Management implications for grazing irrigated pastures in the fall

by K. Scott Jensen,

Owyhee County Extension

Reprinted with permission from Progressive Cattleman and Scott Jensen

Fall can be a critical period in the life of desirable pasture plants. While it is often common thought that plants that appear to be dormant can be grazed “to the ground” without hurting anything, perception is far from the truth. Fall residual plant materials (leaves, lower stem bases, and crowns) are essential to maximize next year’s production for perennial grasses and forbs.

Click here to read the entire article in Progressive Cattleman

LATE FALL IRRIGATION OF ALFALFA

by Bruce Anderson, Extension Forage Agronomist, Univeristy of Nebraska

               

                 Attention irrigators! Don't shut off your system for the season just yet.  Your alfalfa still might benefit from a little more water.  

                This drought has me a little worried for alfalfa.  We need some surface soil moisture to prevent alfalfa roots from drying out and dying over winter.  Soil moisture also helps keep soil temperatures from dropping too low for alfalfa plants to survive.

               

Webinar: Establishing a Microenterprise Lending Program

October Webinar - Establishing a Microenterprise Lending Program

Mark your calendars! The eXtension Entrepreneurship webinar continues Thursday, October 11, 2012 with  Establishing a Collaborative Microenterprise Lending Program with Nancy Bowen, OSU Extension and Julie Miller, Wright State University Business Enterprise Center. All webinars will air monthly on the second Thursday at 2:00pm (ET); 1:00pm (CT); 12:00pm (MT); 11:00am (PT) at https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/etc-cop.

Cattle Eating Sagebrush WSARE Tour Nov 16th

Cottonwood Ranch Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education

(Western SARE) Program Tour

Friday, November 16^th, 2012 

Agee Smith, of Cottonwood Ranch, secured a Western SARE grant in 2010 to see if they can reduce winter feed costs by having their cattle get protein and energy from sagebrush and rabbitbrush while enhancing rangeland health and resilience. Grazing has taken place during two fall/winter seasons since 2010 and an initial tour was conducted in June,

2011. We invite you to come and learn what’s come from the

use of this valuable rangeland treatment tool. 

Cow Camp Chatter: I have a beef about my beef purchase!

Ron Torell, Long-Standing Educator and Advocate of Agriculture

There is a growing popularity for consumer direct sales of locally grown, grass finished, hormone-free, all-natural freezer beef. Many consumers, however,  are in the dark when it comes to understanding  the  yield loss  of a 1,200 lb grass finished steer after harvesting.  The entire steer which has been cut and wrapped to specifications for a family of four will fit into about eight cardboard boxes once it has been harvested, aged and processed. Baffled by this, consumers want to know what happened to the rest of their beef. 

New Invasive Insect detected in Ada and Kootenai Counties

Boise, ID - A new invasive insect, the Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica), recently was detected in Idaho in both Ada and Kootenai counties. The Japanese beetle was first introduced to the United States in 1916 in plants imported from Japan. The insect is approximately ½-inch long, a shiny metallic green with copper-brown wing covers.

Adult Japanese beetles feed on trees, rose bushes, stonefruits and many garden and field crops leaving holes and skeltonized leaves. The larvae, or grubs, live under the soil surface and destroy patches of turf by feeding on roots of grass.

Cow Camp Chatter:Self-Disciplined Ranch Management

Ron Torell, Long-Standing Educator and Advocate of Agriculture

Why does it take something like a drought or low cattle market to get the attention of those of us in the cow business? It was easy for us to become complacent with $1200 yearlings, $900 calves and $1000 market ready cows.  It seemed as if there would never be another bad day in the industry.  With the cycle now moving in the opposite direction we are thrust in to a situation where forces outside of our control have brought on a downward trend and softer market. How do we deal with it?