As the weather has been a bit warmer across NW Ohio, there has been some planting progress made across most of Henry County in the last week or so. On the crop disease front head scab in wheat in barley is of moderate concern. When considering to apply fungicide treatment for head scab, timing is critical as the ideal time is during anthesis or flowering. As for insects we had had optimal conditions for slug feeding this spring, especially in fields with standing residue and cover crops.
Other than those few updates this is a good as time as any to share some event dates and details coming up this summer.
I’ll start with pair of Beef Quality Assurance trainings for cattle producers. On June 18th and 25th there will be a training in Henry and Williams County respectively. By 2019 Wendy’s has committed to sourcing beef from only BQA Certified producers and Tyson has pledged to follow suit by 2020. We expect other retailers and packers will do the same. Being BQA Certified will be a producer’s ticket to market access, much like the pork industry. Who needs to attend? Anyone selling beef animals to be harvested for meat. This includes producers of fed beef, dairy beef, cull cows and bulls including dairy cull cows. Dinner will be provided at both trainings to RSVP for the Henry County BQA please RSVP by June 11 to the Extension Office.
On June 21st OARDC Northwest Branch will be hosting their annual field day. State specialists will be on hand to demonstrate and discuss the impacts of their research to Ohio’s crop producers. This year speakers include, Drs. Steve Culman, Eric Stockinger, Laura Lindsey, and others. The field day will be located at the research station at 4240 Range Line Road, Custar, OH 43511. This is a great opportunity to be able to pick the brains of those specializing in agronomic crops. Research conducted at NW OARDC can be an invaluable tool to area growers as the research is conducted under the same growing condition and in similar soil types.
Another event to put on your calendar is the Precision Planting Day in Fulton County on August 14th. The different equipment retailers will be demoing some of their newest technology. This event will take place at the Fulton County Fairgrounds and RSVP’s should be made to the Fulton County Extension Office. Be sure to take advantage of some of the local Extension programming this summer.
I’ll end this week with a quote from longtime nightly news anchor, Tom Brokaw: “It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.” Have a great week.