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Faulkner County Agriculture Update
February 2, 2024
Extension Office Open House
We would like to invite everyone to come to our Open House on March 16, 2024 from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm at the Extension office located at 844 Faulkner Street in Conway.

We have lots of activities planned for everyone that comes out. We will be taking soil samples that day. Just get a sample from your yard, garden or pasture and put it in a Ziplock plastic bag and bring it by and we will get it sent off for you.
Homesteading Conference
We are excited to announce our upcoming Homesteading Conference on March 11, 2024 at the Extension Office from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm. We will cover topics like Home Composting, Beekeeping, 4-H, Fertilizer Management for Small Farms, Food Preservation Basics, Economics of Food Preservation and Cheese Making.

Cost is $25 per person and a meal will be provided. We are excited for everyone to come out and learn more about homesteading.
General Conditions
Weather

The verdict is in and Punxsutawney Phil say an early spring is on the way! That sure is good news, but from what I keep hearing we have to get through another cold snap or two to get there. I keep seeing predictions of more cold and winter weather towards the middle of the month. I hope that isn't the case, but we will keep an eye on it and adjust like we always do.

This week looks like rain tomorrow and Sunday. Some storms are possible with a 90% chance Saturday night rolling into Sunday morning. It is very mild the rest of the week with temperatures in the mid 60's and more rain predicted at the end of the week.
Arkansas River
The river is back down to more normal levels after it got up to 265 ft. It is ready to hold anymore rain that we receive this week.
Drought Monitor
Row Crop
River Valley Rice Production Meeting

The next production meeting is the River Valley Rice Meeting which will be held on February 28, 2024 at Yesterday's in Morrilton.

Here is the agenda for the morning:
9:30 – 9:45 - Registration/Coffee and Donuts
9:45 – 10:30 - Jarod Hardke – Extension Rice Agronomist
10:30 – 11:15 - Tommy Butts – Extension Weed Scientist
11:15 – 12:00 - Ryan Loy – Extension Agriculture Economist
Lunch
Arkansas Soybean and Corn Cash and Booking Market Reports

The two links below take you to reports by Brian Deaton, Extension Economist with contributions by Jeremy Ross - Soybean Specialist and Jason Kelley - Corn Specialist.
2023 Arkansas Rice Verification Program Report

The 2023 growing season was the fortieth year for the Rice Research Verification Program (RRVP). The RRVP is an interdisciplinary effort between growers, county extension agents, extension specialists, and researchers. The RRVP is an on-farm demonstration of all the research-based recommendations developed by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture for the purpose of increasing the profitability of rice production in Arkansas.
Beef & Forage
Lice on Cattle

I have had some calls on some cattle losing hair and rubbing up on trees. This usually means a lice infestation. Below is an article I found from Oklahoma State University.

When we think about external parasites that affect livestock, we typically think of battling flies and ticks through the summer and consider the winter to be a welcome respite. We do, however, have lice to contend with in the winter.

Lice are wingless insects that live on the skin of various species, including horses, cattle, sheep, goats and, of course, humans. Lice spread via direct contact between animals but are species-specific, meaning they cannot be transmitted across species. Lice that affect cattle cannot affect a horse, sheep or goat or vice versa. And the best news: lice that affect livestock cannot infest humans. 

There are two main families of lice: biting (or chewing) and sucking lice. Biting lice feed on skin and skin secretions, while sucking lice have a long, piercing mouthpiece that allows them to draw and feed on blood.

Lice infestations cause intense itching. Livestock can spend a tremendous amount of time rubbing and licking in an effort to alleviate their discomfort. They can spend so much time doing this that it decreases their feed intake, feed efficiency, weight gain and growth, which results in a significant financial hit for the enterprise. Further, sucking lice, because of their ability to drain blood, can cause severe anemia and devastate young calves.

Lice thrive in winter. Their survival and transmission is further enhanced by other factors at play in the wintertime, such as long haircoats and huddling behavior.

The first indications of lice infestations in livestock are excessive rubbing (on things such as fenceposts and buildings) and licking. Remember that healthy cattle naturally groom daily, licking their sides and upsweeping the hair. Lice, however, will induce rubbing and licking to the point of removing the hair and damaging the skin beneath. Hairballs that cause obstructions in the stomach and intestines have occurred in animals due to the extreme grooming that lice can induce. Patchy hair loss typically starts on the neck and back and extends down the sides of the body and legs. Examine animals along the topline to look for the lice or their eggs, which are most easily seen on black hair.

Lice cannot survive off the animal for more than a day or so. For this reason, our primary focus for control of these parasites is the animal rather than the environment. Caveats to this include situations where cattle may be sharing tack or bedding, as happens with exhibition animals. A halter taken from one animal and placed on another or an animal placed immediately in a stall just evacuated by another animal are examples of how transmission can occur aside from animal-to-animal contact.

Many products are available to control lice, including dusts, sprays, pour-ons and charges for backrubbers. Selection of these products is based on number of animals, facilities, labor and cost. Regardless of the product used, the eggs are not killed, so a repeat treatment is necessary once those eggs have a chance to hatch. This second treatment, done two to three weeks after the first, helps break the life cycle and stops further generations from coming along. All animals in the group need to be treated, regardless of which ones are showing signs of infestation. Be sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions for product use and follow all withdrawal times.
 
Some injectable and pour-on dewormers, such as ivermectin and its cousins doramectin and moxidectin, also kill lice. In the winter, worm control is not a high priority because the conditions are not right for transmission. Frequent treatment with dewormers at low transmission times of year encourages the development of populations of worms that are resistant to the drugs. In addition, injectable products only kill sucking lice; biting lice do not ingest blood, which contains the drug. 

I have added a link to our MP 144 Insecticide Recommendations Guide for products that are recommended for lice on cattle.
Are Your Cows Too Large?  
Paul Beck, Oklahoma State University State Extension Beef Cattle Nutrition Specialist  

From the 2012 Ag Census to the 2017 Ag Census, the number of beef farms decreased by 3.9% but cow numbers slightly increased. The consolidation was from a 5% reduction in small ranches (1 to 100 cows), but 6% increases in medium ranches with 100 to 500 cows and 1% increase in large ranches with 500 or more cows. We will get to see what impact the recent droughts had on consolidation of cattle farms with the release of the 2022 Ag Census in mid February.   

There are several barriers for young or new farmers entering beef cattle operations, these include high cost of land and equipment and relatively low returns on investment. The average annual cost per breeding female increased to over $1000 dollars per cow in 2022 and have remained at that level. The recent good calf prices have resulted in positive returns over cash costs for the last few years for cow-calf producers.   

These numbers should grab your attention, because I don’t believe the costs and returns can be much different across the regions where beef cows are produced. The costs of maintaining a beef cow and the unit cost of production of weaned calves have increased tremendously over the past 5 years. Variable costs such as fuel, fertilizer and herbicides have been blamed as the primary culprits; however, fixed costs such as equipment, hired labor, and land have increased as well. When cattle numbers rebound, and they always do, will these high calf prices remain stable enough to cover these high costs of production?   

Additionally, cow carrying costs have increased because of a 30% increase in cow size over the last 30 years from 1,047 pounds in the mid 1970’s to 1,369 pounds in the mid 2000’s, and this trend appears to have continued. A 30% larger cow requires 22% more energy per day for maintenance and will consume 20 to 30% more forage per day, decreasing cow carrying capacity of the farm or increasing input costs associated with pasture management, supplementation, and stored forages. Smaller cows also have been shown to have greater weaning efficiency (lbs of calf weaned per lb of cow body weight).   

The increased cow mature weight equates to an increase in stocking rate if cows numbers are not adjusted. As stocking rate increases we know that weaning weights and rebreeding rates decrease. This has been linked to reductions in forage allowance (lbs of forage available/ lb animal body weight) limiting diet selectivity, diet quality, dry matter intake, and forage regrowth rate. Total weaning weight/acre has been shown to increase up to a point even though individual animal is decreased; until animal performance is reduced to such an extent that weaning weight/acre begins to decrease.   

In research on introduced warm season grasses in the Southeastern U.S. (Beck and others, 2016; doi:10.2527/jas2015-0049) cow-calf pairs were separated into heavy (weighing 1,220 lb) and light (weighing 970 lbs) cow size groups and stocked on pastures 2.5, 1.7, 1.2, and 1 acres per cow unit over 4 years. These pastures were fertilized with 100 lbs of nitrogen per acre over the summer.   

Heavy cows weaned heavier calves than light cows, but the increase was only 19 lbs heavier weaning weight for every 100 pound increase in cow mature weight. Larger cows also lost more weight and body condition than smaller cows. Weaning efficiency ratios of smaller cows were higher (0.49 lbs of calf weaned per lb of cow for small cows vs. 0.42 for large cows). As stocking rate increased, lbs of calf weaned per acre increased from 130 lbs at the lightest stocking rate to 411 at the heaviest stocking rate.   

The increase in weight and condition loss with larger cows is a concern and this could lead to reduction in fertility and increases in rebreeding interval for large cows, especially those with higher stocking rates. Because hay was fed when needed and cows were supplemented to maintain appropriate body condition, rebreeding rates were not affected. But, as cow mature weight and stocking rate increased the amount of hay and annual cow costs increased as well. Increasing stocking rate reduces individual calf body weigh gain but increases total calf gain per acre.   

For the larger cows, any advantage in calf weaning weight was diminished during 2 year long periods of drought while this research was conducted, but were enhanced during periods of normal rainfall. These responses to drought indicate production systems with higher stocking rates and larger cows are more impacted by climatic stressors and thus less resilient to harsh environments. 
Tri County Beef and Forage Conference

Faulkner, Conway and Van Buren Counties are going together to present the 2024 Tri County Beef and Forage Conference on February 27, 2024 at the Cowboy Church in Damascus. The meeting will start at 5:30 pm with a meal followed by the program. Speakers will include Dr. Maggie Justice our State Beef Specialist, Danny Griffin the Van Buren County Extension Agent - Staff Chair and Kevin Lawson the Faulkner County Extension Agent - Agriculture.
2024 River Valley Beef Conference

The 2024 River Valley Beef Conference will be held at the I-40 Sale Barn on February 20, 2024.
KOMA Beef Cattle Conference

On February 12th & 13th the University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture will be hosting the KOMA Beef Conference in conjunction with Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Missouri Extensions. This event will center around beef cattle research updates from each extension service and include keynote speaker, Dr. James Mitchell on risk management. There will be two chances to attend this event, February 12th in Mt. Vernon, MO and February 13th in Poteau, OK. We hope to make this a yearly event with the conference coming to Arkansas in 2025. 
Here is this weeks Cattle Market Notes Weekly
Livestock Market Report

The weekly livestock market report is available on the Arkansas Department of Agriculture website.
Pesticide Applicator Training
There are two PAT trainings scheduled for Faulkner County. All trainings will be held at the Extension Office located at 844 Faulkner Street in Conway.

The dates are:
March 12, 2024 - 6:00 pm
May 14, 2024 - 2:00 pm

To register you can call the office at 501-329-8344 or email my administrative assistant Mindy Beard at rbeard@uada.edu.

The training will cost $20. If you bring a check please make it out to Faulkner County Extension Office.

The online course is still an option also. If you want to use the online options, the link is below.

If you happen to miss ours, I have a flyer below with the dates and places of the ones in Conway and Perry County also.
Upcoming Events
Pesticide Applicator Training - March 12, 2024 at 6:00 pm and May 14, 2024 at 2:00 pm at the Faulkner County Extension Office, 844 Faulkner Street Conway. To register call 501-329-8344 or email Mindy Beard at rbeard@uada.edu.

KOMA Beef Cattle Conference - February 12, 2024 in Mt. Vernon, Missouri and February 13, 2024 in Poteau, Oklahoma.

River Valley Beef Conference - February 20, 2024 at the Ozark Sale Barn in Ozark Arkansas.

Tri County Beef and Forage Conference - February 27, 2024 - 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm at the Cowboy Church in Damascus

Rice Meeting - February 28, 2024, Yesterday's in Morrilton.

Homesteading Conference - March 11, 2024 - 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm at the Faulkner County Extension Office, 844 Faulkner Street, Conway.

Extension Office Open House - March 16, 2024 - 9:00 am - 12:00 pm at the Faulkner County Extension Office, 844 Faulkner Street, Conway.
Contact Kevin Lawson, County Extension Agent–Agriculture, Faulkner County | Kevin Lawson