Coming Events
- June 10-11 Tractor Training, Polk Co. Fairgrounds, Osceola
- June 24-27 Nebraska No-till Bus Tour, Kearney
- June 24 Extension Board Exec Meeting, 8:00 p.m., Extension Office
Nebraska No-till Bus Tour Planned for June 24-27, 2013
Just a reminder of the No-till bus tour being planned by Paul Jasa and Scott Gonnerman, registration is limited to the first 50 people. The bus will leave the Buffalo County Fairgrounds in Kearney promptly at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, June 24, and return Kearney on Thursday evening, June 27.
Complete details at CropWatch: http://cropwatch.unl.edu/web/cropwatch/archive?articleID=5173245.
Cropping Update
I missed most of the weather excitement last week because I was just traveling back from CA on Wednesday afternoon/evening, but did get several alerts on my phone and text’s from family and friends. We did end up stopping under and overpass near Gretna because of the intensity of the storm and not being able to see the road.
I often receive calls from media about potential damage/benefits following rainfall, hail, and other storms. No matter what one would say, I’m sure someone will have a different point of view. If the tornado touches down on your property and that’s the only place, it’s caused you considerable damage while the rainfall in most situations was a positive for the area.
I just checked the weather data from National Weather Service and for the month of June York reported 6.26†compared to our 93 year average of 4.05†for May. For the past week, NE rain sites in the York area reported around 3.0†for the past week also.
The ETgages again dropped about an inch for the week again for both crops and grass. It’s another week of little need to be thinking about irrigation; in most cases we’ve been thinking about getting the water off those low spots where we experienced some flooding. If you have some flooded areas, check out the latest information on this topic at CropWatch: http://cropwatch.unl.edu/. Bob Nielsen, agronomist at Purdue University, shares some timely information. We typically suggest waiting a week following hail or other storms to make decisions relative to replanting, so we’ll know more by next week.
These rains have been great, but have made it a little difficult getting Watermark sensors installed in a timely manner. Hopefully this week, will have a chance to get them installed before for the crops get too large and you damage roots as you install them. I along with staff at the NRD are here to help you have success with both ETgages as well as Watermark Sensors. The ETgage gives you a good idea as to how much your crop is using the while the Watermark Sensors give you an idea as to how much soil water you have left. No reason to start irrigating if you have adequate soil moisture and you for sure don’t want to end the season with a full profile.
A few years ago we made some videos on how to use ETgages, stage your crop, as well as install Watermark Sensors. Those videos can be found at: http://water.unl.edu/web/cropswater/awmdnvideos. You can also check out the CropWatch articles that some co-workers and I prepared this past week. They’re located at: http://cropwatch.unl.edu. Finally, in this week’s Market Journal, Aaron Nygren visits about using these tools, so check it out!
Before I close today, I’m looking for some corn growers that are planning to sidedress corn this spring. If you are, we’ll like to team up with you and conduct some on-farm research on the effects of this practice. It would be filed length strips and would not require a lot of work.
If you’d possibly be interested, call me at 402-326-8185 or email me at gary.zoubek@unl.edu. I hope to hear from several of you!
Yard & Garden
The rains have been great for the turf other than we’ve probably needed to mow more often than we’d like, but it’s better to do that rather than having to irrigate our turf. While I was gone for about nine days, I was planning to raise my mowing height because our turf specialists suggest never removing more than 1/3 of the grass on any one mowing. We’ll when I got home, I did not need to do because to my surprise and delight, a couple friends had mowed it for me.
Now with the temperatures beginning to warm up, even if it was a little cool this weekend, it’s a good idea to mow your grass a little taller. By doing that you don’t need to mow as often and you’ll keep the area cooler along with a deeper root system. Also be sure and keep your lawn mower blade sharp so that you cut the grass blades rather than tear them.
Have you noticed a whitish cast your turf following mowing? It can be the result of a dull mower blade or the grass is heading out and the seed stalks are tougher than grass blades.  Zach Reicher, UNL Turf Specialist just share an Turf iNfo update on the topic at: http://turf.unl.edu/. He indicated that the most effective way to control seedheads is through mowing frequently with a sharp mower blade. Do not set the mower lower during seedhead production as some recommend. Seed production only lasts about a month, so the problem should subside quickly.
