571st Ave. and go north […] Continue reading → 
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 […] Continue reading → 
I hope you enjoyed my previous 5-part series on basic cation saturation ratio concept this winter that you can still read online at https://croptechcafe.org. I ended that series with a call to action to focus on soil acidity and its management using soil pH, buffer pH, and lime to increase soil pH. To that end, […] Continue reading → 
Early season fungal diseases were low (prior to May 1). However, there are recent reports of stripe rust in Nebraska including my own reports of it in Jefferson and Saline Counties at low levels (view reports/map at https://cropwatch.unl.edu/plantdisease/wheat). Fusarium head blight (FHB), also called head scab, is a fungal disease that infects wheat during flowering, which typically occurs between the third week […] Continue reading → 
As a reminder, a private pesticide applicator is a person who uses or supervises the use of restricted use pesticides in the production of agricultural commodities on land owned or rented by them or their employer. Applicators are not eligible to purchase or apply restricted use pesticides until they take a certified training and licensed. […] Continue reading → 
This is a 5-part series (previous parts at https://croptechcafe.org) on the basic cation saturation ratio (BCSR) concept. Summary of Part 1 & 2 was that authors Bear, Graham, and Albrecht of the BCSR concept in the 1940s-1970s suggested narrow basic cation saturation ratios existed, and a balanced cation saturation of the soil’s cation exchange capacity […] Continue reading → 
As a reminder, you need to plan ahead to plant alfalfa in regards to herbicide rotation restrictions and soil pH management, so read my blog post from Fall of 2023 at https://croptechcafe.org/plan-ahead-to-plant-alfalfa/. After corn and soybeans, alfalfa is the most grown crop in southeast Nebraska. Based on satellite imagery and crop reflectance, USDA CropScape estimated […] Continue reading →