Good evening,
Have you heard about the Hardin County Field Day yet? ‘Agricultural Conservation, Protecting Water: Keeping Soil and Nutrients in the Field’ will be the theme of the Hardin County Field Day on September 18. The event will start out at the Jerry McBride Farm, 11312 County Road 60, Dola, Ohio at 8:30 am and will end at 1:30 pm with complimentary lunch. The field day is being presented by the Hardin SWCD, USDA-NRCS, The Nature Conservancy, Findlay Implement Company, John Deere, and OSU Extension. The field day addresses several ag conservation and water quality issues with speakers, field demonstrations, and lunch. Make sure you contact the Hardin SWCD at 419-673-0456 extension 3 by September 10 to attend this free event. For more details, read the attached news article.
Hardin Field Day Feature Article
Crops are starting to mature in fields around the county. Soybeans should be quick to turn this year because of the type of growing season we have had. See Anne Dorrance’s attached document on late season soybean conditions and symptoms. I am planning to do one more round of scouting for our statewide soybean yield-limiting factor research before harvest to find out what problems may be in the four fields that are a part of this study. Last Friday I pulled the Western Bean Cutworm traps from around the county. Once again there were no adult WBC moths in the traps. See the article below for information about WBC larvae.
Late season SB conditions and Disease Symptom
Are you looking forward to the Hardin County Fair September 8-13? The Extension Office will be closed during this year’s fair. If you need to contact any of our staff, call the fair office at (419) 675-2396 and they will put you in contact with us. Don’t forget to make plans to attend the Hardin County Carcass Show of Champions which will be held September 15 at Mt. Victory Meats. This carcass show will put the grand and reserve champion steers, barrows, gilts, lambs, and goats on the rail for an evaluation of their meat value. See the attached article for more information about this event.
The Farm Science Review will be held September 22-24 at the Molly Caren Agricultural Center in London. Our office has pre-sale tickets available for this event at the cost $7.00 per person. I have also made tickets available for sale around the county at Crop Production Services in Dunkirk, The Plaza Inn in Mt. Victory, and Heritage Grain in Ada. Make sure you stop by and get your pre-sale tickets before the event and save $3.00 per person over the gate admission of $10.00. There are a variety of interesting programs planned at the FSR, including the Small Farm Center programs. I have attached a document to this email that lists the Small Farm Center schedule.
If you are an agronomist, Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) or custom applicator, you won’t want to miss the FSR Agronomy College being held September 15 at the site. Participants will spend the morning in the agronomy plots with OSU Extension staff. Afternoon sessions include spray nozzle selection, tillage and nutrient application, UAV and remote sensing, and precision ag. See the attached flyer for more information about this educational program and how to register. Ag Council had the opportunity to learn about drones and aerial imagery from Austin Heil, Homestead Precision Farming at its monthly breakfast meeting yesterday. His presentation included images from our OSU Extension Corn Response to Nitrogen test plots.
Tonight the Fairboard made final plans for this year’s Hardin County Fair. We hope that you will attend this county agricultural event and support the many youth and adults who participate in the shows in both Jr. and Sr. Fair. If you do, you’ll be sure to see some of the best of what Hardin County has to offer. While you are there, don’t forget to support the different livestock commodity group food stands as you make your way around the fairgrounds. Enjoy your Labor Day weekend and I have attached some agronomy related articles to read in between the college football games that will be on television.
GO BUCKS!
Mark
Symptoms of Early Maturity in Some Fields in Ohio – Anne Dorrance
Across the state some soybeans have hit the later growth stages and we have a range of tall, beautiful soybeans loaded with pods to short, scraggly, can still see the rows with few pods soybeans and everything in between. Variability rules for the summer of 2015. Over the next couple of weeks watch your fields and take some notes – you can learn a lot at the end of the summer to help make better decisions for 2016. To continue reading about early maturity symptoms in soybeans, go to http://corn.osu.edu/newsletters/2015/2015-27/symptoms-of-early-maturity-in-some-fields-in-ohio.
Does your field have Western Bean Cutworm larva? – Andy Michel
Over the past few weeks, we have been receiving calls, emails and texts about finding large caterpillars feeding on corn ears (see photo). In most cases, these are turning out to be Western bean cutworms. Although our numbers have been about the same as previous years, we may have seen slightly more survival. This may be due to the drier and milder July, as well as delayed and patchy corn maturity which provided a lot oviposition sources. To be clear, none of this damage appears to be economic, but yet it would be important to note for future years if you have found these larvae in your field. While it is too late to control for WBC (once they enter the ear, they are protected against insecticide), knowing where larvae have been found would be good information as we continue to monitor this emerging corn pest in Ohio.
Considering Growing Wheat in Wide Rows? – Laura Lindsey, Eric Richer, Pierce Paul
Growers are interested in wide-row wheat production due to reductions in equipment inventory (i.e., lack of grain drill) and to allow intercropping of soybean into wheat. With funding from the Ohio Small Grains Marketing Program and the Michigan Wheat Program, we’ve conducted row width trials to examine variety selection and seeding rate. To read about some considerations if you plan on growing wheat in wide rows this fall, go to http://corn.osu.edu/newsletters/2015/2015-27/considering-growing-wheat-in-wide-rows.
Last Alfalfa Cutting and The Fall Rest Period – Mark Sulc
The next two weeks are the best time to take the last alfalfa cutting of the year while maintaining stand productivity. We recommend the last harvest to be taken by September 7 in northern Ohio and September 15 in southern Ohio. This will allow a fall rest period for alfalfa, which is probably more important than usual this year due to the stressful growing conditions we’ve had. Cutting schedules of alfalfa have been greatly disrupted in Ohio this year to the extended wet weather the first half of the summer followed by dry conditions in many areas. Go to http://corn.osu.edu/newsletters/2015/2015-28/last-alfalfa-cutting-and-the-fall-rest-period to read more about cutting alfalfa this time of year.
Cover Crops After Corn Silage Harvest – Rory Lewandowski
A lot of corn was chopped for corn silage last week and harvest continues this week. We are about a month ahead of last year’s corn silage harvest and this year’s earlier harvest provides an opportunity to get cover crops established on those acres. Earlier planting of cover crops is good. The touted benefits of cover crops are dependent upon the crop producing forage mass above ground and developing a root system below ground. More growth is generally equal to more benefits. In addition to protecting the soil against erosion, cover crops can improve soil quality, provide supplemental forage for grazing or mechanical harvest, can use excess nutrients in the soil, and can provide an option for manure application during late fall and winter periods. To finish reading this article, go to http://corn.osu.edu/newsletters/2015/2015-28/cover-crops-after-corn-silage-harvest.
Mark A. Badertscher
Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator
OSU Extension Hardin County
1021 W. Lima Street, Suite 103, Kenton, OH 43326
419-674-2297 Office