Coming Events
Jan. 29, Land Applicator Training, York
Jan. 29, Hamilton County Ag Day, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., Ag Auditorium, Fairgrounds, Aurora
Feb. 2, Pesticide Applicator Certification Training, 1:30 p.m., 4-H Building, York
Feb. 3, Waterwise Landscapes and Residential Rain Gardens, Connect Training, 6:30 p.m., Extension Office
Feb. 4, Farmers & Ranchers College – 5:30 p.m. Fillmore Co. Fairgrounds, “Ag: Trends, Topics & Tomorrow†– Damian Mason. Call 402-759-3712 one week ahead to reserve a spot!
Feb. 4-5, Nebraska Ag Technology Association (NeATA) Conference, Grand Island Holiday Inn, http://neata.org
Feb. 7, Raising Nebraska Celebrates Nebraska 4-H Month, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Nebraska Building, State Fairgrounds 501 E Fonner Park Road, Grand Island.
Feb. 10, Pruning Deciduous and Evergreen Trees and Shrubs, Connect Training, 6:30 p.m., Extension Office
Feb. 11, Center Pivot Irrigation Short Course, Central City
Feb. 13, Nebraska On-Farm Research Meeting, College Park in Grand Island
Feb. 17, Nebraska On-Farm Research Meeting, ARDC near Mead
Feb. 17-18, Central Plains Irrigation Conference & Exposition, Colby, Kansas
Feb. 17, Insects – Beneficial’s in the Garden & Landscape and Vegetable Insect Pests, Connect Training, 6:30 p.m., Extension Office
Feb. 23, 2015, Pesticide Applicator Certification Training, 1:30 p.m., 4-H Building, York
Feb. 24, Wildlife Damage Management, Connect Training, 6:30 p.m., Extension Office
Feb. 24, Precision Ag Workshop York, 8:30 a.m., 4-H Building, York
March 12, Chemigation Training, 1:00 p.m., 4-H Building, York
March 12, Pesticide Applicator Certification Training, 6:30 p.m., 4-H Building, York
Congratulations 4-H Leaders
I want to say congratulations to the leaders that were recognized for your years of service Sunday evening January 25 at Chances R! THANK YOU for your service! Without it we could not have the 4-H program we have.
Leader recognized last evening were Tammy DeBoer – 20 years; Karol Swan – 10 years; Mike Dey, Kristine DeBoer and Xann Linhart – 5 years and Alivia Peters – 2 years! Thanks for serving our youth program!
While I’m at it, we are always looking for volunteers and people that would be willing to assist us in the many educational programs we provide year around. If you’d be interested in helping with the 4-H program or at the fair, give us a call. We’d love to hear from you.
Horticulture Training Planned
The warm weather the last few days has us thinking sprint? What a great weekend and Monday morning as I prepare my column! Again this year, beginning February 3 from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. we will be hosting the series of webinars.
Topics will include:
February 3 – Waterwise Landscapes and Residential Rain Gardens
February 10 – Pruning Deciduous and Evergreen Trees and Shrubs
February 17 – Insects – Beneficial’s in the Garden & Landscape and Vegetable Insect Pests
February 24 – Wildlife Damage Management
March 3 –Technology in the Garden and Landscape Photography for Beauty and Diagnostics
March 10 – Preparing for Emerald Ash Borer: Identification, Management and Treatment
Options and Tree Planting Selections Now and Post EAB
These sessions will serve as refreshers for our Master Gardeners. The public is invited to attend these updates. Cost is $7.50/session or $25.00 for all six. Cost for Master Gardeners is $20.00. If you’d like to register, go to: http://york.unl.edu/water-environment and click on the Master Gardener Training Brochure. Complete and return or email it to the Extension Office and we’ll get you registered.
Farm Bill Decision Aid
Finally on today I’ve been able to watch the video’s from the January 14 training of the Texas A&M Agricultural Food Policy Center comprehensive Farm Bill Decision Aid computer program. They’re a big help in know what information to input and I’ve been able to run a few farms.
As I’ve mentioned before, the decisions are based on where you feel potential prices will be in the next five years and the level of risk you are willing to bear. It’s important for you to update you yields on all your crops. We have not been able to do that for over 12 years and for most of the producers I know, yield have gone up.
Information you’ll need to run the program are your CC yields and base acres from FSA as well as your production history since 2008.
When using the Texas A&M model you need to decide what you want the tool to analyze. It can:
- Yield Update Tool – calculates values for PLC yields using yield histories for your units.
- Base Acre Reallocation & PLC/ARC Decision Aid Tool – helps you decide whether to reallocate your base acres and whether to choose PLC, ARC-C, or ARC-I for each farm unit based on your data.
- Farm Bill 2014 Insurance – calculates net revenue for alternative insurance choices available through the 2014 Farm Bill and RMA. This option can take considerable time and EACH crop insurance tract needs to be entered as a “new farm unit†under each FSA farm number.
I’m willing to help interested producers input the data. If you’d like to make an appointment for me to help run your data, go to this website: http://york.unl.edu/crops-future click on the Farm Bill Input Form or the Collection form and get the needed data. Then give me a call at 402-362-5508 or email me at gary.zoubek@unl.edu the data and we’ll see if we can run the tool for you.
If you’d like to run the tool yourself, the links to the program can be found on our Farm Bill website: http://agecon.unl.edu/farmbill or the direct link is: http://usda.afpc.tamu.edu/.
Links to the videotaped January 14Â program will also be posted to the Farm Bill site soon.
For now if you want to view the presentation, some are a little long and can be fast forwarded, but here they are:
Dr. James Richardson – https://connect.unl.edu/p5gqblf5pa5/
Dr. Peter Zimmel – https://connect.unl.edu/p46an0xhuci/
Dr. Peter Zimmel (part 2) – https://connect.unl.edu/p9rzm0mdoxa/
Dr. James Richardson (part 2) and Panel Discussion – https://connect.unl.edu/p37wtua03aa/
Randy Pryor – https://connect.unl.edu/p50fbhiy2vb/
I hope you’ll check them out!
As I mentioned last week, Leann Nelson, CED, of the York Farm Service Agency wanted me to remind all producers that time is running short to make base reallocation and/or yield updates for the 2014 Farm Program. If a decision is not made by the deadline, the farm will retain 2013 bases and yields. Most if not all operations should be able to increase the payment yields on their farms.
If you are looking for additional information about the Farm bill, check out the CropWatch website: http://cropwatch.unl.edu/
- Farm Bill FAQs: Base Acre Reallocation
- Farm Bill FAQs: Price Loss Coverage Program
It will help answer many of the questions you have.
Upcoming Meetings/Trainings
Is your Private Pesticide Applicators license up to date? Now’s the time to check! My first session of the year is next Monday, February 2nd at 1:30 p.m. in the 4-H Building here in York. This training is for new certification as well as recertification. If you received a letter from the Nebraska Department of Ag bring it along. It’s easier to complete the process rather than filling in the bubble form.
Are you interested in Precision Ag Data Management? A series of hands-on workshops are planned on this topic. These hands-on workshops are designed to demonstrate methods for extracting more information from your Precision Ag Data. The workshops will combine short lectures with Hands-on activities (laptops and data will be supplied) using AG Leader SMS Advanced software.
Session topics will demonstrate strategies to:
- Conduct multi-year yield data normalization analyses,
- Analyze yield monitor data versus as-applied split planter hybrid data,
- Analyze yield monitor data versus as-applied seeding rate data
- Quantify yield monitor data versus NRCS soil survey boundaries and soil electrical conductivity (EC) maps generated from Veris data,
- Develop prescription maps for various crop inputs under irrigated and dryland conditions,
- Develop and evaluate the performance of management plans for crop inputs
Registration Cost is $50.00 and include printed learning guides, jump drive and lunch. For more information go to our webpage: http://york.unl.edu/crops-future and click on the appropriate link.
Another program that should be very interesting and entertaining will the Feb. 4, Farmers & Ranchers College at 5:30 p.m. on the Fillmore Co. Fairgrounds. The topic is:“Ag: Trends, Topics & Tomorrow†– Damian Mason. He’s “Agriculture’s Professional Funny Manâ€. A meal will be provided, so call 402-759-3712 one week ahead to reserve your spot!
