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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The draft Wildcat Hills Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) Update for Banner, Cheyenne, Kimball, Morrill, and Scotts Bluff Counties is ready for public review. Draft copies of the document have been mailed to county offices and are available to the public online at https://nfs.unl.edu/documents/CWPP/WHCWPP.pdf. Comments will be accepted until July 9, 2021. County boards, emergency managers, fire department personnel, and other stakeholders worked with the Nebraska Forest Service to update the 2015 CWPP. This plan is a wildfire-specific...
5 marks the fifteenth year I will plant a garden, which certainly does not qualify me as an expert, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve I thought I could share with you over the next few articles. My gardening adventures began when my cowboy and I were living in northern Wyoming. The first year I began gardening I spent hours and hours researching and studying before I ever moved a bit of dirt. The first step in any garden is finding the right spot and determining the layout that works best...
SIDNEY – Cheyenne County USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Executive Director Brad Fraass is reminding area producers that accurate and timely reporting of acres for all crops and land uses is an FSA program eligibility requirement. The deadline for acreage certification is July 15, 2021. This includes common spring-planted crops, such as oats, corn, peas, grain sorghum, millet, sunflowers, and etc but also includes Conservation Reserve Program acres and perennial grass. “In order to comply with program eligibility requirements, all producers mus...
More than 600 elementary students from around the area got a hands-on education recently about Nebraska agriculture. Over the course of four days in Bridgeport, Hemingford and Sidney, Agsplosion, an Agricultural Literacy Festival for second- and third-grade youth sponsored by Nebraska Extension, reached 602 students from Garden County, Creek Valley, Mitchell, Bridgeport, Hay Springs, Banner County, Bayard, Alliance, Rushville, South Platte, Sidney, Leyton, Crawford, Hemingford, and Gordon. The...
Bob Harveson embarked on his career as a plant pathologist in the mid-1980s, which in 1999 took him to Scottsbluff as a specialist on the faculty at the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research, Extension and Education Center. But before switching to science, Harveson earned a bachelor’s degree in history, and now the two interests are coming together in the form of a book he has authored, “A Century of Plant Pathology in Nebraska.” The 114-page book was published in December 2020 by Zea Books...
Nebraska has long been known as the Beef State and May is Beef Month, so it’s the perfect time to enjoy a delicious burger or steak. Agriculture is our state’s largest industry, and beef is the biggest segment of Nebraska agriculture. Our beef industry generates about $10.6 billion in cash receipts each year, which is roughly half of all ag receipts in Nebraska. Nationally, Nebraska ranks No. 1 for commercial cattle slaughter, and we’re number two for beef exports, commercial red meat produ...
On Tuesday, May 11, 2021 the South Platte Natural Resources District (SPNRD) Board of Directors (Board) held its monthly meeting at 5:00 p.m. in the South Platte NRD Conference Room (551 Parkland Drive, Sidney NE). Ryan Reisdorff, Water Resources Specialist with the SPNRD, reviewed information about Industrial and Municipal Water Use Accounting and Water Usage in Excess of Baselines. There are some industries in the District as well as a municipality that will potentially go over their baseline of water use. It is in the Statute that NRDs must...
Many parts of the economy in our great state of Nebraska are thriving. However, the new slate of tax increase proposals coming from the Biden Administration will undermine the success of Nebraska, and states like it, by removing capital from family farms and small businesses at a time when we need to be encouraging economic growth. Among the most troubling tax proposals for family-owned businesses across the Third District, and the nation, is the repeal of stepped-up basis and taxation of...
Sacramento, CA — Access to start-up capital is a big challenge for farmers. A small grant program through the Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC) is helping. More than 100 farmer veterans received word Friday that they are being awarded equipment thanks to the Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund. The grant supports veterans in their early years of farming and ranching. “We directly purchase a piece of equipment the farmer has identified as being critical,” explains Jeanette Lombardo, FVC Executive Director. “Our veterans put their lives on the line to pr...
Early Detection and Rapid Response (EDRR) is a concept to identify potential invasive species prior to or just as the establishment of the invasive is taking place. An Integrated Pest Management plan (IPM) can be developed to manage, contain and eradicate the invasive species before it can spread further. This will avoid costly, long-term control efforts. Dalmatian toadflax is a perennial herb identified in parts of Nebraska, mostly in the Panhandle counties bordering Colorado, South Dakota and Wyoming. Dalmatian toadflax is either a state or...
LINCOLN — Property tax continues to be a heated topic in the Nebraska Legislature. Senators took nearly the entire day on April 21 to debate and vote on LB2, a bill that would reduce the amount of taxes agriculture landowners pay to school district bonds. Currently, ag landowners pay property tax for 75 percent of their land to area school districts. Nebraska school districts levy local property tax to pay off bonds they’ve acquired for various district needs. If the bill passes, the property tax rate ag landowners pay would decline to 50 per...
Nebraska Extension and Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Public Health, have announced plans for the annual “tractor safety” training courses scheduled at 5 sites across Nebraska in early June. Students will complete the first day of the course online through the eXtension Foundation Campus website. After successfully completing the online course and testing, the required driving test will be offered at five locations across Nebraska June 7-11, 2021, including Gerin...
LINCOLN – There is good news for foragers. The morel mushroom picking season is just beginning. Some morels now are being found along eastern Nebraska’s river bottoms. In a few weeks, they will emerge in hilly wooded areas above rivers. “Look for morels near dead and decaying trees like cottonwoods,” said longtime morel hunter Greg Wagner, public information officer with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. “Walk slowly and scan the ground carefully. Where you find one, you should find more.” Wagner said it is important for morel mushr...
There are three primary questions I ask myself before I write a column: 1) If I were ever to run for a government office, will these words be held against me? (Answer: probably) 2) Is so-and-so going to feel like I threw them under the bus after writing this article? (Answer: possibly) AND 3) Is my cowboy actually going to read this or can I hope this one slips by without him knowing? (Answer: he always finds them.) I should ask more honorable questions like: 4) Is this going to glorify the...
On Tuesday, April 13, 2021 the South Platte Natural Resources District (SPNRD) Board of Directors (Board) held its monthly meeting at 5:00 p.m. in the South Platte NRD Conference Room (551 Parkland Drive, Sidney NE). On March 18, the Board held a public hearing where producers were able to give their verbal testimonies. Written testimonies were also presented to the Board. The Board reviewed these testimonies and officially approved the amendments made to the Districtwide Ground Water Management Area Rules and Regulations at the April Board...
The South Platte Natural Resources District (SPNRD) has officially launched their redesigned website. The website can be found at the same link as before (spnrd.org). On the website are the latest education updates that are listed below as well as many other resources. SPNRD has two separate scholarships to be awarded. The first Scholarship offered is due to SPNRD office (mailed or dropped off) before May 1st. One $500 scholarship will be awarded to a high school senior, who is a District resident and who is graduating in the academic year of...
LINCOLN — Groundwater levels rose significantly across most of Nebraska from January 2019 to January 2020, and the state received so much precipitation over that period that a new color was added to the 2019-20 precipitation map included in the recently released 2020 Nebraska Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report. “We ran out of blues, so we had to go to purple,” said Aaron Young, a geologist with the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s School of Natural Resources and lead author of the report. O...
The Nebraska Wheat Board (NWB) is now accepting applications for the 2021-2022 school year Ambassador Program. The goal of the NWB Ambassador Program is to develop college-aged students into better advocates and leaders in agriculture and to help them grow both personally and professionally. The program consists of ambassadors participating in promotional events, school visits, job shadowing and much more. Upon completion of the program, ambassadors will be awarded a $1,000 scholarship. Applications are open to any full-time student enrolled...
Let’s just cut to the chase. I ran the pick-up off of a bridge. I may or may not have continued to go straight when I needed to turn. This is very far from my normal, but the Lord worked so hard on my humility the other day that I didn’t just eat a small piece of humble pie – I ate the whole pie. It started out as a simple request, “Babe, I think you could help me move some cows from one pasture to the processing pens, by using the feed pick-up to lure them with a bale of hay.” Little did he kn...
Here is the weekly crop of Master Gardener tips from Nebraska Extension in the Panhandle, relevant to local lawn and garden issues in the High Plains and consistent with research-based recommendations. Tread carefully to avoid soil compaction: As you venture out into your landscape and planting beds, be mindful of how wet the soil is. Kids, pets and people walking on soil that has excessive moisture can cause compaction. A compacted soil can continue to cause plant stress throughout the growing season. Walking on wet soil breaks down the soil...
Each spring, as the planting season approaches, brings fresh questions about irrigation water: How much water will the mountain snowpack provide to the North Platte Valley? What’s the state of the irrigation infrastructure in the valley? What have we learned about the system in the past year? How does the complex system of dams, diversions, checks and canals work? Will groundwater irrigation regulations stay the same as last year? Answers to these and other questions – as well as some fresh new questions – will be provided by presenters at th...
A new Nebraska Extension program will work to connect new and beginning farmers and ranchers with retiring landowners who are interested in transitioning their land to a new owner. Nebraska Land Link is now accepting applications from interested land seekers and landowners, with the goal of providing land access using lease agreements, lease-to-own arrangements, buy-sell arrangements or other creative methods that are mutually beneficial for both parties. Access to land continues to be one of the most difficult challenges facing new farmers,...
In the early months of the pandemic, non-perishable foods like dry beans were flying off grocery store shelves. If you still have some packaged dry beans in your pantry, winter is the perfect time to prepare them. While canned beans are cooked and ready to be heated, served, or used in recipes, packaged dry beans need to be cooked to a palatable texture. For best results, it helps to understand the variables involved with cooking dry beans. Cooking time depends on the type of beans and the seed...
LINCOLN – Nebraska farmers continue to be good stewards of the land, producing more bushels with less resources. Because of this increased efficiency, on-farm grain storage is on the rise. With additional grain bins on farms and on commercial sites, there is a greater risk of fatal accidents. The checkoff organizations of Nebraska’s corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum industries (and their respective associations), remind farmers and agricultural workers to be safe in and around grain bins dur...
I have recently discovered why a majority of ranch women work offsite. I used to think it was about finances, retirement, career goals, etc. I don’t think any of these are the MAIN reason. Simply, it is safer. Safer to not know the craziness that happens when we are not around on the ranch. As my cowboy and I were discussing preparation for the coming March blizzard we brought up the idea of putting the dozer attachment on the tractor. It was put on the to-do list and that seemed to be the e...
