University of Minnesota Extension is offering six Small Grain Winter Workshops across central and southern Minnesota in February to address small grain production.

Row crop farming brings busy spring and fall workloads. There are also pests common to row crops, including herbicide resistant weeds, soybean cyst nematodes, soybean aphid and other insect and disease pests becoming more problematic across Minnesota. Small grain added to a rotation offers the opportunity to diversify cropping systems in central and southern Minnesota to manage these challenges.

This program is designed to help farmers determine if small grains can work on their farm and in their rotation. This program will provide the tools needed to make small grains a successful crop in their operation, including cutting-edge research on production agronomics, variety selection, disease identification, fungicide use, fertility, quality, equipment, and economics. Time will be set aside for an open forum to discuss related topics and on-farm experiences.

Southeast Minnesota farmers are invited to attend the workshop from 12:30-4 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 18, at the Heintz Center in Rochester. A private pesticide applicator training program will precede the workshop from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The contact for this workshop is Ryan Miller, 507-529-2759.

Other workshops will be offered on Feb. 18 in New Prague, Feb. 20 in Cold Spring and Mora, Feb. 21 in Slayton and Feb. 22 in Benson.

Presenters will include Jochum Wiersma, University of Minnesota Extension Small Grain Specialist, and Jared Goplen, University of Minnesota Extension Crops Educator.

Lunch is included at all sites except Mora. Registration is free, and is strongly encouraged to assist with meal planning. Please register by visiting https://z.umn.edu/PPAT-and-Small-Grains or contact Jared Goplen at 320-589-1711, ext. 2128 or gople007@umn.edu for more information.