Air May 3, 2000

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. I was talking with someone the other day on the phone about planting dates and why it was important to know the soil temperature for some crops and the calendar date for other crops. The bottom line is that we need certain soil temperatures to get the seed to germinate. This is far more critical than the calendar (up to a point) for corn and milo. Soybeans are a different story though. Beans are very photo period sensitive so if you plant some beans, based on maturity group, too early you will wind up with tall leggy beans with only moderate yield. I know we all got pushed terribly late last year because of the weather, but don’t get in too big of a hurry!

The 2000 Bluestem Pasture Rental report hit my desk late last week and probably not to anyone’s surprise, prices were up a little bit. Average Bluestem pasture rental rate for the Flint Hills area was $16.30 per acre or $106.50 for a cow with a spring calf. That cow calf pair also had an average acreage guarantee of 7.1 acres per pair. This is too low for most of our pastures. For the long term health of the pasture, this should be at least 8 acres of good grass, per cow calf pair. These averages are obviously representative of wide ranges in values based on many situations. For the northern Flint Hills, including Geary County, the per acre average was $15.40 and a cow with spring calf was bringing $98.90 per pair. The range of reported values for the northern zone was $12 to $20 per acre and $85 to $120 per cow/calf pair. Those both are big ranges. The increase is about a 2% raise on the per acre rate and a 5.5% increase in the cow/calf pair rate. For yearling steers and heifers, under 700 pounds, the average rate was about $63 per head with a guarantee of 3.8 - 4.0 acres per head. In the northern zone this was a little bit higher, around 64 to 65 dollars per head. For intensive early stocking, the going rate was $54 per head, with a guarantee of 2.7 acres per head. Remember that if you are stocking at these rates, you have to have those cattle out by July 15th. This takes a hefty toll on the grass if you don’t have the cattle out by July 15th. The pasture really needs the last half of the season to recover. Copies of this report are available at the Extension Office or off the Kansas Ag Statistics Service Web page which is linked from the Extension Office’s web page. Call me for those addresses.

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2000.

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