Air January 29, 2003

Thank you Gary, and good morning everyone. Based on the thermometer, and it’s yo-yo antics, it has to be winter in Kansas. A little more on weather prognostication in a minute.

Next Thursday there’s going to be a really good silage school in Marysville. It’ll be in the city hall from 1:30 to 4 PM - I won’t be able to attend, but I can give you directions to the city hall if you are interested. Call the Extension Office to register. Silage, like many home grown feed stuffs, is something that requires good production, good processing and then proper feeding to achieve the best success. While you can ensile virtually any plant material, including sunflowers and watermelons, there is definitely a difference between silage and good silage. Ray Lamond and Scott Staggenborg will be discussing selecting a silage crop and variety and then how do you fertilize and manage it to obtain the best quality. The next step is proper harvesting and packing. Dr. Silage, also known as Keith Bolson, will be on hand to discuss producing quality silage. Keith probably knows more about silage than any other single person and he is a truly outstanding speaker. The trip to Marysville will be worth it for him alone. Once you’ve grown the crop and made the silage the last step is to feed it and that’s where a lot of folks get tripped up. They don’t really know what they have and they feed it like they have every other year without really knowing if they are even close to meeting the animals needs. Joel DeRouchey will discuss how to optimally use silage in your livestock rations. That’s next Thursday, February 6 in Marysville.

Now quickly back to the weather. People are nervous about what is coming our way for the next 4 months. Do we fertilize or wait? Do we plan to plant as usual, or do we switch to more milo? The truth is that no one can tell you what the weather will be. The long range forecasts are still indicating a change of above normal precipitation and nothing is indicating a strong possibility of below normal. So plan to maintain cropping diversity, use common sense, don’t become a pessimist and always have a backup plan.

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2003.

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