Ramsey County

November 5, 2007

Howdy!!!
As I write this column today it feels a lot like winter.  The wind is blowing and there was white pebbles laying around this morning, on the way to work.  There was even a little blowing of the white stuff across the highway.  Keep in mind there was not much but still reminds us that winter and snow is not far away.  Hopefully all of you have everything drained that needs to be drained, outside.  I finished mine last night and as I looked across the yard this morning, the water was pretty hard.  It is amazing how a couple cold nights can turn our ground into a hard chunk of dirt.

We have many events coming up in the month of November to include: “Farmers Night Out” and “Ranchers Night Out.  Farmers night out will be Thursday, November 15 at the Memorial building and Ranchers Night Out will be Wednesday, November 28 at Lake Region Livestock.  Farmers Night Out has been developed to thank area producers for all they do for the communities of the Lake Region. This is free to all area producers thanks to local sponsors.  There is good food and entertainment.  The fun night starts at 6 pm.

The last one I Ranchers Night Out.  This is a very educational night promoting the cattle industry, through the Chili and Rocky Mountain oysters and will also have calves on display.  The feeder calves will be shipped to Carrington for something called the Eastern Dakota feedout trial.  This is a great opportunity for producers to learn more about their herds.  They realize carcass qualities and rate of gains along with growth of their own calves and how they might improve them for the feedlot down the road.  Increasing herd genetics will greatly increase buyer interest whether it is as a feeder calf or finished calf.

I was visiting with area producers yesterday about the farming picture this fall and heard some encouraging news and some not encouraging news.  The encouraging news was the yield of some of the corn.  We have yields in the area that had yields from 80 bushels to 150 bushels.  We had a tremendous growing year for warm season crops and depending on the area that received rains we had a good to bad year for cool season crops.  It is always interesting to note the two season crops.  How can we grow both?  When one needs a drink the other really does not need any and when we are trying to harvest the cool season crops the other crop needs a drink.  We have been fortunate but I do need to remind all producers to pay attention to maturity dates of corn when ordering next years seed.  Because we made corn this year with those later maturing varieties does not mean we will have a killing frost in October next year.  The bad news that I heard yesterday, is the shortage of Anhydrous Amonnia.  I was told some suppliers are out of anhydrous and can not get any more this year.  This being true might be a tell tale sign of next springs prices?????????

This past weekend found many firsts for me as well.  I saw the Vikings win, SURPRISE, SURPRISE and watched one of the best rookie running backs I had ever seen play the sport of football.  I will never forget how dumb the Vikings were for selecting Peterson and how dumb I really was.  What a running back!!!!!

    Calendar!!!
            November 15               Farmers’s Night Out, Memorial building
            November 28               Rancher’s Night Out, Lake Region Livestock
            November 28               Eastern Dakota Feedout arrival
            November 27               Tax Preparer workshop
            December  6                District Crop Improvement meeting, Lakota
            January    8-9               Lake Region Extension Roundup

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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