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Phillips County

Crop tour is a highlight of Summer

Published: 2020
By Marko Manoukian
The 2020 MSU Extension year has been one of challenges and cancelled meetings replaced with virtual webinars. The annual crop tour in Phillips County was conducted as usual, minus a meal following the tour. Crop tours were held in north Wagner at the Paul Mortenson farm, east Malta at the Karl Mavencamp farm, and in Saco at the Sunford farm. Thirty producers attended the crop tours. Moisture was more favorable in the Wagner area with 6.5 inches received from planting to July 20. Any crops that were redropped did not fair as well. July and August were more normally dry. In July, the Malta station reported 0.97 inches of moisture and .47 inches for August. This is 0.67 and 0.87 less than the mean for July and August respectively since 1970. In combination with a dry April (0.07 inches, long-term mean is 1.00 inches) resulted in limited dryland hay production and some small grain crops being short. The dry conditions in the fall did allow for a good harvest.
Tim Seipel, Extension Cropland Weed Specialist, spoke to growers about new herbicide products and weed resistance.