Jason Hartschuh, OSU Extension Crawford County, AgNR Educator (previously published in Progressive Forage on-line) I was recently talking to one of my local farmers who uses precision agriculture to manage his corn and soybean crops. His combine, sprayer and planter are all connected to the cloud, and he uses the data from the last 10 years to manage next year’s crop. We were discussing ways to use the data he collects to better…
David Karki SDSU Extension Agronomy Field Specialist Additional Authors: Anthony Bly Written collaboratively by David Karki, Anthony Bly, Sandeep Kumar and Shannon Osborne. Interest in no-till and cover crops has been on the rise among South Dakota (S.D.) crop producers. In 2019, half of S.D. crop ground was under no-till management and about 900,000 acres were planted to cover crops (U S.D.S-NRCS). Growers have indicated that improvement in soil health is one of…
Jason Hartschuh, OSU Extension Crawford County, AgNR Educator and Stan Smith, OSU Extension PA, Fairfield County (originally published in the Ohio Farmer on-line) With somewhere around 1.5 million acres that were not planted last spring to the intended crops of corn or soybeans due to the extraordinary weather, today, Ohio farmers likely have more acres of cereal rye planted for cover than at any time in previous history. At the same time, cattlemen…
Ben Beckman, Nebraska Extension Educator Knowing the moisture content of our feedstuffs and how to adjust our feeding plans accordingly is important. Photo credit Troy Walz. The past few months, we’ve been focusing quite a bit on the issues that can arise when hay gets a bit too wet: combustion, mold, and Maillard reactions. One often overlooked issue that can arise from wet hay is just the moisture itself. Whenever we provide part…
Agronomic and economic issues to be addressed at 17th annual conference COLBY, Kan. –Producers, consultants, and experts will gather for the 17th annual Cover Your Acres Winter Conference on January 14-15, at the Gateway Civic Center in Oberlin, Kansas. The conference is a joint venture between K-State Research and Extension and conference sponsors. “Economics is big on everyone's mind right now,” says Lucas Haag, an agronomist with K-State Research and Extension’s Northwest Area…
Kansas State University is part of a coalition of universities and other agencies that received funding to study cover crops in sustainable agriculture systems. | Download this photo. Ground-breaking research aims to enhance cover crop-based conservation tillage systems MANHATTAN, Kan. — Agriculture’s grand challenge of feeding the world’s growing population while protecting the environment just got a big boost. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) awarded eight institutions nearly $80 million…
Christine Gelley, Ohio State University Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Educator, Noble County The benefits of utilizing cover crops in both grazing and agronomic crop production are numerous. However, each cover crop system is unique. There is no blanket “yes” or “no” answer to the question- Do cover crops need fertilizer? Incorporating Cover Crops Each farm is different and therefore the way you use cover crops can differ too. Whether you are a…
Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County, OSU Extension Food plot with purple top turnips that are suitable for wildlife, or livestock! Photo by Clif Little, Ohio State University Extension. Some people take great pride in providing superior forage for grazing animals in the late fall utilizing combinations of annual, biennial, and perennial forages. In areas like ours, it seems like the most popular animal this smorgasbord of delightful feed is…
– Mark Sulc, Extension Forage Agronomist, Dianne Shoemaker, Extension Field Specialist, Dairy, Bill Weiss, Extension Dairy Nutritionist, Stan Smith, OSU Extension PA, Ben Brown, Agriculture Risk Management Oats planted in late summer and originally intended as a cover crop are also high quality and valuable feed. Considering the current shortage of quality forages, and the abundance of cover crops that were planted in Ohio this summer, the question has been asked, “How do…
David Karki SDSU Extension Agronomy Field Specialist Due to extremely wet spring and consistent moisture through the summer, grain harvests have slowed down a bit across South Dakota. According to USDA- National Agricultural Statistics Service (as of Aug 18th, 2019) only 76% of winter wheat harvest has been completed in the state well behind 95% of five-year average. Similarly, only 27% of spring wheat and 60% of oat are harvested, well behind 75%…