Serving all of Eastern Laramie County since 1908
Serving all of Eastern Laramie County since 1908
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[Editor's Note: Mark Watson has had knee surgery, and this week's column is a reprint of a previous column.] During our field days around the Panhandle recently there was a lot of discussion on choosing a good dry land crop rotation and how choosing your rotation will really determine the success of your no till crop production system. I'd like to share some of my thoughts on choosing a good rotation and some golden rules that we go by after more than 20 years of no till farming. I titled this... Full story
Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV) infection has been found in Wyoming livestock in Goshen County. As a result, the Wyoming State Fair and the Wyoming Livestock Board are requiring a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection within 14 days prior to going to the state fair on all livestock originating from any county in Wyoming or other states where VSV has been found. The following statement must appear on the certificate: “The animals represented on this certificate are not from a premises under quarantine for VSV and they are not showing any c... Full story
We started wheat harvest yesterday and the wheat crop is a good one. Test weight is running a little light on some loads, but not as bad as I thought it might be considering the amount of rainfall and disease the crop had to contend with. The rain is falling again this morning, so wheat harvest will be delayed again for a few days. Hard red winter wheat is a dry land crop that likes good precipitation at the right times. I actually think the abnormally high amount of rainfall we received this...
During our Panhandle No-till Partnership’s field days we also looked at no-till production practices on irrigated acres. The farms we visited have been using the standard irrigated no-till crop rotation of winter wheat, corn, dry edible beans and back to winter wheat. Some of the producers are now including field peas as part of their crop rotation. On our farm we have moved to a winter wheat (followed by a forage crop), dry edible bean, corn, field pea crop rotation. We feel this rotation w...
One of our visits during the Panhandle No-till Partnerships field days included a morning tour of the High Plains Ag Lab located near Gurley, Nebraska. Dr. Cody Creech and Dr. Karla Jenkins took the time out of their busy schedules to show our group the exciting research they are conducting at the University of Nebraska research farm. I really appreciate all the hard work Cody and Karla do to help agricultural producers in our region. I also want to thank them again for taking our group for a...
Eleven year-old Grace Steenbergen of Pine Bluffs represented Wyoming at the annual American Gelbvieh (Gelp-fee) Junior Association's (AGJA) national show, held June 28 thru July 3, at the Clark County Fairgrounds in Springfield, Ohio. The Heart of it All Classic national show hosted more than 250 cattle entries and 400 youth between the ages of five and 21 years old. The AGJA is the junior division of the American Gelbvieh Association. Steenbergen's heifer, JCGR Bar GT Layla 162B, won reserve...
I recently attended No till On The Plain’s Whirlwind field day at Steve Tucker’s farm near Venango, Nebraska. These are educational field days on all aspects of continuous no till crop production. I was invited to speak on crop rotations on dry land acres in our semi-arid region and I also spoke about water conservation on our irrigated continuous no till production acres. No till crop production has allowed producers in our area to continuous crop with the extra moisture stored in the soil on...
The Panhandle No-till Partnership will host a series of field days from June 23rd-26th, 2015. These field days will focus on continuous no-till crop production practices on dry land and irrigated acres and integrating livestock into a no till cropping and forage production system. The field days will be very educational showing how no-till crop and forage production can improve soil health and conserve groundwater. We will also tour the UNL High Plains Ag Lab (HPAL) to meet and greet Dr. Cody...
This past week I spent a morning with Dr. Bob Harveson, University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center plant pathologist, touring field pea fields in the Alliance area. Dr. Harveson and I were looking for diseases in field peas. Dr. Harveson is concentrating on diseases in field peas this year to see what concerns may develop for field pea producers in our area. So far the only disease that has shown up in field pea production in our area is blight. I have spoken with numerous...
We had a flock of pelicans fly over the farm a few days ago. Not surprising considering western Nebraska has turned into the land of a thousand lakes. There is more rain in the short and long range forecasts. We received almost 3.5 inches of rain over Memorial weekend. This brings our total precipitation for the month of May up to 9.5 inches. Included in that total are two separate snow storms totaling 14 inches of snow along with freezing temperatures. We’ve recorded a little over 12 inches of...
With the end of the current session, this is a good time to give you updates on some of the bills we have been watching during the first session of the 104th Nebraska Legislature. Most bills passed and approved by the governor become law three calendar months after the Legislature adjourns. However, bills may take effect before that date if they contain an emergency clause or a specified operative date. None of the bills reviewed here contain an emergency clause. LB 206 – The Legislature gave final approval to LB 206 on May 20th by a 47-0-2 vot...
I’m sitting here at my desk watching the rain change over to snow on the 19th of May! There calling for 1-3 inches of snow overnight. It has already rained and snowed 5.2 inches of precipitation on our farm in May. The corn we planted 3 weeks ago has barely sprouted and laying in cold wet soil. I have no idea when we are going to get a break to plant the rest of our corn. Looks like it will be later than I’ve ever planted corn before. From what I understand the sugar beet farmers are very concer...
Last week I discussed how we approach fertilizing our winter wheat crop following field peas in our winter wheat, corn, field pea and then back to winter wheat crop rotation on our continuous no-till dry land acres. We have been using this rotation for the past 9 years on our farm and we’re starting to see some long term effects from this rotation. One observation is cheat grass working its way into a few fields within this rotation. Cheat grass has always been a problem in winter wheat p...
We have now planted field peas on all of our dry land fields for a third time in our winter wheat, corn, field pea crop rotation. We have learned quite a bit over this time on growing field peas and what to expect and watch for as this rotation continues over time and I thought I would share some of what we have learned and a few things to watch for in field pea production. I had several calls earlier this year on how we approach fertilizing our winter wheat following our field pea crop. Field...
Last week I took a look at the amount of precipitation we have received to produce a winter wheat crop this year and a projected yield for this year’s crop assuming normal precipitation between now and winter wheat maturation. This week I’d like to take a look at field peas and the potential yield for this year’s crop of field peas. Each time I have written an article looking at the moisture and potential yield for these spring crops, it has rained. This past week another storm system moved...
Over the past few weeks I have been visiting with numerous producers around the Panhandle. Generally producers call to discuss field pea production but the conversation almost always turns to the condition of the winter wheat crop planted last fall. I have also read reports in the University of Nebraska’s Cropwatch and listened to a couple of programs on the radio which also discussed the condition of this year’s winter wheat crop in our area. All the reports from producers and researchers sugge...
I want to start off by thanking everyone for their kind prayers and thoughtfulness in helping me and my family as I recover from my surgery. The well wishes and acts of kindness friends and neighbors exhibit during difficult times always impressed me in our rural way of life. These acts of kindness make living in rural Nebraska a very special place to be. I had my right knee replaced, and the surgery and recovery couldn’t have gone any better. I’m still working hard in physical therapy to reg...
In the last column, we introduced a general overview of the allocation system used by the NRD as one of the tools used to maintain adequate ground water supplies. As the District moves forward to set allocations for the irrigation years 2016-2018, we want to share how the process works and what we’re trying to accomplish. In 2004 the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources designated the entire South Platte NRD as full appropriated, or using as much ground water as there was ground water recharge. Later that same year, the South Platte R...
There is a developing feed source for the cattle industry here in our region with the introduction of field peas as an alternative feed source for the livestock industry. The production of field peas across our region has come about as producers look for alternative crops to transition back to winter wheat in their crop rotations. The addition of field peas has proven to be a sound agronomic practice in crop rotations which benefits the winter wheat production. As producers we are attempting to...
Over the past 40-plus years many producers have moved from a wheat/fallow production system to an ecofallow system, which 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... Full story
Back in October when we were getting started combining 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...
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 (DGMARR) 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 P...
The path to soil health has many stops along the way to obtaining a live, vibrant, 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 til...
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...
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 r...
