Airing December 28, 2005- January 3, 2006

New Year's Resolutions

This is Ag Outlook 2005 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. I like nothing better than making new year's resolutions for other people. They are so much easier than making them for myself! But I'll be fairly kind this morning and I've come up with two - one for farmers/ranchers and one for homeowners in general. So here's the one for ag producers. Resolve to keep better records and do so in a timely fashion. I would be willing to bet that 90% of all farmers/ranchers are not keeping the production and financial records that they need to, to do a really good job of managing their operation. We're not talking about fancy computer based records here. A ledger book for the financial and a notebook for production records. But then you have to be religious about keeping those records. Break down the costs for each different field including hours of tractor, combine or other equipment time. You need to know what it's costing you to grow every bushel of grain, every ton of hay. You may know that over the entire farm you made 50 cents a bushel above production costs. But if you are losing 10 cents in some fields and making a dollar in others, maybe you need to know why. Averages are great, if you want to be just an average producer. Okay homeowners, here's yours. Resolve to better understand the natural world that you are trying to grow your garden, landscaping, lawn or flowers in. So many problems I see every summer come from a total and complete lack of understanding of how plants grow and how mother nature affects them. Plants are like people - no two are alike and you have to treat two different species in different ways. Okay - those are pretty simple - now let's get to it!

This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

January Beef Herd Calendar

This is Ag Outlook 2005 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. As we move on in to the heart of winter, there's several things we probably need to be thinking about with our beef herds. We've talked before about how critical it is to have a good water supply this time of year - 5 to 11 gallons per head per day is what they need, obviously based on body size. I just can not emphasize enough the importance - even in cold weather - of having adequate water of high quality for those cattle. We are entering the time of year when cull cow prices start to rise. Take advantage of this and finish culling your cows based on the Four O's - those being Cows that are open, old, ornery and oddball. If you still aren't down to the number you'd like to be at, then go after those that have been sub standard producers and those that have physical and structural problems - think feet and legs, eyes, teeth, etc. Nobody wants more to do, but the simple act of sorting cows into management groups based on body condtion and score and age gives you the advantage to provide extra feed to thin cows or younger cows, hold back a little on the cows that are maybe a little over conditioned and then feed the rest as you normally would. No need to make a fat cow fatter or a thin cow thinner. Either one costs you in feed dollars or performance dollars in the end. And if it looks like we are moving into a spell of wintery weather, let's try to make sure that those cows are someplace that has a little windbreak for them. You can stretch your feed dollars further by breaking the wind, thus reducing the amount of energy they need to stay warm. This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Is Precision Ag for You?

This is Ag Outlook 2005 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. You've been hearing about precision ag for several years now and guess what? The talk isn't going to go away very soon at all. It started with field monitors for yield mapping and then grid sampling, variable rate fertilization and seeding rates. Now it's steering guides or even the full blown auto track/auto steering systems. And if you think that these are just far fetched ideas that have no practical application, you may be surprised at how wrong you are. Technology is moving into agriculture faster than many folks think and one of many reasons is the ability to spray a field without overlapping or leaving skips. If your entire weed control plan is based on roundup ready technology, you don't want these glaring skips popping up in the middle of the field and you certainly don't want to waste the money of excessive overlaps. Autotracking systems allow you to avoid both and the cost savings in one year alone can cover the several thousand dollar cost. So where do you go to find out more about this technology and how it is impacting agriculture? You can attend the 9th annual Kansas Precision Agricultural Technologies Conference on January 25th and 26th being held at the Red Coach Inn in McPherson. The cost is $100 unless you are a member a member of the Kansas Agricultural Research Assocation, KARA, in which case the cost is $50. Topics to be covered this year include, Yield potential, using technology to manage nitrogen, managing field variability, developing yield potential maps from satellite imagery and what do we do about these high fuel and fertilizer prices. If you need registration informationi, call me at the extension office. This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

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