As with everything this year corn and soybean harvest is ahead of schedule. For many that means corn stalk grazing. Cattle producers can find that to be a great benefit to them as pastures are out of grass. Removing cattle so pastures have additional time to recover from drought damage incurred this summer is a potential benefit of grazing corn stalks this fall. There are many aspects to consider in 2012 that we do not usually face with this program.
The dry conditions continue to test the management skills of South Dakota producers. This year’s corn harvest will be short in most cases and as a result combines may not run at full capacities reducing their effectiveness. Dry conditions cause a reduction in the volume of plant material in the field.
The timeline for taking stressed soybean for hay or silage is rapidly closing as many fields have or will soon be maturing and dropping leaves. Stressed fields usually are short and have few pods. The decision to take the plant as forage needs to be made in consultation with your crop insurance agent.
Grasshoppers have been a tough pest of wheat over the last several years. This year, however, many producers didn’t see the damage that would’ve been expected by the high populations of grasshoppers.
The recommended time to plant winter wheat in South Dakota, September 15 to October 20, is rapidly approaching. Unless they receive significant rainfall, most of the fields producers intend to plant into will be quite dry. Jim Shroyer, agronomist with K-State Research and Extension, reports similar conditions in Kansas.
Reports and conversations indicate a number of farmers intend to plant winter wheat into failed corn fields this fall. Producers following corn with winter wheat this year will be dealing with one of three scenarios, each with their pros and cons, but also variations within each situation.
With the hot, dry weather this summer, corn ear molds are a concern around the state. One wouldn’t expect hot, dry weather would be conducive for mold growth, but high humidity and dew during the night, accompanied by hot, dry conditions during the day can be ideal for ear molds in corn.
The question that is often asked about drought stress corn: “If I sell the standing corn as silage or hay, what is the value of the nutrients that are removed from the field?”
With the dry weather and shortage of hay in some areas of the state, baling straw after wheat harvest has been a common practice. Straw prices of $80-100/ton have driven this removal. The payback to remove residue is obvious with the selling price.
Even though soybean aphid populations are low so far this year, many producers may be wondering what higher crop values mean for the insect treatment thresholds they’ve used in the past. It’s logical to assume that climbing commodity prices automatically mean that lower treatment thresholds are warranted, but that’s not necessarily the case. For soybean aphid thresholds in particular, 250 aphids/plant is still a valid guideline for decision-making.
During the April 24th webinar, South Dakota Natural Resources Conservation Service Rangeland Management Specialist, Stan Boltz, will introduce the South Dakota Drought Tool and discuss how it can be used to monitor growing conditions and guide the implementation of appropriate management responses if and when drought develops.
The Drought Mitigation Center is collaborating with several other agencies and organizations to offer monthly training webinars focused on drought responses for Great Plains ranchers. During the March 27th webinar, Pat Reece, former University of Nebraska-Lincoln Range Management Specialist, will discuss the Cumulative Forage Reduction Index.
The Chief Executive Officer of your operation should be able to answer these questions: Where do you want your business to go? How will you get there? How will you know when you've arrived? The drought has changed some of the “How will you get there?” responses, and a strategic plan needs to be in place for your operation to survive a second year of drought conditions in a sustainable fashion.
The Drought Mitigation Center is collaborating with several other organizations to offer monthly training webinars focused on drought response. The February 27th webinar will deal with critical dates in more detail. Dwayne Rice, Rangeland Management Specialist for NRCS in Lincoln, KS has worked with Ted Alexander, a Barber County rancher, to develop procedures to identify and describe critical dates and suggest how appropriate action steps are planned.
Potential disaster aid from USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) will hinge on the records you keep now. FSA recently announced that good records will be essential if any disaster aid packages are released for livestock producers that faced loses of livestock or had to purchase feed due to natural disaster, including drought and heat.
As the drought continues across SD and the majority of the Corn Belt producers need to start looking at their operations more analytically than they have in the past. Analyze your inventories. Inventories of feed and livestock are very important. If producers know how much feed they have on hand and also the nutrient analysis of that feed, they can begin to determine how to best meet the requirements of the livestock they’re considering feeding this winter.
In order to maximize the productivity of a female within a beef cattle operation she must produce a marketable calf on every 365 days. In order to police this production requirement, pregnancy diagnosis is practiced in a majority of operations.
The U.S. Drought Monitor is a map with five dryness and drought categories, ranging from D0 (Abnormally Dry) to D4 (Exceptional Drought, one in 50-100 year event). A recent change was made in the impact designations, and now short-term (S) and long-term (L) impacts are accounted for, regardless of the affected sector.
During the April 24th webinar, South Dakota Natural Resources Conservation Service Rangeland Management Specialist, Stan Boltz, will introduce the South Dakota Drought Tool and discuss how it can be used to monitor growing conditions and guide the implementation of appropriate management responses if and when drought develops.
The topic of critical dates has received some discussion this spring, particularly in response to the “Managing Drought Risk on the Ranch” webinar series originating from the National Drought Mitigation Center. Webinars are presented the last Wednesday of each month this spring.
In challenging times such as drought, managers can’t let their emotions from the stress of the drought interfere with their daily management decisions. They must continue to manage wisely, said Burke Teichert, Orem, UT. Teichert is no stranger to the beef industry. He was employed for many years in a management role with AgReserves (which consisted of Dessert Ranches, Rex Ranch, and several other large ranching enterprises).
The Drought Mitigation Center is collaborating with several other agencies and organizations to offer monthly training webinars focused on drought responses for Great Plains ranchers. During the March 27th webinar, Pat Reece, former University of Nebraska-Lincoln Range Management Specialist, will discuss the Cumulative Forage Reduction Index.
The Chief Executive Officer of your operation should be able to answer these questions: Where do you want your business to go? How will you get there? How will you know when you've arrived? The drought has changed some of the “How will you get there?” responses, and a strategic plan needs to be in place for your operation to survive a second year of drought conditions in a sustainable fashion.
The Drought Mitigation Center is collaborating with several other organizations to offer monthly training webinars focused on drought response. The February 27th webinar will deal with critical dates in more detail. Dwayne Rice, Rangeland Management Specialist for NRCS in Lincoln, KS has worked with Ted Alexander, a Barber County rancher, to develop procedures to identify and describe critical dates and suggest how appropriate action steps are planned.
The Drought Mitigation Center (DMI) housed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has a number of functions related to both understanding historical aspects of drought and encouraging planning for anticipated future droughts. In response to the deep and widespread drought of 2012, the DMI is collaborating with several other agencies and organizations to offer monthly training webinars focused on drought responses for Great Plains ranchers.
Most spring calving cowherds are now in the late-gestation stage of production, or will be there very soon. This is one of the more critical times on the calendar in terms of optimizing cowherd productivity. Not only is the bulk of fetal development occurring, but it also our last realistic chance if we need to put body condition on cows.
Rangelands West was developed and is maintained by the Rangelands West Partnership, a collaboration of rangeland specialists and librarians from 19 land-grant universities. The partnership’s mission is to provide researchers, educators, and public and private land managers with electronic access to the full scope of research and educational information in the fields of rangeland ecology, management, and conservation by collecting, creating, evaluating, and organizing relevant data, information, and learning materials.
The internet provides access to an overwhelming repository of information. A drawback to the immediate access is uncertainty about reliability of the information availability. When faced with a question, it is sometimes overwhelming and frustrating to sort through the multitude of sites returned from a keyword search. One strength of the land grant university system, including South Dakota State, is the care with which scientists and extension professionals seek to provide information that is both reliable and unbiased.
Adequate water is often a limiting factor when it comes to growing vegetables in South Dakota, meaning dry years can result in decreased yields. South Dakota State University (SDSU) Extension specialists say it is possible to target the timing and amount of water added to the vegetable garden in order to both maintain production and conserve water.
Vegetables need an adequate supply of water during the growing season in order to boost yields and develop quality produce. Providing enough water to help maintain adequate vegetable production can be a challenge during dry weather.
Newly planted tree seedlings are suffering throughout South Dakota this summer due to the dry conditions, according to John Ball, South Dakota State University (SDSU) Extension Forester and Forest Health Specialist for the South Dakota Department of Agriculture.
Corn twists in the dry cracked ground. Dugouts dry up. Grass turns brown in pastures. But what happens to communities in droughts? Research had been conducted seeking the answer to this question.
Communities are impacted by drought conditions and can prepare for droughts through increasing awareness and planning. Events like wildfires, tornados, and floods happen quickly and leave physical devastation in communities. Droughts are slow disasters and my not cause physical destruction, but are no less devastating.
As the summer is progressing and we continue to have minimal precipitation, a lot of wind and high temperatures, the concern about high sulfate water continues to escalate. The drought monitor as of June 19th shows about 60-70% of the state being abnormally dry to moderate drought.