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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Over the past 40-plus years, many producers have moved from a wheat/fallow production system to an ecofallow system that includes a summer crop, to a continuous no till crop production system. Each system adds intensity with wheat/fallow having a wheat crop every other year, to ecofallow with crops grown two out of three years, to a continuous no till system where a crop is grown every year. As the intensity of these production systems increases the diversity of the crops produced also increases. With a continuous no till crop production...
“Agriculture: Our Purpose. Our Passion” is the theme of the Women in Agriculture Conference April 10 at Sidney. The conference (8:45 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Country Inn & Suites, 664 Chase Blvd.) is for women involved in farm and ranch business decisions, who want to learn more about farm and ranch management, who are landowners, or who want to broaden their knowledge of agribusiness. A registration fee covers conference materials, breaks and lunch. Forms and more information are available at the Nebraska Extension office at 920 Jackson St., Sid...
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has provided farm owners and producers one additional week – until April 7 – to choose between Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage, the safety-net programs established by the 2014 Farm Bill. The final day to update yield history or reallocate base acres also will be April 7. “This is an important decision for producers because these programs help farmers and ranchers protect their operations from unexpected changes in the marketplace,” Vilsack said. “Nearly 98 percent of owners have already u...
The Chappell Future Farmers of America chapter was chartered 85 years years ago, and many changes have taken place since Leslie Applegate – the first national FFA president – signed the local charter on March 31, 1930. All former Chappell and Creek Valley FFA members are invited to the Creek Valley FFA banquet on April 16 at 6 p.m. at Creek Valley High to celebrate the chapter’s accomplishments. Maile Ilac Boeder, who has Greenhand and chapter FFA degrees; will be the guest speaker. If interested, RSVP by April 7 to sarah.wh...
Back in October when we were starting to combine our dry land corn crop, I visited with a neighbor about the value of wheat residues and residue height in dry land corn production. My neighbor thought he should purchase a stripper head for combining his winter wheat crop to leave more standing residue. The year before he had combined his dry land wheat with a conventional head and had baled the straw for his cattle. He then planted his dry land corn into the wheat residue left in the field. Right beside his dry land corn field was a field of...
Several organizations on local and state levels are pooling efforts and money, along with additional funding from the Nebraska Environmental Trust, in a project designed to improve understanding of groundwater hydrogeology in the Nebraska Panhandle by collecting and digitizing decades' worth of data from thousands of oil and gas well logs. The well log information will be combined with other, existing data to give scientists and resources agencies a more detailed understanding of the High...
The South Platte Natural Resources District board of directors approved a number of changes to its rules and regulations at its March board meeting, including changes to fee schedules. The proposed amendments to the Districtwide Groundwater Management Area Rules and Regulations were reviewed following an information session outlining the changes, followed by a public hearing. Primarily, the changes were related to chemigation, those made to follow LB272 established by the Nebraska Legislature last year. The District’s Chemigation Program r...
Gary Hergert, Rex Nielsen and Jim Margheim With the fertilizer application season approaching, it is once again time for producers to make decisions as to what their fertility programs will be. Soon many fertilizer-application rigs will be in the fields, spreading great quantities of fertilizer. Because the use of fertilizer has become such an integral part of modern farming, we rarely give any thought as to where it comes from, how long it has been used and what impact it has had on our food pr...
Field pea planting is just around the corner so I thought I would share with you my ideas on raising field peas. We’ve been growing field peas on our farm for several years now and I know there are a lot of first time growers or fairly new growers in the area. I might be able to shorten the learning curve for the newer growers by sharing what we have learned over the years we’ve grown field peas. The first step to growing a successful field pea crop is to buy certified seed. The purchase of seed is the most expensive part of raising field peas,...
Spring is just around the corner and it’s time to consider planting the garden. Most of us already know what we want to plant. But there are a number of items you should consider before selecting cultivars for direct seeding, growing your own transplants, or purchasing transplants from your local garden center. The first consideration is the variety choice: either a proven variety for the area or an “All-American” cultivar that has been grown and tested across the United States. They are generally widely adapted and will provide a quali...
Farm Credit Services of America has announced that eligible customer-owners in 13 counties in the Panhandle of Nebraska and Southeast Wyoming will receive checks this month totaling $3,019,000 – their share of the financial cooperative’s record $160 million cash-back dividend for 2014. FCSAmerica has distributed a portion of its net earnings to eligible customer-owners for each of the past 11 years, returning a total of nearly $1 billion in cash-back dividends to farmers, ranchers and their local communities. The share returned to cus...
The path to soil health has many stops along the way to obtaining a live, vibrant and functioning soil. Each of us will find a resting point along this pathway and may settle into a comfortable spot along the way. I think it is very encouraging that those of us in production agriculture are even thinking and talking about our journey down the path to soil health. Our farm’s journey began many years ago and we didn’t even know it at the time. We switched our operation from a conventionally tilled crop production system to a no-till crop pro...
The District is beginning the process of review and evaluation of its ground water management in preparation to set ground water allocations for irrigators over the next allocation period (2016-2018). The 2015 growing season marks the end of the second allocation period the District has imposed after beginning to use allocations as part of its ground water management practices. The board of directors felt this was a necessary step after seeing ground water levels drop drastically, in some instances more than 30 feet, from historic levels. The...
After listening to various speakers over the past month at the no-till conferences I attended, it became pretty obvious that we are working with degraded soils on our farms and ranches. The soils we work with now are not the same quality of soil that was present when farmers and ranchers originally began production agriculture on this land. The soil is lacking carbon, or organic matter as it is often referred to, when compared to the virgin soil our ancestors tilled for the first time when the sod was originally broken. I would estimate the...
SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. – Cody F. Creech will join the faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Panhandle Research and Extension Center this spring as a dryland cropping systems specialist. Creech's appointment was announced by Jack Whittier, research and extension director at the Panhandle R&E Center. He is one of several recent additions to the faculty. Creech will replace Drew Lyon, who left for a position in Washington State. Creech is scheduled to begin May 1. He will be responsible for c...
Based on 2014 county corn yields released last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and current price projections, it is clear that Nebraska Panhandle base acres enrolled in ARC-CO for corn are likely to receive a commodity program payment for the 2014 crop. Payments for ARC-CO are triggered when the average county revenue for a covered commodity is less than the county revenue guarantee for that commodity The county revenue guarantee is 86 percent of the county benchmark revenue. The county benchmark revenue for a crop is the five-year O...
Nebraska Extension will conduct a chemigation certification training session in Sidney on March 11 at 1 p.m. at the Country Inn & Suites. Producers who plan to apply crop nutrients and pesticides through irrigation systems during 2015, including those whose 2014 permits expired Dec. 31, are required to attend a training session and pass the test administered afterward. Attendees are asked to pre-register at the extension office at 920 Jackson St. They will receive a training manual and calibration workbook to review before the training...
The common thread that ran throughout the no-till winter conferences I attended in the past month is carbon. Adding carbon to the soil is critical to restoring health to the soil by increasing the organic matter content of the soil. Producers in today’s modern agricultural systems are working with soils that contain far less carbon than our soils originally contained prior to the implementation of modern agriculture. All of our soils are now degraded. The good news is we now know how we can regenerate our soils and put the carbon back in the s...
The new office and laboratory building at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln High Plains Agricultural Laboratory near Sidney will be named the Charles R. Fenster Building in recognition of the pioneering UNL researcher. Approval of the building name was announced by Dr. Jack Whittier, UNL research and extension director for the Panhandle District, at the recent annual meeting of the High Plains Ag Lab Advisory committee. Plans will be made for a formal dedication and sign to coincide with the su...
Calving season for many producers is near, which means it is time to develop a Herd Health Plan to start those newborn calves out on the right track and promote good health. An appropriate herd health plan/protocol ensures that all cattle are raised in the best health. A strong HHP begins with a yearly production calendar that includes cattle nutrition, reproduction management, vaccination schedules, and marketing – all of which are critical to sustainable beef cattle production. Management practices can be better matched with cattle needs b...
Private pesticide applicators with licenses expiring in 2015, and anyone seeking first-time private applicator certification, can attend upcoming training sessions scheduled throughout western Nebraska. The dates, locations and contact information are: Alliance, Feb. 26: Extension Office; call (308) 762-5616 Oshkosh, March 3: 1 p.m., Wesleyan Church; call (308) 632-1230. Bridgeport, March 5: 1 p.m., Prairie Winds Community Center; call (308) 632-1230. Alliance, March 11: 1 p.m., Extension Office; call (308) 762-5616. Harrison, March 11: 1...
Over the past couple of weeks, I attended No till On the Plains winter conference and the Colorado Conservation Tillage Association’s High Plains No-till Conference. I enjoyed both conferences and felt each had a lot to offer. After getting home and taking some time to think about what I learned, it dawned on me that nobody told me anything about how to farm. Not one speaker told me how deep to plant my corn, what herbicides to use or what crops to plant. I still left both conferences with knowledge about how to improve our farming o...
One of the pleasures of traveling to the various winter conference meetings and summer field days I attend is getting introduced to some real innovative producers and researchers who strive to really make a difference in modern production agriculture. Last week, I visited about our tour to Dakota Lakes Research Farm near Pierre, S.D., and the Burleigh County Soil Conservation District, in Bismarck, N.D. Dwayne Beck, farm manager for Dakota Lakes, and Jay Furher, head of the Burleigh County Soil Conservation District, are two of the innovative...
The 2015 federal grazing fee, which is determined annually through a Congressionally-mandated formula, will increase by $0.34 on March 1. The fee applies to more than 8,000 permits administered by the U.S. Forest Service and nearly 18,000 grazing permits and leases administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The 2015 fee will be $1.69 per head month (HM) or animal unit month (AUM) for lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, respectively. An HM or AUM, which are treated as equivalent measures for fee purposes,...
The Nebraska Association of Resources Districts – the trade association for the 23 districts in Nebraska – held its annual Legislative Conference the last week of January. The conference is one of things we do as Nebraska’s resources districts to watch out for your interests as landowners and residents and to protect your interests. Eighteen new senators are part of the first session in the 104th Legislature, which is a 90-day session. There are 10 new committee chairs within the body, which has seen 603 bills introduced. One of the most impor...
