Parsons, Kansas —
“Crazy” is the word champion hay producer Jamey Styles used to describe the 2012 growing season as he prepared to hit the field with his baler.
“We’re three to four weeks ahead,” he said last week, adding with a laugh that “some people could’ve had tomatoes by now if they’d only known it wasn’t going to freeze.”
Styles, of Johnson County, won the 2011 American Forage and Grassland Bermuda Hay Contest—essentially the national Bermuda hay championships—despite record drought and high temperatures that in some places hit 120 degrees. On Wednesday of last week, he was hoping to pull a sample that would enable him to repeat last year’s title.
“If we hadn’t gotten some rain in August, last year would’ve been the worst I’d seen,” he said. Even with irrigation on some fields, it was so hot, “it was like I was cooking the grass. I don’t ever want to see that again.”
2011 was a year that still haunts Rex Herring, who works in a county that was among the hardest hit by drought. He’s grateful for the early start this year.
“We’re 30 days ahead of the norm,” he said on the last day of April. Herring is the Sevier County Extension staff chair for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. By then, Herring had already helped put up dozens of bales of hay on his father’s Polk County farm. “I’m going to have 200-300 rolls in this first cutting.”
The early cutting is a blessing in an area where last year’s drought turned pastures to tinder and forced many producers on scorched farms in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas to sell cattle they could no longer feed. The lesson was not lost.
“We can’t forget the hard times and how much we spent last year to stay in business,” Herring said. “Many spent last year’s calf crop and part of this year’s money to stay in business.”
“I’ve got a couple of producers who are putting up hay or forages in a timely manner,” Herring said. “Everyone sees the value of doing this.”
The early rain and perfect conditions have provided a bounty of cool season ryegrass and clover in southern Arkansas as well.
“Producers in Little River County have put up more hay at this point than they did all of last year,” said Joe Paul Stuart, Little River County Extension staff chairman for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
“We are a good two, maybe three weeks ahead of a normal year,” he said. “Hopefully we will get a good second cutting.”
Stuart said the welcome mat is out for a little more rain. “We’re still not sure what our warm season grasses are going to look like; they are really thin in many places.”
For some, the cutting is coming more than four weeks early. Robert Seay, Benton County Extension staff chair said” “harvest timing is such that moisture is still sufficient for nitrogen efficiency. This will enable anyone who has made an early cutting to be able to bale their second cutting about the same a first cutting is taken during normal years—June 1.”
Don Hubbell, director of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Livestock and Forestry Research station in Batesville, is seeing and hearing the same from cattle producers he’s encountered.
“I think producers are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst,” he said. “We’ve had two very dry summers and it is very fresh on everyone’s mind how difficult it has been to find hay of any kind lately.
“We did not have a very cold or long winter, but a lot of hay got sold because of the dry conditions locally last fall and across the country,” Hubbell said. “Hay inventories are low.”
At the Batesville station, “we will start cutting fescue hay this week here at the station,” he said. “The bermudagrass was set back somewhat by the cool weather about 10 days ago.
“It is just now starting to grow again,” Hubbell said.”It is early to cut, but with the unusual spring, and warm temperatures, we are running about two to three weeks ahead on plant maturity on the fescue.”
To learn more about forage production, contact your county Extension office, or visit www.uaex.edu. See earlier stories about Arkansas’ top-notch forage at: http://uaex.edu/news/march2012/0323AFGCTour.html and http://bit.ly/wtWYch.
Crops
Early hay cutting offers some consolation in wake of 2011 drought
- Crops
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Plant now, add nitrogen later
When the rain faucet shuts off, plant first and apply nitrogen later, advises Peter Scharf, University of Missouri Extension agronomy specialist and professor in plant sciences at the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.
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MU Field Scouting Report: No freeze damage to wheat, delayed corn planting
Wheat is in the flag leaf to early boot stage. No freeze damage to the wheat head was seen. Temporary phosphorus deficiency, identified by purpling on leaf tips, was seen due to cold weather.
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Corn planting dates and cold temps cause concern
“The possibility of temperatures nearing 32 degrees or below, there is concern among producers for damage of the wheat head,” said Jill Scheidt, agronomy specialist with the University of Missouri Extension in Barton County. According to Bill Wiebold, state specialist with the University of Missouri Extension, wheat is the most sensitive to freezing temperatures when the heads are coming out and flowers are beginning to form.
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Wildcat Extension Report: Can gypsum fix what ails your soil?
A man much wiser than me once said that the easiest way to change your soil is to move. Unfortunately, this is not always an option for most producers. Soils in southeast Kansas are classified, in general, to be heavy clay soils.
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Kansas wheat growers should be aware of crop diseases
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Cover crops can provide many benefits
Having plant growth in fields year-round can improve the soil, according to Tim Reinbott, superintendent of the University of Missouri Bradford Research Center. He says using cover crops in the fall and spring can provide large benefits.
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Drought impacts U.S. soybean quality results
According to a recent soy-checkoff-funded study, the overall oil levels in last year’s U.S. soybean crop increased over the previous year, while average protein fell. United Soybean Board (USB) Customer Focus Action Team Chair Sharon Covert says U.S. soy’s biggest users pay attention to those results.
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Midwest soil could take up to two years to recover
The Midwest suffered the worst drought in years last summer, and Midwest soil has been suffering from a drought since early 2010. As a result, crops have wilted and farmers have fallen on hard times. Now, a University of Missouri researcher says that it may take at least two years for crops and soil to recover.
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Ag profitability conference addresses crop concerns
Corn and soybean producers face wide-ranging harvest price possibilities for the crops they plant this spring.
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Local growers get latest on new herbicides
Controlling herbicide resistant weeds was the hot topic during the Andrew County Ag. Update conference on Thursday, Jan. 17 in the Clasbey Center in Savannah, Mo.
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Plant now, add nitrogen later
