The 2020 Faulkner County Agriculture Demonstration Summary is now complete and online. This publication is a summary of all of the demonstrations that were established by the Faulkner County Extension Office in horticulture, livestock, forages and row crops in 2020. We want to send out a big thank you to all of our home owners and producers that volunteered their time, land, and equipment to help us get these demonstrations accomplished. We could not do this without your help. If anyone would like a hard copy please contact the Faulkner County Extension Office.

The 2021 MP44 (weeds), MP144 (insects) and MP154 (diseases) are now available for pickup at the Extension Office. These three publications give Extension's recommended control options for weeds, insects and diseases in areas such as row crops, livestock, forages and homeowner yard and gardens. To receive your copy contact me and I will bring you one, you can come by the office or there are some copies available at the Waggin' Ranch Feed Store, Farmers Association Co-op in Springhill and Associated Farmers Co-op in Conway.

We will not be having our regular row crop production meeting in Morrilton this year. Instead Row Crop Commodity Webinars will be held starting in January. Each webinar starts at 1:00 p.m.

To register and see the agenda for each meeting click the link below.

The 2021 Tri-State Soybean Forum will be held on January 8, 2021. The conference will be held online. For more information including an agenda click on the link below for a short YouTube Video.

Acquiring or raising high quality replacement heifers is an essential and major investment for the cow-calf producer. The replacement heifer becomes the genetic building block for the cow herd. The producer hopes that a replacement heifer will become a fertile cow that produces a calf, annually, for a long time.

Many management steps and decisions must be made in the process of selecting and growing replacement heifers. Consequently, replacement heifers must pass a number of “production tests” to remain in the herd and, hopefully, become a member of the cow herd. Selection at weaning, development from weaning to first breeding, evaluation after first breeding and calving season and establishment of successful rebreeding are the “production tests” a heifer must pass. Heifers not meeting production targets should be culled at any point in the process.

General goals for developing heifers should be to:

1. Reach puberty by 12 to 14 months of age.

2. Have a high percentage conceiving early in the breeding season.

3. Be structurally large enough at calving to minimize calving difficulty.

4. Rebreed in a timely manner.

5. Raise a good calf to weaning.

Selecting the right heifers, growing them properly and getting them bred early in their first breeding season has a long-term positive impact on cow herd production and profitability. This fact sheet provides management options and ideas to help select and develop heifers in order to achieve long-term productive cows. 

Even though it is just the first of January, it will be weed control time in pastures and hay fields before you know it. When I start recommending control options to producers sometimes there is a lot of confusion on what herbicides I am actually talking about. Sometimes a particular chemical has many different trade names. So for the next few weeks I am going to highlight a herbicide a week that will be recommended for pastures and hay fields this spring and summer.

This week I want to highlight the chemical glyphosate. Glyphosate is a broad spectrum herbicide that targets broadleaf weeds, grasses and woody plants. It is only absorbed through green plant tissue such as leaves and stems. Glyphosate can not be absorbed through the roots.

The most popular trade name for glyphosate is Roundup, but there are many generic formulations of this chemical. When using glyphosate in forages, we usually use it in the late winter to early spring on dormant warm season grass fields like bermuda or bahiagrass. It is key to get this herbicide out before your desired grasses green up in the spring, which depending on the weather could be as early as March. The warmer the weather when you apply glyphosate the faster it will work. During cold periods it could take awhile to completely kill weeds. The optimal timing is late February to mid March during a dry, warm period.

When I make recommendations for glyphosate in forages, I am always assuming you have a 41% glyphosate product, which is the majority of products that Faulkner County producers use. Always look on any label though to check the concentration of glyphosate in your product. When using actual Roundup products, like Roundup PowerMax, it will have a 48% concentration of actual glyphosate which will change the rate of recommended product per acre.

Here are some common trade names for 41% glyphosate:

In this edition of Cattle Market Notes Weekly Dr. Josh Maples discusses Cattle Markets in 2021.

The weekly livestock market report is available on the Arkansas Department of Agriculture website.

Tri-State Soybean Forum - January 8, 2021, Webinar. Click here for more details.

Winter Production Meeting Webinars - Each webinar starts at 1:00 p.m. To register and see the agenda click here.