Extension Update by Gary Zoubeck [July 31, 2014]

Coming Events

• July 29, 8:30 a.m., 2014- Nebraska Manure Demonstration Day, Dawson Co. Fair Grounds, Lexington http://water.unl.edu/manure/nebraskamanuredemo
• July 31-August 3, 2014- York County Fair – Apple Pies & Family Ties, York Co. Fair Grounds, York http://www.yorkcountyfair.com/.
• August 13, 9:00 a.m., Soybean Management Field Day, Stengel Farm near Shickley. http://ardc.unl.edu/soydays
• August 28, 5:30 p.m., York County Corn Grower Plot tour located on the Ray & Ron Makovicka farm located East of York ¼ mile East of the intersection of Road 14 & O.

It’s Fair Time

If the weatherman is correct, we should have a great week for the 2014 York County Fair! As I prepare this column on Monday morning, it was 57° F. This past week was a hot one with four day in the 90’s and a couple near 100° F. They’re predicting high temperatures in the low to mid 80’s with lower humidity. I can sure live with that for the last of July and first part of August. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what kind of weather we’ll have.

As I’ve mentioned the last couple of weeks, I like to encourage all York County residents to stop by and pickup a fair book and entry cards so you’ll be able to enter some open class exhibits. Open class entries are due on today Tuesday evening, July 29, from 6:00–8:00 p.m. in Ag Hall and again tomorrow Wednesday, July 30, from 8:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m.

Friday, August 1, following the Cattlemen’s Steak Fry we will be announcing the Pioneer Farm Family Awards following which we will be have an ice cream feed to celebrate the Centennial of Extension. We’re inviting all our past Extension Staff members as well as Extension Board Members to help celebrate 100 year of Cooperative Extension. Our current Extension Board members and staff will be serving our Centennial Ice Cream that was developed by the Dairy Store for this occasion. I hope you’ll be able to attend.

Information about the 2014 York County Fair is online at: http://www.yorkcountyfair.com/.  I hope to see you at several of this year events.

Cropping Update

The 2014 cropping season continues to be an unusual one. The past couple of weeks, we’ve had a week of cool or cold temperatures, a week of hot and humid temperatures and now they’re predicting a week of temperatures in the lower to mid 80’s and a little less humidity. I guess in the end it’s typical not so typical Nebraska weather……wait a day or two and it will change.

The ETgages I’m monitoring dropped 1.5 inches this past week. Most of our crops are all in the reproductive stages, to the crop coefficient factor is 1.1. We multiply 1.5 time 1.1 we get a crop ET for the week of 1.65 or about .24”/day for the past week that was extremely hot and humid. Not as much as one would expect, but the humidity makes a big difference. Now’s an important time to monitor your soil water. If you have questions about your Watermark Sensors and what numbers mean, don’t hesitate to contact me my email address is gary.zoubek@unl.edu or by phone at 402-326-8185, I’d be glad to visit with you.

For the latest cropping information, check CropWatch at: http://cropwatch.unl.edu.

Apply for Livestock Disaster Programs

I know that the FSA office has been trying to inform all livestock producers in York County about the Livestock Disaster Programs available. The last census shows that York County has over 200 livestock operations, but they have had only about 50 applications filed so far! So if you’ve had losses or know someone that has, please inform them about the programs and encourage them to make an appointment and signup prior to the January 30, 2015 deadline.

Programs available include:

Livestock Forage Program (LFP): If you had livestock on grazing acres in York County in 2012 you may be eligible for compensation for pasture losses due to drought.

Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP): They are taking applications from livestock producers to compensate for livestock losses in excess of normal mortality that occur from an eligible adverse weather event in 2012, 2013, and 2014.

Hay & Forage Hotline

Are you wanting to sell or purchase hay or forages? The Nebraska Department of Agriculture has the “Hay and Forage Hotline,” to connect buyers with sellers of hay, pasture and other types of forage. This Hotline service is available to all buyers and sellers for free. The toll-free hotline number is 800-422-6692; the local number is 402-471-4876. Sellers of available hay and forage can contact this number and have their name, contact information, and inventory placed on the “Sellers List,” which is updated regularly. The Nebraska Department of Agriculture will then make the “Sellers List” available to buyers by mail or by the web site. Once buyers obtain this information they will be responsible for contacting the sellers direct to negotiate any transactions.

That website is: http://www.nda.nebraska.gov/hayhot/hayhotline.html.

Soybean Management Field Days Planned

I’ve again been involved with the upcoming Soybean Management Field Days planned for August 12 through August 15^.

This year we have locations at:

Tuesday, Aug. 12  – Louis Stukenholtz farm – near Auburn

Wednesday, Aug. 13 – Corey and Chris Stengel farm – near Shickley

Thursday, Aug. 14 – Craig and Jan Frenzen farm – near Belgrade

Friday, Aug. 15 -  Dennis Mueller farm -  near Snyder

I  hope you’ll be able to attend the August 13 Field Day on the Stengel farm near Shickley (go west of Shickley on Hwy 74 for 4 miles, go north on County Road 2 for 2 miles, location is west of intersection of County Roads 2 and R).

Registration is at 9:00 a.m. with the program running from 9:30-2:30 p.m. Topics include: herbicide applications and water quality; growth development and growth enhancement products; multiple soybean input study including row spacing, fungicides/insecticides/nutrient management; Irrigation management; grain marketing; and handling and storing biodiesel in your farming operation. The program is sponsored by the Nebraska Soybean Board in partnership with UNL Extension.

For more information a details, go to: http://ardc.unl.edu/soydays.

York County Corn Grower Plot Tour

I like to invite all area producers and other interested in the corn production to the annual York County Corn Grower Plot Tour planned for Thursday, August 28 at 5:30 p.m.  The 2014 plot is located East of York on the Ray and Ron Makovicka farm located ¼ mile East of the Intersection of Road 14 and O.

I hope you’ll mark your calendar and plan to attend.

Lawn and Garden

It’s been a while since our last rain, so drought stress is beginning to show up in our turf.  With the high temperatures last week it’s important to continue to mow the turf tall and not remove more than 1/3 of the turf any one mowing and to keep the blades sharp. When it’s extremely hot I suggest holding off mowing until the temperatures are a little cooler.

As for diseases, as a result of the high temperatures and humidity we’ve seen some brown patch and dollar spot in our turf.

Some tips and information about controlling these two disease can be found at:

Brown patch: http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1909/build/g1909.pdf

Dollar spot: http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/live/g1910/build/g1910.pdf

Hopefully this week’s temperatures and humidity will also help us out. For more turf information, check out our turf pages at: http://turf.unl.edu/.