Air May 3 - 9, 2006

Bluestem Pasture Rental Rates

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. After having insufficient funding to do the 2005 Bluestem pasture report the Kansas Ag Statistics Service was able to get the funding necessary to do the Bluestem Pasture Report in 2006. Let me start by saying that this is not a survey of a certain percentage of the landowners and pasture renters - this is a census of as many people as KASS can get adresses for. So if you think these numbers are screwey, you can't blame anyone other than everyone who contributed to the report! Here's what the report says and this is for the northern Bluestem Pasture zone which includes Geary, Pottawatomie and Wabaunsee county. Average rate for a cow calf pair for the season was $121.50. That's with a 7.9 acre per pair guarantee. That is the first time that I've seen the acreage go up in the past decade and is getting closer to the 8 to 8.5 acres of GRASS per pair that I recommend. On a per acre basis, that rent calculates to $17.60 per acre. That 121.50 is an average of the with and without service averages. The average WITH service - which includes fence checking and maintenance, burning, etc - was 133.90 per pair and the rate without service was 117.50 per pair. One of the things that I always like to look at is the price range from the report. The range of reported per pair prices in the northern zone was 75 to 190 dollars. ON a per acre basis the range was $10 - $32 per acre. So if you think that the 121 average seems low, look at the $75 reports. And if the 121 looks high compared to what you're getting, look at the 190 dollar reports. What I've been hearing is a lot of reports in that 135 to 145 dollar range. For what it's worth! This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Bluestem Pasture Rental Rates part 2

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. It's good to see that bluestem pasture report done again. I was afraid that we might go until next year before we'd get an update. That report is in a lot of the ag press already, I can print copies here at the Extension Office and it, as well as all of those Ag Statistics Service reports, is available on the Internet. Pasture rental rates have skyrocketed in recent years and there's probably many factors contributing to this, the least of which is not the current cattle prices! What I want to focus on this morning is the stocking rate section. For years I've been watching that guaranteed acres per head or pair steadily drop. However, from '04 to '06 - remember that there was no report in '05 - the guaranteed acres increased from 7.2 to 7.9. I'm not sure if this is a reflection of the efforts of a lot of us to increase the acres per head or a reflection of the drier conditions we were facing during the time that this census was taking place. Regardless, I am pleased to see it. Stocking rate is always a moving target because it changes with each pasture and each year. The two thing that don't change are how much that animal is going to eat, based on body weight, and that you have to first determine how many acres of grass are in each pasture. As cattle get larger, they eat more pounds of forage. It's a well known fact and is very predictable. A 1200 pound cow will eat 20% more forage than a 1000 pound cow. Too many pasture are rented, and stocking rates established, based on the acres in the pasture. And seldom are there are many acres of grass in the pasture as there are acres in the pasture. Keep that in mind when establishing your leases! This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Drought stress and possible freeze injury

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. While we had no official freezing temperatures during April, I know we had scattered light frosts in some areas around the 26th and 27th. I have yet to see any wheat that was seriously damaged or hear from anyone of serious concerns. I have seen a little bit of wheat that has some head deformation that I suspect came from that cool weather, although there were two other frosty events earlier in April that could have gotten some damage onto early tillers. All in all, at least for now and we all know we aren't out of the woods yet, but no frost damage on the wheat. April was 8 degrees above normal and the third hottest on record for the Junction City area. We had record highs of 90 at mid month. This was all ocurring with low soil moisture conditions and no rainfall. While we've had good rains since then, there are certainly still issues that have been caused that will haunt us the rest of the summer. Wheat is short, kernel numbers have been reduced because of that and it will ultimately impact yield. I'm expecting a county average in the mid 30s. I guess the upside of all of this is that many diseases have been at low level. In fact that same hot dry weather in mid April literally cooked the rust in Oklahoma and Texas so it is unlikely that we will see yield damaging levels of leaf or stripe rust this year. It may come in very late, but it won't be enough to seriously damage yield. Alfalfa and bromegrass was also stunted by that dry weather and hindered a lot of the bromes ability to take up and utilize the nitrogen fertilizer. Do not delay harvest of either hoping for greater tonnage - harvest for quality even if it might be a short crop! This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

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