-E. Taylor
Thank you for those that attended the annual MSU Weed Tour. We had a great turn out this year and enjoyed presenting our research to you. Please enjoy a video highlighting the day’s events.
Archive for the ‘Soybean’ Category
2010 MSU Weed Tour Video
Friday, July 16th, 2010Raise your hand if you’re tired of RAIN
Friday, June 11th, 2010-E. Taylor 
It seems lately that it rains every few days in Michigan. Even small periods of heavy rain cause the fields to be wet for several days afterward. All of this unwanted precipitation has caused several issues for our research such as:
- Poor emergence of sugarbeets (one field required replanting)
- Delayed planting of soybeans a couple weeks ago
- Delayed planting of dry beans the past two weeks at the Saginaw Valley Research and Extension Center and on campus
- Delayed initiation of our winter annual germination and decay study
So what do we do when we are “rained out”? Many times we will make sure all of the needed stakes are prepared, any chemical needed is weighed out and gathered, and the facilities and equipment are maintained at the Agronomy Farm. We also spend some time up in the laboratory processing weed seed and biomass samples, entering data, sewing storage bags for various experiments, and cleaning weed seed for greenhouse experiments.
Perhaps when the weather begins to cooperate there will be more interesting things to blog about 
Just as a reminder our MSU Weed Tour is coming up on June 30th at the Plant Pathology Field Lab. Information on the tour is available on our website.
2010 Soybean Planting
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010-E. Taylor
Despite some problems with the weather we finally have all of our soybeans planted and will be planting dry beans as soon as the soils dry from our most recent precipitation. Here is a glimpse into some of our planting this year…next year I need to get some footage of the plot staking since that takes about twice as long as planting
Michigan Corn/Soybean/Pest Management Meetings Coming Up
Friday, January 8th, 2010-E. Taylor
Are you looking for the latest information on corn, soybean, and pest management research? Do you need RUP or CCA credits? If you answered yes to either of the those questions then add to you calendar one of the up coming meetings sponsored by Michigan Soybean Checkoff, Corn Marketing Program of Michigan, and Michigan State University Extension.
Meeting Date and Locations:
- Register with: Martin Nagelkirk (810) 648-2515
- Register with: Emily Sneller (989) 758-2500
- Register with: John Pullis (989) 734-2168
- Register with: Dan Hudson (517) 676-7207
- Register with: Ned Birkey (734) 240-3170
Meeting Agenda:
- 8:30 Registration
- 9:00 Welcome (Local extension educator)
- 9:10 Western bean cutworm and soybean aphid (Chis DiFonzo)
- 9:40 Management of dandelion and other no-till weeds (Christy Sprague)
- 10:10 Break
- 10:30 Herbicide interactions (Wesley Everman)
- 11:00 Manganese management in soybean (Tim Boring)
- 11:30 STARS- Testing foliar fertilizers in soybean (Dave Pratt)
- 11:50 Soybean checkoff update (Keith Reinholt)
- 12:00 Lunch
- 12:50 MFRN daily market update
- 1:00 Corn checkoff update (Jody Pollok-Newsom)
- 1:20 Measuring ecological impacts on corn (Mark Whalon and Alex Johnson)
- 1:40 Soil organic matter (Stuart Grandy)
- 2:00 Corn and soybean market prospects (Jim Hilker, Steve Beier @ Cabela’s)
- 3:00 Adjourn
*Registration deadline= 7 days before the meeting you plan to attend
We hope to see you there!
A week in the life of Dr. Karen Renner…
Thursday, October 15th, 2009-Kelly Barnett
A typical week for Dr. Renner includes teaching lecture for the CSS 101 (Introduction to Crop Science) class two days a week, CSS 101 lab four times a week, and CSS 192 (Professional Development for Seminar) once a week. As TAs for 101, Molly Buckham and I are responsible for helping prep for lab each week and teaching one of the six lab sections. Last week Dr. Renner headed off to St. Louis for a Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) meeting, where she represents the Weed Science Society of America, so I had the opportunity to take over a few of her classes. After she left Tuesday afternoon, I started off the week by finishing up her lab that day. I taught one of the labs again on Wednesday, and when I wasn’t busy teaching…I was grading papers, answering e-mails from students, and preparing for lecture. On Thursday morning, I hurried over to the Biochemistry building to teach the 130-something students in the CSS 101 lecture. I successfully figured out how to lower the screens and load the presentation, but was frantic when I couldn’t find the microphone. After a little searching though I eventually found the microphone, but was embarrassed when I dropped it while trying to clip it to my shirt. Eventually I was ready to begin the lecture and it was a good one…soybean production. One of the challenges with teaching this class is that the students come from such a wide range of backgrounds. Some students didn’t know what soybeans looked like at the beginning of the semester while others are fresh off the family farm and know a lot about agriculture. I started off with some information on the history of soybean as a crop. Then I talked about soybean production in Michigan as well as the United States, and how it has changed drastically in more recent years with the introduction of GMO soybeans as well as specialty markets such as organic and non-GMO soybean varieties. The rest of the lecture consisted of discussing specific aspects of soybean production including planting dates, row spacing, and planting populations. After lecture, I finished up the week by teaching another lab section Thursday afternoon. I felt like I didn’t get much done all week because it was so crazy running around here and there to teach. Don’t get me wrong…I am thankful that I had the opportunity to teach…but I’m also thankful that Dr. Renner is back and that I don’t have to do this every week.