Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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There was a gradual progression on our farm to adopting a no till cropping system. Our father passed on to us the value of conservation farming practices. He worked closely with University of Nebraska researchers and allowed them to do research on our farm studying stubble mulching practices and soil erosion on our farm. We continued down this path of trying to leave more residues in the field in our winter wheat/ summer fallow rotation. Cheatgrass was always a problem, and at the time the best way to control this problem weed was to plow,...
“The signup period for the 2013 Direct and Counter-Cyclical Program (DCP) and Average Crop Revenue Election Program (ACRE) will begin Tuesday Feb. 19, 2013,” announced Cheyenne County Farm Service Agency Executive Director, Brad Fraass. These programs were extended for 2013 by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. The 2013 DCP/ACRE program provisions are unchanged from 2012, except that all eligible participants may choose to enroll in either DCP or ACRE for the 2013 crop year. Eligible farmers and landowners will receive direct pay...
Cheyenne County USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Executive Director Brad Fraass, urges producers who want to purchase coverage through the Noninsurable Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) to do so before the sales closing date of Friday, March 15, 2013. “Purchasing NAP protection is an easy way for producers to practice risk management,” said Fraass. “2012 has proven that natural disasters can directly affect the profitability and recovery of agricultural operations,” he said. In order to meet eligibility requirements for NAP, crops must be...
I’ve been asked to speak at the No till On the Plains winter conference in Salina, Kansas again this year as well as the High Plains No Till winter conference in Burlington, Colorado. I’ve been asked to look back at over 20 years of no till crop production and discuss the evolution of my no till farming experience during this time. My sister Janet also gave me a memory stick for my computer for Christmas this year. Janet scanned all my parent’s photos and slides over the past 60 years on this memory stick. I’ve been looking at these photos...
Are you thinking about reducing the amount of tillage you do, but are not sure how to go about it? Would you like to spend less money on diesel fuel for farming? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you should join us for the ‘No-till and Cover/Alternative Crops’ workshop. The workshop will be February 15, at the Community Center in Haxtun, CO. The Center is on the north end of Haxtun on Hwy 59. Registration will begin at 9 a.m. The workshop will run from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lunch (meat and Lent options) will be provided. The...
There a couple large regional no- till meetings coming up that I’d like to talk to you about. I think it is very important for a producer who is considering adopting or has adopted no-till farming practices to attend. These meetings bring in speakers from around the region, country, and world to talk about the latest updates and trends in no-till crop production. These meetings are an incredible place to network with other no-till producers. You will also gain a larger perspective on the possibilities of no-till crop production. These m...
The first business addressed by the South Platte Natural Resources District at its first meeting of 2013 was the administration of oaths of office to four board members re-elected in November. Directors taking their oaths were Bill Halligan, representing Subdistrict 1; Tim Maas, Subdistrict 3; Keith Rexroth, Subdistrict 5; and Larry Rutt, Subdistrict 7. The board also elected its leaders, choosing to retain Rexroth as board chair. Tom Biggs, representative for Subdistrict 6, remains vice-chair, and Paul Hutchison, Subdistrict 4, is secretary....
LINCOLN – The dry conditions that began in May and then escalated into a drought of historic proportions is the state’s top agriculture story of 2012, Nebraska Farm Bureau said in releasing its annual list of the Top 5 Nebraska Agriculture News Stories of the Year. “The drought has gripped Nebraska from border-to-border and every farmer and rancher in the state has been impacted in some form or fashion,” said Steve Nelson, Nebraska Farm Bureau president. “It was and is still clearly on the minds of our members as they look at the prospect...
The field pea meetings have all been scheduled and times and places have been finalized, so I wanted to pass this information on to growers around our region. These meetings will cover production of field peas and marketing of field peas. Field pea meetings this coming week are scheduled in Gering at the Farm and Ranch Museum on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 beginning at 1:00 p.m. On Thursday, January 17, 2013 there will be a field pea meeting in Albin, Wyoming. This meeting will be held at the Albin Community Center conference room beginning at...
Brad Fraass, County Executive Director of the Cheyenne County Farm Service Agency, recently reminded foreign investors who buy, sell, or hold a direct or indirect interest in agricultural lands in the United States that they are required under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act to report their holdings and transactions to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. The Secretary of Agriculture has delegated the responsibility for collecting this information to the Farm Service Agency. According to Fraass, foreign investors buying or...
MORRILTON, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service has scheduled a conference in Conway to discuss the federal Farm Bill. Congress recently extended the 2008 Farm Bill and the conference scheduled for Jan. 30 is to include a discussion on the laws and regulations associated with the extension and the impact it could have on purchasing crop insurance. The extension service says the information will be presented by National Agricultural Law Center Director Harrison Pittman and by attorney Grant Ballard. Ballard is a research c...
ST. LOUIS – This summer, 10 U.S. soybean farmers from across the country will get the chance to see how the United Soybean Board (USB) puts their soy checkoff investment to use. To find out who those 10 farmers will be, the national soy checkoff has begun accepting applications for its sixth annual See for Yourself program. See For Yourself offers farmers the chance to see the checkoff in action and evaluate a wide range of checkoff activities. The 2013 See for Yourself session will take place July 21–27, 2013. The soy checkoff invites all soy...
There are several educational meetings scheduled for January and February, 2013 that producers in our area should plan to attend. I’ve been going to no till crop production meetings for over 20 years and I have always felt that attending as many of these meetings as possible has always been time well spent. These educational meetings are a great way to meet and visit with other producers about their no till crop production practices. These meetings always include speakers that cover a variety of topics on soil health, economics, crop p...
As 2012 winds down I thought a little reflecting back would be a good thing to do. Sometimes it helps to look back on your successes that you were a part of over the past year and take a hard look at your failures to keep you humble and to continue the never ending learning process. Continuing education is important in every business and agriculture is no exception. I feel it is very important to be flexible in your decision making and embrace the changes that are inevitable. Mother Nature really threw agriculture a nasty curve this past year....
I hope everyone is able to spend the holidays with friends and family spreading good cheer throughout our region. We have the results of our cover crop biomass sampling back and the cover crops performed about like we thought they would. I think we could justify the cost of planting the cover crops with the benefits we’ll see from producing them, but I do have some concerns with producing cover crops. Our sampling from the cover crop field showed some interesting results. We sampled a square yard of the field that we felt was pretty c...
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced the appointment of 156 pork producers and four importers to the 2013 National Pork Producers Delegate Body. The appointees were selected from nominees submitted by state pork producer association and importer groups and will serve a one-year term. Appointed members representing Nebraska producers are: Shane Meyer, Diller; Russell. Vering, Howells; Karen. Grant, Meadow Grove; Scott Spilker, Beatrice and Troy McCain, Dewitt, Nebraska. Established under the Pork Promotion, Research, and Consumer...
In the past couple of articles I’ve talked about how we have added diversity into our cropping rotations to diversify markets and improve soil health. We have added field peas into our dry land cropping rotation which has allowed us to diversify our herbicide rotations, improve and diversify our soil microbial populations, and add a legume in our crop rotation for nitrogen fixation. Our crop rotation is now winter wheat, followed by corn, then field peas and back to winter wheat. I also talked about the possibility of adding forages as part of...
