Air January 7, 2004

Thank you Gary, and good morning everyone.

Now that the weather has told us that it is definitely winter and early January, it's time to gear up for a new year. And with January comes a new round of meetings in Geary County and the surrounding area. As always I will try to give you plenty of advance notice of these meetings and if you just catch a portion of this program but miss the details, give us a call at the Extension Office, 238-4161.

One of the hot topics for 2004 is going to be commercial wind energy production. A program on wind energy for the Flint Hills will be held Tuesday January 20th from 10 am to 3 pm at Pottorf Hall, in Cico Park Manhattan. There is a $15 charge for this program which includes lunch and the proceedings. There will be lawyers to talk about legal issues, alternative energy specialists to talk about wind power, zoning professionals to talk about land use, sitting and placement and The Nature Conservency to address concerns regarding to placement and sitting. You do need to pre-register for this program by calling the extension office, but I would strongly encourage anyone interested in this issue to attend this meeting.

January is traditionally the time that we discuss agricultural leases since 30 days prior to March 1st is the deadline for a landlord to terminate an oral ag lease. Since over 50% of all farm land and pasture land is leased this is obviously a very popular, or if not popular, it's an often talked about topic. Pasture leases are a particular challenge and I receive more questions on pasture leases than crop land leases. On Thursday evening, January 22nd we will have a pasture lease meeting at the Geary County 4-H/Sr Citizens building. This meeting will start at 7 p.m. Brad Lubben, Extension Ag Economist and myself will be discussing some of the basic ag lease law, what makes up an equitable lease and lease rates as well as pasture condition and stocking rates. A lot of people have expressed concern over the condition of their pastures and I probably won't be very popular when I point out that declining condition is as much the fault of the land lord and the lease as it is the renter and their cattle. That's January 22nd, no charge and no pre-registration.

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2004.

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