Air January 28, 2004

Thank you Gary, and good morning everyone.

I want to remind everyone that while the drastic up and down movement of the thermometer may not be popular with us humans, it is even less popular with over wintering insects. Insects go into winter hibernation with a set amount of food reserves. Every time the temperature gets above 55 degrees or so and insects start moving around, it uses up a little bit of that food reserve, and reduces a little bit of that winter hardiness. So then when the temperature does a downward turnaround, more of the little rascals are subject to winterkill. So it may be a nuisance to us, but it does help reduce some of those over wintering insects. Always gotta look for the silver lining!

The pasture lease meeting last week was very good. A lot of great information came out of the meeting, but the most important one is that if you are a tenant and you want to terminate an oral agricultural lease, you have two more days to get it done. It has to be done in writing, 30 days prior to March 1st. If you don't get it done by Friday, you are stuck with the same tenant and the same terms for another year. There was a lot of discussion of pasture lease rates and the price of cattle. There is a belief that rental rates for pasture are driven by the price of cattle. While there may be some localized cases of landlords jacking up the price when cattle prices are high, the long term analysis shows that rental rates mirror land prices, not commodity prices. The other interesting thing that came out of meeting was the feedback regarding the annual bluestem pasture rental rates report. This report comes out in late April based on a census done on as many bluestem pasture owners and pasture renters in the 14 county Flint Hills region. This is not a survey, it is a census. What the producers were telling us is that the reported pasture rental rates are WAY low. Which I find interesting because the census questionnaire is sent out to everyone. So apparently there's a lot of people getting good deals who aren't speaking up, OR there's a lot of folks filling the information out and not putting in the real rates they are paying or receiving. Do us all a favor - if you get the questionnaire, fill it out and fill it out accurately. I do still have some of the handouts from the meeting, please call if you would like a copy of them.

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

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