ith fall just around the corner and harvest well underway, we are at the beginning of a new programming season. So far in September, we started off with a Farm Bill program explaining the details of what is in the Farm Bill and helping farmers make their decisions between ARC and PLC. We looked in the markets, the past payouts, and what future payouts could be based on market prices. Farmers won’t likely make their Farm Bill elections until later in the year, but they are beginning to get idea about which they would want to choose. Smaller, county by county, Farm Bill meetings will likely be held later in the year. By the time this report is published we will have already had a few other great programs in the area including a Cattle Grazing School in Ft. Scott, a Forestry Field Day at the Southeast Extension Center, and a Cover Crop Program in Fredonia. There is a lot to do in every area this time of year so the programming is exciting and diverse.
Our agriculture Program Development Committee (PDC) meeting on September 13 gave plenty of ideas for the upcoming fall and winter. In the area of economics, I am hoping to plan a program for farm secession and controlling taxes and another about helping farmer understand how to protect their selling prices by putting commodities on the futures. In more traditional agronomy, planning for a program that looks in the costs and benefits of irrigation and tile drainage and a program about uncommon winter cash crops as we begin to look at an ag world without wheat in Southeast Kansas. On the more fun side of things, Adaven and I are starting to plan for a pre-season hunting program focused on deer food plots and proper field dressing. Hopefully by the time you read this I will have gotten the food plots planted.
Personally, this month has been filled with crop inspections, producer phone calls, and soil tests. As the soybeans are filling their pods, the late season diseases start to show up and it becomes obvious in trouble areas in the field. Not to mention that differences in soil fertility start to show up as well. For many farmers corn harvest yield turned out better than they were expecting despite the spotty germination. I suspect that soybean harvest will be pretty good as well with all the late summer rains. We will still have a month or so before crop farmers have finished for the year but we will have plenty of exciting K-State Research and Extension events waiting for them.
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Insect Update
Wheat Tips
Lime
Alfalfa
Cover Crops