Today was dedicated to the pursuit of aphids and here is a quick update on what I found in the area.  I covered an area that went from Montevideo, Granite Falls, Cottonwood, Wood Lake and Echo and not all fields are infested equally.  The fields close to Granite and Monte, at least within the first few miles outside of the valley, have the heaviest numbers but, as of yet, not at levels that warrent treatment.  As I went further south, I ran into several fields in which I did not find a single aphid.
Being said, the conditions that favor rapid aphid development are just the conditions we have now.  There were some fields in the Granite area where I was able to find aphids on every plant I sampled but at low levels.  I suspect these fields will be at treatment levels by at least next week.  Most fields only had a small portion of the sampled plants infested and will most likely be a week to 10 days behind the others.
The field where I found the plants in the above picture was in MN Falls township not far from the valley.  Outside of the one or two 'hot spots' I found there were no other aphids found, so if you are doing some checking and don't find anything you may not be as well off as you would think.  It does take some walking to fully grasp the field.

Outside of aphids, I do see some weeds in the fields yet - mostly waterhemp.  Controlling waterhemp this time of year is a hit or miss proposition and at the height and maturity of the weeds now, mostly miss.  Also remember that by label glyphosates can only be applied up to the R2 growth stage and we are now there.

Interestingly, according to the records kept at the Southwestern Research and Outreach center in Lamberton, we are only 75 GDU's behind the historic average

Just a few comments about some things that are being talked about.  First, the dates of February 18-19, 2014 are taken so no weddings, birthdays or anniversaries.  This is the date of the 2014 Conservation Tillage Conference in St. Cloud.  Attached here is a 'Save the Date' postcard for you to place prominently on your fridge so you have a reminder.  This is a great conference to learn about other tillage practices and how they can fit your operation.  Another great reason to go is for those of you interested in or looking at banding fertilizer.  There will be plenty of people here who have experience with this and will be talking about what they have done and what has worked for them and what has not.  More information will be coming so save the date.

Next, I had received a number of calls from some of you about your need to collect soil sample reports for your new CSP signup.  Almost universally, the comments were that you needed every soil test report for each of your fields from each of the last five years.  This did not make sense to me so I called to get the scoop.  What you need is at least one soil test report, from each of the fields you have signed up in CSP from sometime within the last five year.  As an example, if you are on a corn soybean rotation and sample all of your soybean fields every year, you will only need two years of samples because you will have all of your fields covered from sometime within the last five years.  Don't go looking for every single report you have.  For many of you, you should already have them in the packets I give you, if not, I have them archived and can quickly reproduce them.

Finally, it’s time to panic - well, maybe not yet.  I've been hearing reports for the last few weeks that we are inundated with soybean aphids.  Yes they are here.  I finally found some by Granite, but I had to pull so many plants to find them that I probably lowered the overall yield of the field.  They are behind the normal levels of infestation for this time of year, but they will most likely get to the point of treatment.  Now is the time to start paying attention to them.  More to come...