Agriculture

By Brandy VanDeWalle

One of the best publications that Nebraska Extension releases each year for farmers and ranchers is the Weed, Disease and Insect Guide. This annual publication provides producers the latest product information and strategies for effectively managing pests. A recent CropWatch article highlighted this guide, which I’ve included in my column this week.

The 332-page guide offers a single, comprehensive resource for your pest management challenges. It is written by Nebraska Extension specialists in agronomy and weed science, plant pathology and entomology, who offer pesticide rate, efficacy, and application notes based on Nebraska conditions and research. It also offers a range of tools to aid in pest management, from a guide to herbicide classifications to an applicator nozzle and spray droplet classification to photo guides of common diseases, insects and weeds.

By Brandy VanDeWalle

There have been questions in the office regarding dicamba trainings so this week I’m sharing an article from the Nebraska Extension’s Pesticide Safety Education office. Online training for Nebraska applicators who plan to use new restricted use pesticide (RUP) dicamba products now is available through Nebraska Extension.

Nebraska applicators completing the new training may apply Monsanto’s XtendiMax, DuPont’s FeXapan and BASF’s Engenia on genetically modified Xtend soybeans. These herbicides kill broadleaf weeds but not Xtend soybeans. Since soybeans also are broadleaf plants, problems arise when traditional, or non-Xtend soybeans, have dicamba-related injuries.

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Do you love spending your time outside during the spring and summer months? Do you love to garden? As we dream of warmer weather, we begin to think about planting our gardens and taking care of our lawns. If you are the type of individual who loves to garden and volunteer, the master gardener training is just what you need.

The Nebraska Master Gardener program is a horticulture related volunteer training program based in many counties throughout the state. It has been part of University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension since 1976.

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When we think of droughts we often think of soaring heat, lack of rainfall and summer. We never stop and think that a drought can happen anytime of the year in any season.

Winter droughts do as much damage, maybe even more, as summer droughts. This is because we tend to not think about our landscape plants needing any water during late fall and winter.

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HALEY APEL - IANR MEDIA Lincoln—A new University of Nebraska-Lincoln-led partnership is helping agricultural producers explore emerging technologies and identify ways to strengthen profitability without increasing risk during the growing season.

Organized by Nebraska Extension and the Nebraska Water Balance Alliance, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Testing Ag Performance Solutions farm management competition involved managing center pivot-irrigated corn. Seventeen producers squared off against university scientists and two student groups in three categories: most profitable farm, highest input use efficiency and greatest grain yield.

In a joint effort, Kansas and Nebraska Extension are hosting a three-meeting series to address some possible options to help maintain cattle inventory with limited perennial pastures. Topics at these meeting will include confined cow feeding and management, usage of corn residue, cover crops and annual forages systems. All of the programs will start at 6:30 p.m. and the ones for us will be on Dec. 12 at the Helvering Center in Marysville, KS. Please RSVP to Anastasia Johnson at anastasia@ ksu.edu or 785-562-3531. The second meeting will be Dec. 13 at the Blue Hill Community Center in Blue Hill. To attend, please RSVP to Brad Schick, brad.schick@unl.edu or 402-746-3417.

Dinner will be provided and there is no cost to attend; however, please RSVP to the respective contacts by Dec. 8 for an accurate meal count. Speakers for the event include extension specialists from Kansas State University and University of Nebraska.

Excessive grain left in the field due to downed corn and ear drop is leaving producers with questions regarding grazing cornstalks. This is an issue that needs to be addressed accurately and timely in order to have success in the coming months.

An eight-inch ear of corn contains about 0.50 lb equivalent of shelled corn grain; therefore, 112 eight-inch ears would equal 1 bushel (1 bushel = 56 pounds). By counting the number of ears, the amount of corn can be estimated. If corn is planted in 30-inch rows, count the total number of ears in three different 100-foot furrow strips and divide by two to give an approximate number of bushels per acre. See table below.

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More than 65,000 FFA members and guests attended this year’s National FFA convention. Attendees participated in leadership workshops, tours, and motivational sessions.

They were able to hear from keynote speakers Laila Ali, Mike Ebling, Job Setz, and Sonny Purdue (United States Secretary of Agriculture).

During the 90th National FFA Convention in Indianapolis this past week, Sandy Creek’s Ag Communications team placed 20th in the nation, out of 42 teams.

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After a stretch of torrential down pours at the start of harvest, in early October, area row crop producers have been going full bore ahead in an effort to wrap up soybean harvest and put a good dent in the corn harvest for 2017.

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