Coming Events
- Jan. 9, 2014 – Crop Production Clinic, Hastings; Register at: http://cpc.unl.edu/
- Jan. 14, 2014 – Hamilton County Ag Day, Fairgrounds, Aurora, 8:30 a.m.
- Jan. 14, 2014 — Heuermann Lecture, East Campus Union, 7:00 p.m. “Regaining the U.S. Lead in Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education”
- Jan. 15, 2014 – Crop Production Clinic, York; Register at: http://cpc.unl.edu/
- Jan. 23, 2014 – 9:00 a.m. Land Application Training, Extension Office, York
- Jan. 23, 2014 – Private Pesticide Training, Heartland Community School, Henderson, 6:30 p.m.
- Jan. 24, 2014 – Private Pesticide Training, York 4-H Building, 9:00 a.m.
- Jan. 24, 2014 – Private Pesticide Training, York 4-H Building, 1:30 p.m.
- Jan. 28, 2014 – Cow/Calf College,US-MARC, Clay Center 9:30 a.m.; Register: Webster Ext. Office
- Jan. 29, 2014 – Precision Ag Workshop, Fairgrounds, Clay Center, 8:00 a.m.
- Jan. 30, 2014 – Precision Ag Workshop, 4-H Building, York, 8:00 a.m.
- Feb. 3, 2014 – Private Pesticide Training, York 4-H Building, 6:30 p.m.
- Feb. 11, 2014 – Center Pivot Irrigation Conference, Fairgrounds, Clay Center, 9:00 a.m.
- Feb. 11, 2014 – Master Gardner Connect Session, Integrated Pest Management Options in Landscapes – Wayne Ohnesorg, 6:30 p.m., Extension Office York Info at:  http://york.unl.edu/water-environment
Crop Production Clinics Planned
The annual Crop Production Clinics are starting this week with the first one in our area on January 9th in Hastings. The York one will be held January 15 at the City Auditorium. Cost for the clinic will be $60.00 if you enroll ahead on line at: http://cpc.unl.edu/. Cost the day of the program will be $75.00 so it’s important to go on line to register. You can pre-register up to 3:00 pm the day prior to the event, so by then you should know if you’re planning to attend or not. For those few of you that do not have computer access, you can call Wendy Morrissey (402-472-5636) and she will take their registration over the phone.
These Crop Production Clinics have some excellent sessions planned. You’ll have an opportunity to attend one of two sessions going on at the same time. This year’s topics include:
Pest Management & Pesticide Safety
Pesticide Laws and Regulations
Soybean Stem Borers
Pesticide Health and Safety
Differentiating Chemical and Disease Symptoms in the Field
Environmental Safety and Pesticides
Using the New Ground Spray Application
What’s New in Plant Pathology
What’s New in Entomology
Emerging Issues for Australian Spraying: Bigger Sprayers, Bigger Droplets, New Problems?
Insect Resistance Management
Corn Rootworm Management Update
Herbicide-resistant weeds update and management options in Nebraska
Corn Disease Update
Soybean Disease Update
Soil, Water & Crop Management
Land Rental Rates Update
Input Cost Management
Understanding the Benefits and Limitations of Current Pesticide Application Field Equipment
Switchgrass for Biomass Energy
Management of Center Pivots for High Efficiency
Using Moisture Monitoring Equipment to Manage Soil Water
The Nebraska Nitrogen Loss Assessment Tool
The Importance of Soil Sampling
Farm Bill/Ag Policy Update
Crop Insurance Update
Climate Information for Agricultural Decisions in Nebraska
Data Update from Soybean Management Field Days
I hope you’ll be able to attend!
Precision Ag Workshop
We’re hosting Precision Ag Workshops in Clay Center and York on January 29 and 30 respectively! Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. with the program from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. This program is for anyone interested in precision ag and cost is $45 for the first person in an operation or $10 to cover lunch if the second person in an operation is willing to share a computer. Computers, software, and data will be provided, but you are welcome to bring your own yield monitor data card to work on if you wish.
Our goal is to have the participants learn: best management practices to improve data quality and collection, how to use YieldEditor software to clean data, creating yield maps, how to interpret differences between raw and clean data, and quantifying yield within zones. Please register for Jan 30 session at the York Extension Office at 402-362-5508 or gary.zoubek@unl.edu or for the January 29 session at the Clay County Extension at 402-762-3644 or jrees2@unl.edu. We’re limited to 20 individuals per location. Give me a call if you have any questions or need more information. We’ve received a few registrations already; hopefully we’ll have a full house!
Featured Website of the Week UNL CropWatch:Â http://cropwatch.unl.edu/
I hope you had an opportunity to last week to visit the UNL Foods Website. This week I want to visit about one of my favorite UNL websites, CropWatch. It is a one-stop or central resource for University of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension information on crop production and pest management.
It is organized into two key areas, each of which offers hundreds of crop-specific articles for Nebraska producers and crop consultants:
1)     The CropWatch newsletter, which includes timely articles published to the site’s home page. New issues are published weekly during the heart of the crop production season and biweekly or monthly during the remainder of the year. The newsletter also includes links to a calendar of ag events and programs
2)     Crop-specific production and pest management information, with additional sites for whole farm and production systems. Featured crops are listed in the left navigation bar and include: corn, dry beans, forages, organic, sorghum, soybeans, wheat, bioenergy crops, and other crops (fruits, potatoes & sugar beets). You can also link to these related topics:
Economics & Marketing
Pest Management
Precision Agriculture
Soil Management
Tillage/No-Till Systems
Variety Testing
Genetic Improvement
Farm Research
Youth
Military Resources
Grain Storage
One of the great features about this website is that the information is research based. I hope you’ll check it out, bookmark it, and refer to it on a regular basis for your crop production information. If you click on the home tab and other ag links, you’ll see a page full of links of many other UNL sites, government ag sites, ag publications, UNL centers, general links, markets, other University and state resources as well as corn, soybeans, wheat and grain sorghum associations and information. That link is: http://cropwatch.unl.edu/web/cropwatch/aglinks.
Finally, before I close, I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to CropWatch so that you’ll get an email when the latest CropWatch Newsletter has been posted. It’s a great reminder to check out CropWatch, but you don’t get bombarded with emails. Start the New Year off by subscribing to CropWatch for all your cropping information.
Some of the other websites that I’ll be sharing information about in future columns include:
UNL Water Information:Â http://water.unl.edu
UNL Beef Information:Â http://beef.unl.edu/
UNL Acreage Information: http://acreage.unl.edu/
UNL 4-H Information:Â http://4h.unl.edu/
UNL Extension in York County: http://york.unl.edu
UNL Extension Publications:Â http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/pages/index.jsp
Horticulture Webinars and Master Gardener Training Planned
We’re again hosting the Master Gardener Training sessions that will be open to the interested public on Tuesday evenings from February 11, 2014 to March 15, 2014. The sessions will run from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. each evening. We’ve got some great topics this year.
Topics this year are:
Feb. 11 – Integrated Pest Management Options in Landscapes – Wayne Ohnesorg
Feb. 18 – Disease Identification of Herbaceous Landscape Plants – Amy Timmerman
Feb. 25 – Turfgrass Care and Management – Zac Reicher
March 4 – Pollinators in the Landscape and “Pollinator Friendly Plant Material – Natalia Bjorklund
March 11 – Plant Propagation Concepts and Tomato Grafting – Nicole Stoner & David Lott
March 25 – Landscape Weed identification and Herbaceous Update – Lowell Sandell
Cost for Initial training to become a Master Gardener is $150 for training, notebook and other materials. Cost for Master Gardeners to attend the series is $15.00. Cost for the general public is $5.00/session or $20.00 for the series. For more information about the Master Gardner program, these training sessions, or to register, go to:  http://york.unl.edu/water-environment. You can also email me at gary.zoubek@unl.edu or call at 402-362-5508.
Online Courses
As I prepare my column today, it’s -5° F outside and expected to get to a balmy 8° F. It’s days like this during the cold winter months, that you might want to consider taking an online course.  UNL is offering two online short courses on irrigation and soils. These modules are intended for crop consultants, agency personnel, crop producers and other interested in improving their soil science, soil fertility management and irrigation management skills.
The soils course aims to expand the participant’s knowledge of soil science, including the origins, physical properties, and chemical properties of soil. Understanding this information benefits those making management decisions related to soil fertility and crop production. This in turn can improve the efficiency of fertilizer applications, reduce nutrient loss and improve crop yields.
The irrigation management course will help increase awareness and understanding of irrigation management concepts. Water users can optimize water use efficiency and protect the quality of water resources by applying basic information about irrigation systems, crop water use and management practices. Reducing irrigation application amounts and increasing uniformity of application leads to reduced deep percolation and runoff. The results can reduce irrigation costs, increased efficiency, increased yields and reduced surface and ground water contamination.
Cost for these two online short courses is $50.00 each. For more information or to sign up, go to:     http://marketplace.unl.edu/extension/programs. Let me know if you have any questions.
