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Brown wheat plants that have obvious feeding injury to them due to cutworm caterpillars.

Time to Start Scouting for Cutworms in Winter Wheat

Eventually, South Dakota will warm up. The warmer temperatures will increase insect activity, including pests. For wheat, a couple of early season pests that may already be active are the army cutworm and the pale western cutworm.

Split Application of Nitrogen in Winter Wheat

Adequate N early in the growing season is important to support healthy tillering and to give young plants the best opportunity to survive the sometimes-harsh South Dakota winter

Feeding Damaged Wheat to Cattle

Feeding damaged wheat to livestock is one way to salvage value from the crop. Wheat can work well in cattle diets with some limitations.

group of cattle resting in spring pasture. Courtesy: Krista Lundgren/USFWS

Parasite Control for Cow Calf Operations

Spring is coming and with calving season underway it is important to keep our eyes forward on to the next step in production.

Two diseased wheat plants side-by-side. The wheat heads on the left have ergot bodies throughout. The wheat plants on the right are infected with Fusarium head blight.

Assess Your Fields for Ergot and Fusarium Head Blight Before Harvest

The 2019 wheat harvest is well underway in South Dakota, with many acres of winter and much of the spring wheat crop left to harvest. To date, reports on yield and quality have been variable, depending on when the crop was seeded, weather conditions at important growth stages (such as flowering and grain fill) and disease pressure throughout the season.

An aerial view of a soybean field with noticable rows of yellowing plants due to SCN infection.

Early Yellowing in a Soybean Field May Indicate Presence of the Soybean Cyst Nematode

Some portions of soybean fields may show clusters of plants yellowing while the rest of the field is still green. One of the factors that could lead to soybean plants showing early yellowing in clusters is soybean cyst nematode (SCN).

Various chemical symbols for common nutrients found in garden soil over a selection of young plants emerging from garden soil.

Interpreting Soil Tests for Gardening

There are many different chemicals that make up plants. These chemicals include hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper, boron, zinc, molybdenum, cobalt, and chlorine.

A white egg carton against a black background. The carton has read text reading, "Best Before" along with a red seal reading "USDA 'A' Grade".

Selling and Distributing Eggs in South Dakota

If planning to sell eggs in the state of South Dakota, an egg dealer license must be obtained annually. The application for this license can be found and printed from the South Dakota Department of Agriculture’s Form Finder website.

A herd of sheep foraging on leafy spurge in a grassland.

Multi-Species Grazing as an Alternative to Pasture Spraying

Broadacre spraying of pastures is intended to reduce undesirable plants and increase grasses for livestock. This practice often results in unintended consequences, including damage and reduction of native forbs and reduced profitability. One approach to managing perceived “weedy” plants is incorporating different species of livestock into a grazing operation.

SDSU Extension Winter Wheat Variety trials. One plot is showing more yellowing and stress than other plots.

Low Temperature Effects on Winter Wheat

Low temperatures during the early morning hours of May 9–11, 2020 may have had detrimental effects on winter wheat in some areas of South Dakota. However, cooler spring temperatures that have slowed the winter wheat development this year may have actually been beneficial to S.D. producers, as later-maturing wheat is not as susceptible to injury from freezing temperatures.