Ramsey County Ag Column

By Bill Hodous

February 9, 2009

Howdy!!!

We returned home from a wedding at Sioux Falls last night and once you get to the South Dakota border snow amounts really dwindle.  Most all of the cattle are out grazing corn fields and driving down the road, get the feeling of being really dry.  On our drive home we noticed many, many loads of cattle being hauled, assuming to market, and not sure where but thinking Sisseton.  I couldn’t begin to remember how many stock trailers we saw, but a bunch.  I also noticed the hay supply seemed to be very minimal, which could explain part of grazing corn stalks.

When we talk about hay shortage, we also have the same problems going on around here.  We have several producers that have called looking for hay.  With that being said I can imagine a shortage of hay next  summer as well, particularily with all of the CRP coming out of production.  We have relied very heavily on CRP for our hay sources since the inception of CRP and now with a lot of it coming out of contract is going to force cattle producers to look for other sources of hay.  For those of you who grow cattle or those of you that have very marginally productive land this is your opportunity to manage those poor producing lands or even productive land in the production of a forage.  There are many people in the valley that grow Alfalfa very profitably and generally try to manage a rotation with a small portion of Alfalfa in the rotation.  This serves two purposes: one is sell high quality hay for profit and the other is legumes add many benefits to the soil structure, for years to come.  Cattle producers, remember to start preparing for your next year or years hay supply this spring as things are changing.

Seed Increase Growers!!!

If you are a seed increase grower or have never grown increase seed for county distribution here is your chance.  Ramsey County Crop Improvement association will have two HRSW to distribute, one barley and one oat.  At this point it is unclear how much of any allotment we will get.  NDSU release a HRSW named Barlow.  This should be a good fit for those of you who did not like the harvesting of Glenn.  It should yield about 2 bushels better than Glenn and have similar quality factors as Glenn.  If there is one down fall, could be the lodging factor under high management situations.  SDSU released a HRSW named Brick.  This is a very high yielding wheat with low quality factors.  It did appear however that the yield potential of this wheat is very high.  Anhauser Bush released a six row barley named Celebration.  This barley looks to yield better than tradition and with many other similar characteristics.  The last is a NDSU oat variety named Rockford.  Crown Rust Resistance, high yield and high test weight makes this variety very adaptable to our area.  If you are interested in any one of these increase allotments please contact our office by February 19.  Growers will be selected at the annual Crop Improvement annual meeting on Friday, February 20.

Ramsey County Crop Improvement annual meeting!!

The annual meeting of the Ramsey County Crop Improvement association will be held on Friday, February 20.  We have a full set of presenters during the morning session to include Mike Hergert (Red River Farm Network) and Leon Osborne (president and CEO, Meridian Environmental Technology, Inc.).  Mike will address issues with the farm bill and current market information.  Leon will address weather paterens facing our region for the next 6-8 months.  Of course with likely hood of a major storm moving through our area today and tomorrow would add to the conversation from Leon.  Major flooding and prevent plant issues will be affected by our weather for the next 6 months.  The meeting will be held at the Knights of Columbus hall and will start at 9:15 with coffee and rolls.  Mike will lead off at 10 am and Leon to follow at 11am.  Dinner will be provided by the Crop Improvement association and the annual meeting will begin at 1pm.  Hope to see you all there.

February 20                        Ramsey County Crop Improvement annual meeting

                                March 5                                Commercial applicators training  (Devils Lake)

                                March 9                                Private Pesticide training  (Edmore)

                                March 18                              Edmore Soybean days

                                March 23                              Private Pesticide training (Starkweather)

                                March 26                              Private Pesticide training (Devils Lake)  

524 4th Ave #5, 2nd Floor Ramsey County Courthouse
Devils Lake  ND  58301
701-662-7027
email - NDSU.Ramsey.Extension@ndsu.edu