Agriculture

By Brandy VanDeWalle

Have a green thumb? Interested in gardening? If you answered yes to those questions, join the Plant Science Investigation (PSI) and/or Community Garden teams this year. Here’s what you can learn about in PSI:

• Learn about the importance of agriculture and how crops are used.

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Federal law prohibits youth under 16 years of age from using specific equipment on a farm unless parents or legal guardians own the farm.

Certification received through a course provided by Nebraska Extension grants an exemption to the law, allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to drive a tractor and work with certain mechanized equipment.

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Through the Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation’s Agriculture Reading Hour Program, Lisa Griess, office assistant for Clay County Farm Bureau, volunteered to read the agriculture-themed book to Mrs. Schmer’s kindergarten class at Sutton Public School.

The program, which was funded through a grant from Farm Credit Services of America, aims to engage agricultural volunteers in their communities to read an accurate agriculture-themed book to youth in their communities.

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To celebrate 4-H Month, elementary students at Sutton involved in the Eastside Livestock and Town and Country Lassies clubs dressed in their green and white 4-H shirts. 

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By Brandy VanDeWalle

Today’s farmers and ranchers not only have to be efficient with production practices, but also need to be well-informed with risk management and economics of their business. With that in mind, the Farmers and Ranchers College is offering the program, “Crop Insurance, Farm Bill Policy Update and More” at the Fillmore County Fairgrounds in Geneva, Feb. 23.

This workshop will start at 10 a.m. with registration at 9:45 and will wrap up at 3 p.m. Due to the generous contributions of many businesses and organizations, the program is free; registration is preferred for an accurate meal county by Feb. 16. Call the Fillmore County Extension office at (402)759-3712 or email Brandy at brandy.vandewalle@unl.edu to register.

By Brandy VanDeWalle

Attention 4-H and FFA Youth! Do you enjoy being outside? Learning new things about crops? Considering a career involving crops, insects, diseases, soils, water or more? Do you want to help figure out how to feed our world’s growing population in a sustainable way?

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers are in high demand and will continue to be in future years. To engage youth in crop science based education, the Innovative Youth Corn Challenge (IYCC) was created as a partnership between the Nebraska Corn Board and Nebraska Extension. Since the Innovative Youth Corn Challenge program’s inception in 2012, 35 teams have participated in the program with 20 teams successfully harvesting and analyzing their plot data. A total of 105 youth have participated. This contest, open to 4-H members or FFA members, guides participants through all aspects of corn production, as well as agricultural careers related to corn production.

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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