

South Dakota Pest Management Guides
The South Dakota Pest Management guides are now available for free. The guides offer recommendations for controlling weeds, insects, and diseases in a variety of South Dakota crops.
The South Dakota Pest Management guides are now available for free. The guides offer recommendations for controlling weeds, insects, and diseases in a variety of South Dakota crops.
The warmer weather and spring migration this March have us all thinking of better days ahead. Unfortunately, it also has us thinking about flooding again this spring.
Weed competition can cause significant yield reduction in pulse crops. Pulse crops are weak competitors with weeds, therefore planning an effective weed control program is one of the keys to profitable production.
Guide to field pea production and utilization in South Dakota
As drought conditions continue to expand across the state this year, more thought is given towards South Dakota’s limited water resources. We live in a state where weather conditions and rain patterns seem to comfortably exist at the extremes; we either have way too much or nearly not enough. While this isn’t always the case, it is important to keep in mind that our water resources are finite and all of us should be thinking about doing what we can to protect them.
Cultural weed control practices must be included in weed management programs to optimize control and inhibit re-infestation. A healthy, dense turf cover is the best overall defense against weed invasion. Some common cultural weed control practices include planting the most adapted turfgrass species for your environment (i.e. shade, full sun, or hot, dry conditions), maintaining a mowing height of 2.5–3.5 inches, watering deeply but less frequently, and proper soil maintenance including fertilization and core aerification.
Grassy weeds are a problem in all field crops. They must be identified at early stages of growth so they can be controlled before crop yields are seriously threatened. Control measures are not the same for all grassy weeds, so accurate seedling identification is important.
As South Dakota and our surrounding neighbors begin to deal with the consequences of spring snowmelt and the dramatic flash flooding that came about from the region’s most recent winter storm, we can only hope that conditions begin to improve quickly.
La primavera en el Medio Oeste siempre trae el riesgo de inundaciones, sea por la nieve que se derrite o por lluvia en exceso.
Whether communities are planning for, experiencing, or recovering from a disaster, checklists are helpful. View some helpful checklists created by experienced people who know what is needed during any stage of a disaster.