Ramsey County

July 30, 2007

Howdy!!!! 

What a nice weekend we had in the neighborhood.  It has started to warm up with a chance of rain on Wednesday and until then quite hot.  Rain for some areas is needed while most of us in the Ramsey do not need any more rain for a while.  Some areas to the north have received too much rain, amounts ranging from 4 inches all the way to around 8 inches last week.  This kind of rain makes harvesting, and all aspects of crop production, very difficult.  We were in Bismarck over the weekend, for a cousin’s daughter’s wedding, and was very surprised of how much of the area between here and there that is very short of rain.  There is crops that I am not sure they can afford to harvest and corn that is only 2-3 feet tall and not even tasseled.  That reminds me of another thought of sweet corn.  The corn is not far off and any determent we can do to keep raccoons and deer out of the garden patch is best started early, before the corn ripens.  Do not open any ears of corn to check for maturity as this only creates not only an opening but also creates an extra scent.  The yards in Bismarck are all drying up except for those that have been watering their yard regularly.

I have had many questions lately about oak and ash trees losing their leaves.  The majority of the leaves are falling off from wind.  When I say wind, you might say oh yeah as we “never have any wind” RIGHT.  Well the fact of the matter is the problem we are having this year was very likely caused from last year’s anthracnose infection.  This is not the sole reason for some trees but the cause for most of the trees growing in our neighborhoods.  We had a very severe case of anthracnose last year that is affecting the growing point from that little branch, thus leaving a canker at that sight.  When the new leaf or leaves are formed the next growing season a week spot has been developed thus when the wind blows hard leaves and or small branches are blown to the ground. 

Cattle heat stress????

Along with this heat comes many fear factors and one of those fear factors is heat stress in cattle or any livestock.  I am going to visit about cattle in this article.  Cattle heat up just like humans and their heat relief comes during the nighttime hours.  When the temperature remains high, during the usually cool nights, cattle are not able to lower their body temperature.  Sprinkling cattle with water is one way to lower body temperatures but does needed to be done quite frequently and part of the  reason for seeing cattle stand in a slough or pond during the heat of the day.  For those cattle that are penned and being fed high concentrations of grains is even a great stress.  Shade is one form that really does help lower the body temperature.  In all cases providing some sort of fly control really helps as the cattle are not using additional energy sources to combat biting flies.

524 4th Ave NE #5, 2nd Floor Ramsey County Courthouse
Devils Lake  ND  58301
701-662-7027
email - ramsey@ndsuext.nodak.edu

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