Coming Events
- Nov. 17, 2014, York Extension Board Meeting, 7:00 p.m., Extension Office, York
- Nov. 17, 2014, Cornhusker Economics Outlook Meeting, 9:00 a.m., 4-H Building, Beatrice
- Nov. 18, 2014, Cornhusker Economics Outlook Meeting, 9:00 a.m., Central Community College, Columbus
- Nov. 19-20, 2014, Midwest Corn Bean Expo, Lancaster Event Center, Lincoln
- Nov. 21, 2014, York County Corn Grower Annual Meeting & Banquet, 6:30 p.m., Chances R, York
- Nov. 25, 2014, Cornhusker Economics Outlook Meeting, 9:00 a.m., Adams Fairgrounds, Hastings
- Dec. 9, 2014, York Farm Bill Informational Mtg, 1:30 p.m., Cornerstone Event Center, York Fairgrounds
Upcoming Educational Meetings
Now that harvest is winding down, I guess it’s becoming that time of year for educational meetings. This week I want to remind area producers of several upcoming meeting.
I know that this is short notice, but Greg Whitmore is hosting a Meeting on Soil Health. It’s a project to make agriculture more productive and sustainable through improved soil health.
This meeting will be Wednesday November 12, at 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Central Valley Ag, 340 Oak St., Shelby, NE 68662.
Featured Topics Include:
- Cover crop integration in corn systems
- Benefits of soil health and advanced nutrient management
- Local resources for improving soil health on Eastern Nebraska farms
The draft program is:
8:30-9:00 am-Registration
9:00-9:40 am-Introduction to Greg Whitmore and the Soil Health Partnership
9:40–10:10 am–Nebraska Corn Growers Association research and program update and Q & A
9:40–10:10 am–NRCS Programming efforts across the Nebraska Landscape and Q & A
10:10–10:30 am–Travel to Field
10:30–11:00 am–Soil Health on your farm–productivity, profitability & environmental outcomes
11:00–11:20 am–Seeding Technologies for Cover Crops and Q & A
1:20–11:45 am–Central Valley Ag Research and Programming Efforts & Q & A
11:45–12:00 am–Travel to lunch
12:00–1:00 pm Lunch and Field day conclusions-All presenters
Breakfast and lunch will be provided—event will be held rain or shine.
Looks like they have a great program planned!
The second educational opportunity is a series of five Cornhusker Economics Outlook Meetings planned for November 17-November 25Â in Beatrice, Columbus, Gering, Curtis, and Hastings.
Topics will include:
Crops—What are the markets telling us?
Livestock — Excitement and uncertainty?
Policy — Should I sign up for ARC or PLC?
Finance – Managing cost of production through a time of “minimizing lossesâ€.
The meetings go from 9:00 a.m. to noon at all the locations except Curtis which goes from 5:00 pm. to 8:00 p.m. No cost for registration, however it’s important to contact the host educators so that adequate materials can be on hand. Complete details and registration information can be found at: http://york.unl.edu/crops-future. Then click on the Outlook link. I hope you’ll have a chance to attend one of these meetings.
Dave Dickerson wanted me to remind area producers about the Midwest Corn Bean Expo planned for November 19 and 20 in Lincoln at the Lancaster Event Center. The Expo runs from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each of the two days and has educational presentations for 9:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. each day. Topics and more information can be found at:  http://www.midwestcornbeanexpo.com/.
Dave has asked me to make a presentation on a summary of twelve years of on-farm research results. It’s been kind of interesting looking back of the results we’ve found.
The York County Corn Growers Annual Banquet is planned for Friday, November 21, at Chances R Restaurant. I want to remind those involved in corn production that the annual York County Corn Grower Banquet is planned for Friday, November 21, at here in York. Tickets are available for $10.00 from any of the York County Corn Growers Board of Directors as well as at our office. Social at 6:30 p.m., meal at 7:00 p.m.
They have a great program planned, with an excellent LEAD trip presentation, updates from both the Corn Growers and Corn board and I’m working on a short presentation related to the history of irrigation in York County. It should be a fun evening, so if you’re interested, get those ticket purchased by November 19th!
As I mentioned last week, we are hosting one of several Farm Bill Education Meetings planned. Our meeting will be December 9 from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Cornerstone Ag Event Center here in York. The University of Nebraska Lincoln Extension and the Farm Service Agency (FSA), are teaming up to provide educational meetings about the 2014 Farm Bill.
All farm operators and land owners are invited to attend.  FSA will inform participants about the sign-up process for the Farm Bill including the documentation needed and the deadlines for sign-up. UNL Extension will provide information about the decisions that will need to be made for base acre reallocation, yield updates, and for the Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) vs. Price Loss Coverage (PLC) program selection.
It should be helpful to attend one of the meetings to get insight on the options everyone has with the 2014 Farm Bill. Farm Operators and Land Owners will have three main steps to signing up. One is to review their current base acre allocations which is occurring at this time. Secondly, a decision about re-allocation of base acres will need to be made. Finally, the program selection will involve the ARC or PLC program. ARC is the revenue safety net program similar to the recent ACRE program and PLC is the price safety net program. With ARC, the options will be an Individual ARC coverage vs. a County ARC coverage. With PLC, the available Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) will be discussed. Decisions made for this Farm Bill sometime in 2015 will be final for the duration of the Bill.
If you cannot make the Dec. 9 informational meeting, others planned in our area include:
Nov. 21 – Saline county — (Saline Center) – 9:00 a.m.
Nov. 25 – Hamilton county – Leadership Center (Aurora) – 9:00 a.m.
Nov. 25 — Hall county – Central Community College (Grand Island) –1:30 p.m.
Dec. 3 — Seward county — Fairgrounds (Seward) – 9:00 a.m.
Dec. 8 – Hamilton county – Leadership Center (Aurora) – 1:30 p.m.
Dec. 16 – Fillmore County Fairgrounds (Geneva) – 9:00 a.m.
Dec. 16 – Clay County Fairgrounds (Clay Center) – 1:30 p.m.
Dec. 19 – Polk county Fairgrounds (Osceola) – 1:00 p.m.
Yard and Garden Update
Hopefully you had a chance to enjoy this weekend’s weather, wasn’t it great! Sounds like things are changing as I prepare my column this Monday morning. But what can you expect, we’re near mid-November and we typically get cold this time of year.
I mowed my turf and chopped up the leaves that have fallen from the trees for the final time of the season, took my mower in to be serviced, checked to see if my snow blower would run. It’s been a couple weeks of dry weather and I could see that cool season grasses were showing some signs of drought stress, so so I gave the turf one last drink prior to draining the irrigation system for the season. It’s important to have the root zone of your turf and perennial plants full going into the winter. The soil typically freezes around Thanksgiving time in our area, so it’s important to get all fall fertilizer applications and watering on prior to that time. For the latest turf information, lawn calendar check out: http://turf.unl.edu/lawncalendars.cfm.
Cropping Update
Producer are nearing the end of harvest and I’ve seen a few out making anhydrous ammonia applications. I’d like to remind area producers to be sure and make your applications based on good soil test results. As I was gathering information for my presentation on Nov. 19th for Dave Dickerson, I looked back at our eight years of Mid-Nebraska Demonstration Project results in which we applied recommended nitrogen rates along with minus 50 lbs. and plus 50 lbs. of nitrogen. The minus 50 plots yielded on average 157 bu./acre, the recommended plots averaged 164 bu./acre while the plus 50 plots yielded 167 bu.acre. One of the years we had severe green snap and one year we had considerable frost damage.
UNL recommendations do work, so with our tight budgets the next couple of years, I’d sure recommend accurate soil tests and fertilizing accordingly. I know some of you will say we’re producer higher yield now, and that’s correct. Our corn yield have been increasing by 3.2 bu./acre/year. So if we yielded 180 bu./acre in 1996, yields probably have increased by 58 or so bu./acre to 240 or so today?
Our latest recommendations can be found at: http://cropwatch.unl.edu/soils. Check it out or contact our office for information.
Speaking of production cost increases, do you have a handle on your cropping expenses? Information at CropWatch this week reported that producers involved in irrigated corn production in the Nebraska Farm Business Association reported an increase in costs of $231.36 per acre from 2009 to 2014. The largest increase was 45% for land rental payments. Check out the story at: http://cropwatch.unl.edu/.
York Extension Centennial Notes
Many of you know that Extension has been celebrating 100 years of existence this year!
I’ve looked over many of our annual reports, so I thought I’d share some of the most interesting facts, starting with our first annual reports back in 1926.
Kenneth Fouts was the first York County Agent and was to “serve as county agricultural agent are as well as secretary to the Fairboardâ€.
He reported that for the year, the Educator traveled:
Miles by rail 1448
Miles by auto 4045
Days in the field 88.7,
Days in the office 178.8
Days of Vacation 7.5
40 boys, 25 girls, 368 women
In 1933, C.R. Weber reported that “What work was done by State Extension caused York County people to fear that it was a plan to thrust upon them the services of a county agentâ€.
In 1936, C.R. Weber & D.B McMullen reported that “The agent and Farm Bureau president held a series of meetings to explain the many programs extension can do.â€Â That year many grasshopper calls were taken and a train car of bran was shipped to York for mixing with Sodium arsenite (400 100# bags), a building was rented the bran mixed and distributed. “A total of 34 farmers received poison bran. As far as it is known there were no cases of poisoning to human beings, livestock or birds.â€Â Farmers reported a very good kill. Cost of program $80.00 and saved $5,000 or more.
1938, P.B.McMullen reported that a sorghum variety and a hybrid corn test demonstration was conducted with 18 to 20 varieties each. The Extension office cooperated with local famer in conducting a customer survey for securing funds from the REA. An application has been submitted to construct 240 miles of tiles serving 440 customers. 425 horses on 100 farms treated for bots.
That year also, on the general election November 8th the following question was submitted to York County voters, “Shall an appropriation be made annually from the county general fund for Agricultural Extension work? 3511 Voted in favor of this question and 3217 voted against.
It looks like Cooperative Extension was off to a rocky start the first few years? Next week I’ll share more information from those Annual Reports.
