Coming Events
- Nov. 7, 2013 – Ag at the Crossroads, 8:00 a.m., Lancaster Event Center, Lincoln
- Nov. 18, 2013 – York Extension Board Meeting, 7:00 p.m., Extension Office, York
- Nov. 21, 2013 – York County Corn Growers Banquet, 6:30 p.m., Chances R, York
- Dec. 10, 2013 – Landlord/Tenant Workshop, 6:30 p.m., 4-H Building, York
Small Scale Farming Workshop
Are you looking to learn how to produce your own food or start a diversified agriculture business on your acreage or in your backyard?  UNL Extension will be hosting “Small Spaces, Big Potentialâ€: a Small Scale Farming Workshop on Saturday, November 23rd in Nebraska City at the Kimmel Education and Research Center (5985 G Road). For more details & registration information check out the following link: http://go.unl.edu/x7db.
Increasing Profits While Regenerating Resources
We’ve got a several cattlemen in the area so I thought I share some information about a session planned for Tuesday November 19 in Hastings. The Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition (NGLC) and University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension in Adams County are hosting Gabe Brown, noted soil health advocate. The program will be held 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Adams County Fairgrounds, 947 S. Baltimore Ave, Hastings, NE.
Gabe Brown is one of the pioneers of the current soil health movement which focuses on regenerating our resources. Gabe, along with his wife Shelly, and son Paul, own and operate a diversified farm and ranch near Bismarck, ND. The Browns holistically integrate their grazing and no-till cropping system, which includes multi-species cover crops, with all natural grass fed beef, poultry and sheep. This diversity and integration has regenerated the natural resources on the ranch without the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides. Wildlife populations thrive in this ecosystem. Whitetail deer, sharptail grouse, pheasants, partridge, turkey, raptors, coyotes, fox and too many non-game species to count make their home on the 5,000 acre ranch which is located only two miles from the city of Bismarck. Over 2,000 people visit the Brown’s Ranch annually to see this unique operation.
Gabe has been an invited speaker across the US and beyond. He was honored with the NRDC’s 2012 Growing Green Awards winner in the Food Producer category. For over 15 years, Gabe has merged back-to-basics agrarian practices with innovative science-based sustainable farming techniques. For Gabe, healthy soil is the renewable resource that sustains all. By making use of a 100 percent zero-till cropping system, mob grazing, and polyculture cover crop and polyculture cash crop rotations, he has successfully transformed conventional grazing and cropping operations into models of regenerative agriculture. Brown’s Ranch also integrates its cow-calf and grass finished livestock operations with a highly diverse cropping rotation, which includes over 25 different cash and cover crops resulting in high yields and strong net profits. Gabe’s trailblazing work has made him a leader in regenerative ranch management.
Gabe will share his experience with:
- Â Â Decreasing inputs while increasing yields
-   Livestock – The missed income opportunity
- Â Â Producing corn for only 1.42/bu
- Â Â Regenerating your soil resource
- Â Â Opportunities to bring the next generation into the operation
- Â Â Lowering your cow wintering costs
A $15.00 fee will be charged to cover the cost of a noon meal. NGLC will pick up the cost of all student registrations. To reserve a place, please pre-register by November 11 by calling the UNL Extension office in Adams County at 402-461-7209.   For more information, contact Ron Bolze, Coordinator, Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition, 402-321-0067 (cell) or ron@nebraskagrazinglands.org.  You may also contact Ron Seymour, UNL Extension Educator, at 402-461-7209 or ron.seymour@unl.edu.
Getting The Most From Grazing Corn Stalks
With corn harvest rapidly coming to an end, it’s great to see more stalks being grazed as well as more cover crops being planted on our seed corn acres to tie up nutrients and allow for additional grazing as well as distributing the manure naturally over the fields. I received some information from Bruce Anderson, Extension Forage Specialist about grazing corn stalks so I thought I’d share it.
“Grazing corn stalks during winter has many benefits. It can save over a dollar a day per cow compared to feeding expensive hay. But, the way you manage grazing of stalks by your cattle can have a big effect on its success. For instance, maybe you have a goal of feeding as little protein supplement as possible while winter grazing. Then you must make sure you have enough acres of corn stalks so your cattle only need to select just the higher quality plant parts to eat. And whenever the grain and husks are gone, move to a fresh field. Or, maybe you use stalks just as a filler to keep cows from bellowing while you limit feed corn, distiller’s grains, or other more nutrient dense feeds. Then high stocking levels and unrestricted access might be best.
Another strategy might be to stretch winter stalks as far as possible. In that case, restricting animal access to small areas at a time by strip grazing until nearly all the grazable stalks are gone might be best. Be careful, though, about forcing cows to eat the lower stalks. They won’t get much protein or energy from lower stalks but the nitrate levels might be dangerously high.
Whatever your strategy, consider carefully what kind of nutrition animals are getting from the stalk pasture so you neither underfeed nor overfeed expensive supplements. Also be sure to provide salt, calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin A free choice at all times. And once all the grain is gone, cows need about half a pound per day of an all-natural protein to meet nutrient needs. Stalk season is here. Make wise decisions to use them best.â€
One thing for sure, we’ve got plenty of corn stalks in the area and it’s great to be adding value to them by having the grazed!
Cropping Updates
Producers have continued to make great progress with this falls harvest! Not many soybeans left in the field and we’ve made great progress with the corn and grain sorghum. Sure don’t need many days like Sunday! What a difference a day can make, it was beautiful on Saturday while tailgating and watching the Huskers and then all the wind on Sunday. Today, Monday, as I prepare this column it’s really nice and going to get to near 60° F today, but looking at the forecast it’s going to get colder with 100% chance of precipitation maybe in the form of snow on Tuesday.  I’m not sure if I’m ready for that yet, but I guess it’s the first week of November.
As I mentioned last week, we did get the York County Corn Grower plot harvested. I’ve sent out the draft summary to the seed reps to double check the numbers and hope to get it posted to our website at: http://york.unl.edu/web/york/plotresults.
I have tickets for our Annual York County Corn Growers banquet available at our office. It will be held Thursday November 21 at 6:30 p.m. at the Chances “R†here in York. Tickets can be purchased for $10.00 from any of the board of directors or from me here at the Extension Office. It should be a fun event with some great food, information and fellowship. One of the Nebraska LEAD fellows will make a presentation of their recent travels abroad, so order those tickets now.
Adjusting Cash Rents for 2014
A question we often get this time of year is what will the cash rents be the coming year. I don’t know the answer because each situation is different, but a co-worker of mine, Allan Vyhnalek from Columbus shared a great column that could the starting point for discussion last week on CropWatch. Check it out at: http://go.unl.edu/qob8.
We are going to be hosting one of the Landlord/Tenant workshop December 10 . If you plan to attend contact our office at 402-362-5508 to reserve a spot. It should be a good session. The link about will get you to the complete list of locations/dates where the Landlord/Tenant workshops will be held across Nebraska.
