Youth/Family Support: Last week I shared this link for many hands-on learning activities: https://4h.unl.edu/virtual-home-learning. Two more resources that may be helpful for families right now: Helping Children Cope with stress and change: https://child.unl.edu/helping-children-cope and Reading for Resilience which helps children cope with storybooks: https://child.unl.edu/read4resilience.

Checking grain bins: A local farmer suggested to share a reminder to keep checking on grain with temps warming up and much grain in storage. It’s also so important to be safe with grain handling. The following is from Dr. Ken Hellevang with North Dakota State University (full article at: https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/news/newsreleases/2020/march-23-2020/proper-spring-grain-drying-and-storage-critical). “The stored grain temperature increases in the spring not only due to an increase in outdoor temperatures but also due to solar heat gain on the bin. Solar energy produces more than twice as much heat gain on the south wall of a bin in spring as it does during the summer.

Hellevang recommends periodically running aeration fans to keep the grain temperature near or below 30 degrees until the grain is dried if it exceeds recommended storage moisture contents, and below 40 degrees as long as possible during spring and early summer if the grain is dry. Night air temperatures are near or below 30 degrees in April and 40 degrees in May. Soybean oil quality may be affected in less than four months if even 12% moisture soybeans are stored at 70 degrees.

Cover the fan when it is not operating to prevent warm air from blowing into the bin and heating the stored grain. Hellevang also recommends ventilating the top of the bin to remove the solar heat gain that warms the grain. Provide air inlets near the eaves and exhausts near the peak or use a roof exhaust fan… Grain temperature should be checked every two weeks during the spring and summer. Grain also should be examined for insect infestations. Check the moisture content of stored grain to determine if it needs to be dried. Remember to verify that the moisture content measured by the meter has been adjusted for grain temperature.

Corn needs to be dried to 13% to 14% moisture for summer storage to prevent spoilage. Soybeans should be dried to 11% to 12%, wheat to 13%. The allowable storage time for 13% moisture soybeans is less than 100 days at 70 degrees. Corn – For natural air-drying, assure that the fan’s airflow rate is at least 1 cubic foot per minute per bushel (cfm/bu) and the initial corn moisture does not exceed 21%. Start the fan when the outdoor temperature averages about 40 degrees. Soybeans – Use an airflow rate of at least 1 cfm/bu to natural air-dry up to 15% to 16% moisture soybeans. Start the fan when the outdoor temperature averages about 40 degrees.”

Burndown and pre-plant herbicide apps: Anticipating this week’s nicer weather, I’ve also received several questions on burndown and pre-plant herbicide applications and weather impacts on control. Dr. Amit Jhala wrote two articles in this week’s UNL CropWatch at https://cropwatch.unl.edu. Sunny days with temperatures above 40F for day and night, and even better when temps are climbing to the upper 50s and above provide better control than if it’s cooler than 40F. Glyphosate works faster during sunny conditions when it is 60-75F and remains there a few hours. The articles also list rain-fast period and planting interval restrictions (as would the product labels). If you’re looking for a general idea on potential residual activity of herbicides for overlapping residual, check out pages 23-24 of the 2020 Guide for Weed Management.

My colleague Dr. Nathan Mueller shared in his blog: http://croptechcafe.org/should-you-control-winter-annual-weeds-early/, “A 2007-2009 UNL study conducted in Lincoln and Clay Center found that in 5 of the 6 site-years (2 site per year for 3 years is 6 site-year) that not controlling winter annual weeds prior to corn and soybean planting resulted in greater than a 5% yield loss and a 10% loss in 4 of the 6 site years.”

Sharing some encouragement from my neighborhood to yours 🙂 Individuals within farm families could also write messages to each other!