Meeting Season is upon us.

As you may have noticed I'm updating my blog a little less frequently lately. If you have received one of my flyers in the mail recently you may know why. We have a lot going on this winter season in Franklin County. We just held the grazing conference this Tuesday and it was a great success. On Monday we have the grain marketing workshop from 9 to 2:30 at the Ag heritage center. Still to come we have Franklin County Crops day, Pesticide updates, and a fumigation meeting. Feel free to call the Franklin County Extension Office if you want more details or want to register. I'm looking forward to seeing you at these meetings and hopefully they get us ready to jump back into spring when the soils finally warm up.

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow…

The postal service isn't the only one who keeps going through it all. The local cover crop plot is looking good. The varieties that will winter kill (oats and radish) have for the most part died, however some of the later planting is amazingly still going. I suppose this may have to do with insulation from the snow we have had. Additionally, the radish has be dead for about three weeks now but it seems to be breaking down a lot slower this winter. With a little bit of a break from the cold we will see what comes as far as decomposition. As a reminder there are still signs and information at the plots so feel free to stop by and take a look.

As a side note I have had two in depth conversations with folks not associated with farms while I have been taking pictures and sampling with the plots. This has been a great catalyst for conversations about how farmers are conservation minded and desire to be good stewards.

Grazing Conference is Fast Approaching

As some of you may have heard we are holding a grazing conference this winter in Franklin County. The conference will be on January 12^th, that's next Tuesday! The cost of this conference is 10 dollars (12 dollars after tomorrow) and that fee will include lunch. Topics for this event include basic soils and nutrient cycling, managing your bottom line, orchardgrass diseases, pasture measurement techniques and Perry County grazier Duane Hertzler will be presenting some information about how he views grazing. If you're interested in this event please contact me to sign up or get more information.

Thanks for the great year!

As the holiday's are here and 2009 draws to a close, we all have a moment to look back and think of what all has happened in the past 12 months and think ahead of what's to come. This has been a great year for me personally with my move to Franklin County and working with so many great people. I look forward to continuing this work for many more to come. With this year nearly over all we can do is look ahead. I'm looking forward to this year's winter meetings coming up in Franklin County alone I'm planning the first Grazing Conference (Jan. 12^th), A grain marketing workshop (Jan. 18^th), Crops Day (Jan. 26^th), Sheep and Goat meeting (Jan. 30^th), Fumigation Update meeting (Feb. 25^th), and the 2+2 pesticide update meetings for March 9^th. Of course I'll be assisting with other meetings throughout the region as well but just on a speaking basis. I'm really excited with our lineup this year. We have a lot of great speakers and information that will go out. I'm especially looking forward to having some time to catch up with some producers and industry folks to see how the year finished up for them. One of the major focuses this winter is going to be financial margin. As we continue in hard times for most of agriculture I'm hoping we can all work together to identify the areas where our cash flow is weak and strong to get ourselves more fit for 2010 and beyond. If you have any interest in these meetings please just post a comment on my blog with your e-mail or give the extension office a call (my extension is 227). I hope to see you this winter and thanks for a great year!

Still Going?

Even with the cold temperatures as of late the cover crop plot is still going… well, kind of. This past Sunday we had a descent ice storm that not only shut things down for most of the a.m. it also was a little hard on the radishes and oats. It seems the larger they are the harder they fall. However I was expecting to see more dead and decaying leaves then what I found. Another important note is almost all of the late plantings (September 22^nd)are very dense. These plantings do not have anywhere close to the biomass of the early planting; however they are certainly providing adequate cover for soil conservation. Overall things are still chugging along, however for some, the end is near. Also a quick reminder that signs are still up at the plots so feel free to have a look for yourself!

Will it ever end?

As snow blankets the area to some it may seem like a beautiful reminder of the season, for others it is one more hurdle dealt by this growing season. As corn and even some beans still stand around the county we may ask 'when will we close this harvest?' Undoubtedly this latest snow and rain event is one more blow to seeing any harvest in the near future. With the ground not yet frozen and now melting snow we can be certain we will not have soils fit for harvest for some time. Our soybeans are certainly the most critical if you still have some standing. In the field I was in this morning I didn't see many open pods, to my surprise, however decisions should be made soon on what the economics look like for harvesting, based on expected yield (leaving the field). Corn is not as critical and can wait. An interesting article from Wisconsin on late season harvest of corn will help you in your decisions of how long to wait to harvest corn. Wisconsin also has a helpful calculator for this same subject.

Regardless of what we want to do it seems like we may have to wait for frozen ground before any more field operations take place. Good luck to all who still are waiting to finish up your harvest.

Budget Savvy Corn

As markets continue to be volatile and margins are scrutinized we all are looking for a place to save some green, is your corn doing the same? Recently there has been a lot of attention focused on corn hybrids and their use of nitrogen. What if genetic advancements allow us to change our nitrogen recommendations on corn, how about if you use the same nitrogen but increase the yield? Research has already shown that yield response to nitrogen is not only based on amount but also tied to soil type and yield potential so it seems only natural that the specific genetics of the plant may also be a player. Recent research and demonstration has also shown that some of the most striking differences with hybrids is how fast they can recover after a time of stress. Another interesting article was also recently posted on AgWeb looking at some of the possibilities to advancing corn yields in the future by minimizing stress to individual plants. Individual plants must compete with each other for nutrients in order to have consistent growth across the field, so if these plants can get better at competing hopefully they will utilize more of the nutrients available to them in the field.

As we look down the road we may see more ways that corn becomes budget savvy. This shouldn't be a surprise to us since in some sense it has already happened. With new traits we can now plant corn resistant to pests allowing us to spend less on chemicals and applications (while more for the bag of seed) and also saving us some time. As we move forward in the market there is no doubt our corn will continue to get 'smarter' and hopefully widen our margins on the farm.