Summer officially began last week and for the first time in seemingly forever we had consecutive days with no rain. In all reality we have had the best week of weather for farm work of the year, too bad it wasn’t in mid May. In the past couple of days, I have seen some dust behind a few bean drills, in addition to tillage and herbicide application across the county. I also suspect that some hay was able to get made, which is a welcome sight to livestock producers.
We can all agree that 2019 has been a year for the record books and a challenge for all. With a great number of prevented plant acres coupled with the lack of available forage we are working address the next set of challenges.
Join us at one of two locations on July 3 where we address “Managing Prevented Plant Acres.”
From 9:00 a.m. to noon we will be at the Paulding County Extension office, 503 Fairground Drive Paulding, Ohio 45879. We will replicate the same program from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Williams County Extension office,1425 East High Street Bryan, Ohio 43506. There is no cost to attend and the agenda for both two programs is as follows:
Weed Management on Prevented Planting Acres, Jeff Stachler, OSU Extension Auglaize Co.
Opportunities to Transition to Certified Organic, Alan Sundermeier, OSU Extension Wood Co.
Disposal and Storage of Treated Soybean Seed, Stephanie Karhoff, OSU Extension Williams Co.
Filling the Gap on Forages, Rory Lewandowski, OSU Extension Wayne Co.
Prevented Planting Q&A Panel Featuring Listed Speakers, Cover Crop and Insurance Representatives
We are also approaching the time of year where Japanese Beetles would be making their appearance. With the lack of soybean vegetation to feed on, they may be more of a nuisance in the garden this summer. According to OSU horticulture specialist Joe Boggs, they can cause damage to wide range of host plants from sycamores to oaks to agronomic crops.
Although it’s easy to identify Japanese beetle skeletonizing damage while beetles are present on favored hosts like grape, damage may be more difficult to diagnose later in the season particularly on less well-known hosts. In a perfect world they would favor giant ragweed and marestail, however that doesn’t seem to be the case. I’ll end this week with a quote from Ann Landers: “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” Have a great week.