Coming Events
- May 14, 2014 – NRCS Local Work Group meeting, 10:00 a.m., Service Center, York
- May 27, 2014 – Extension Board Meeting, 8:00 p.m., Extension Office, York
Cropping Update
Producers have really continued to make great progress getting the crops into the ground. It’s nice to begin being able to see the nice straight rows of corn as it’s starting to emerge. We’ve gotten both the York County Corn Growers and RoundUp Ready Soybean plots planted.
It was nice to get some needed precipitation, but it would have been nice to only receive an inch or two over a day to two, but that was not the case. As I traveled up from the Geneva area Sunday evening we saw several pivots tipped over, power lines down, a grain bin blown away and considerable washing and flooding as a results of the Sunday morning and evening storms. I’m sure we’ll have some replanting and patching in that will need to take place as a result of this weekend’s storms.
NRCS Work Group Meeting Planned
I mentioned this before, but thought I’d mention it again for Jim Husbands with the NRCS. He wanted me to share the following information about a Work Group Meeting planned for May 14!
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service will be holding a Local Work Group Meeting at the York Service Center, 419th W 6th Street in York on May 14, 2014, from 10:00–11:45 am. to discuss natural resource conservation priorities for 2015 for the entire UBBNRD counties involved including parts or all of York, Hamilton, Polk, Fillmore, and Seward and small portions of several other counties.
This meeting is open to the public according to Jim Husbands with the NRCS. The recently passed new Farm Bill is in the process of finally bringing forth the details with conservation programs and cost share available through these various programs such as EQIP. Local input is desired and this is the time to bring forth ideas which are incorporated as much as possible in the final ranking process for contract applications. For individuals needing special accommodations or anyone with questions about the meeting, please contact NRCS at 402-362-5700 Ex 3. Also the NRCS has announced that the cut off for EQIP application for 2015 is October 17, 2014.
Farm Bill Webinar
The 2014 Farm Bill provides agricultural producers with a variety of different programs and opportunities to participate; however, the decisions facing them have never been more complex. This bill is designed to offer more of a risk management approach to the federal farm safety net as opposed to the more traditional price and yield support. It is important participants understand how the 2014 Farm Bill works and how these programs may affect their operations. Nebraska offers some unique challenges relative to variability in the type of commodities and the practices in which they grown. In the Spring and Summer of 2014, agricultural producers will be offered an opportunity to update their base acres and program yields. It is important that they understand how these decision work, to make a well informed decision.
UNL Extension will be hosting a public webinar open to any interested party, to assist the producer with these decisions. The following are details on how to participate:
Name: Farm Bill Public Webinar
URL: https://connect.unl.edu/publicfarmbill/
Start Time: 10:00 am Central Time Zone
Start Date: May 21, 2014
Duration: 2 hours
Participants will need to have adequate speakers with their computer to hear the presentation. This meeting will also be archived for later viewing; however those connecting live will have an opportunity to ask questions of the speaker. If you have additional questions, direct them to Tim Lemmons, Ext. Educator, at tlemmons2@unl.edu.
Irrigation Cooperators Needed
About a month ago, I mentioned that we’re looking for potential irrigators to help with an Energy Star Guide project for irrigation pumping plants. We’ve had a couple of irrigators respond, but can use a few more.
What we’re looking for are producers that have systems where the center pivot includes a corner arm or where the pivot irrigates in rolling terrain. Ideally, we are looking for systems that are 5 years old or less. UNL would run a pumping test on your system and share that info with you. If you be interested, give me a call at 402-362-5508 or email me at gary.zoubek@unl.edu. I hope to hear from several producers in our area. I’ll be glad to visit with you if you have any questions.
While on the topic, if you’d be interested in doing an on-farm research irrigation study, I’d be glad to work with you. We have many possibilities of what you could do? Would you like to compare what you are doing now compared to some other system. How about apply one or two less inches of irrigation on a pie of your field or how about putting shutoffs on one or two of the inter spans so that we can shut them off for one or two passes say early in the season or maybe that last irrigation. We can then use the combine yield monitor to evaluate the effect that may or may not have occurred?
Let me know if you are interested. With the potential of water restrictions coming soon, now’s a good time to get prepared before we have too!
Center Pivot Maintenance & Our Center Pivot Management Manual
As a result of the recent rains, we will not be needing to run our center pivots for a while, but now is the time to be getting those pivots ready for the coming season. It’s important to perform regular maintenance or your irrigation system and should include a pre-season checkup.
One of the best ways to identify worn components such as sprinklers, pumps, or irrigation systems is to keep good records.
•Recording the outlet pressure, flow rate and energy use on a regular basis (at least once per month) provides an excellent means of evaluating pump and motor performance.
•Operating pressure should be recorded when the pivot is in the same position each time since the pump will produce different outlet pressure when the system is facing uphill than when the system is facing downhill.
•Systems that do not have pressure regulators to maintain sprinkler pressure will also have different flow rates. Record the flow rate and operating pressure in a notebook so that you can compare current flow rate and pressure to last year’s and the years before.
Each irrigation system will have a number of areas to lubricate, or parts that may need to be replaced prior to the first irrigation. It is impossible to list them all, but the list should include:
1) Change the engine oil and filter,
2) Replace the air and fuel filters,
3) Grease drive shafts on pump, and motor,
4) Check spark plugs on gas, propane or natural gas motors,
5) Drain, flush and refill the cooling system,
6) Refill the drip oil reservoir and allow oil to drain into the drip line based on pump column length,
7) Ensure that the right-angle gear head is free moving and clean and lubricate non-reverse pins,
8) Run the motor at the normal operating speed for 45 minutes,
9) Start the pump and walk along system looking for malfunctioning sprinklers. Nozzle wear depends on the quality of the water and the system operating pressure. As a rule of thumb, sprinkler replacement should be considered after approximately 10-12,000 hours of operation. Be sure to replace malfunctioning nozzles with ones listed on the computer printout you received from the manufacturer.
10) Check chemigation pump and safety equipment operation. Check hoses and replace if cracking is noticeable.
In summary, frequent use of record keeping practices to make comparisons between previous energy use and current energy use can help identify when maintenance is required on the pump or power supply.
•Visual inspection of sprinkler operation can ensure that water application uniformity is adequate.
•Finally, testing of safety switches will ensure, that should a system component fail, the system will be shut down prior to causing major damage to the irrigation system. Go to for more information:
https://water.unl.edu/cropswater/springclean
I have a few copies of our Center Pivot Management Manual, so if you’d like one, stop by our office, we’ll be glad to share it with you.
