Faulkner County Agriculture Update
March 8, 2024
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Faulkner County Extension Office Opportunities
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Homesteading Conference
The Homesteading Conference will be next Monday March 11, 2024 starting at 6:00 pm here at the Extension Office. 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.
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Faulkner County 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 accepting 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.
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Pesticide Applicator Training (PAT)
The next PAT training is scheduled for Tuesday March 12, 2024 at 6:00 PM at the Extension Office located at 844 Faulkner Street in Conway.
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.
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Weather
When this week started, we had several chances of rain, but as the week went on we missed the first few rounds. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come this year. We finally got a decent shower yesterday and last night. There is another good chance today, but that chance is getting slimmer and slimmer. We are looking at a couple of cold nights this weekend then back up to 70's during the day and high 50's at night with more rain chances later in the week.
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2024 Rice Management Guide
The 2024 Rice Management Guide is available to download. The link is in the box below.
I should have several hard copies mailed to the office. Once I get them in I will get them out to all the rice producers.
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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.
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Wheat
Wheat is starting to grow a little since the last application of fertilizer. This rain was the first rain most of the wheat has seen in three weeks so it was kind of just sitting there waiting to go. I am hoping this rain will give it a boost and get it started. We are now ready to apply the last application of fertilizer as soon as we dry up.
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2024 Plantings
Producers in Faulkner County have a lot of ground ready to go. We are sitting pretty to have an early start if we go through another dry spell. This picture is just one of many fields that have been disked up and are ready to plant.
I have heard some talk of maybe starting to plant some dryland corn fields next week. I don't think that is a bad idea for dryland, but I would still hold off on irrigated acres until April. I still think we have another cold spell to get over.
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How much Glyphosate do I apply?
I ran into a situation earlier that someone wanted to apply a glyphosate product with a different concentration than 41% glyphosate. With a higher concentration of glyphosate, that means you may pay more for a jug, but you use less per acre, so really in the end it all amounts to about the same.
The situation I recently ran into was I had one product that was Honcho that is 48.7% glyphosate and Sunphosate 5 is 53.8% glyphosate. So if I want to apply 32 ounces (1 quart) of regular 41% glyphosate per acre, how much should I apply of these two. So you would think that the Sunphosate 5 has a higher concentration so you would apply less of it than the Honcho. But that isn't the case here. When comparing glyphosate products you use the pounds of the acid equivalent per gallon. If you look at the bottom of each of these labels under active ingredients you see Eraser 41% glyphosate is 3 pounds of the acid. Honcho is 4.5 pounds while the Sunphosate 5 is only 4 pounds. That means the Honcho actually has more of the acid equivalant per gallon than the Sunphosate 5. So if I want to use Sunphosate 5 I apply 24 ounces per acre, and if I want to use Honcho I apply 21 ounces per acre.
So why are the percentages different?? The answer is they are different salts. If you look at the active ingredients, the Eraser and Sunphosate 5 use the same salt, but Honcho uses a potassium salt. So to make them equal, and to really figure out the equivalent rate of 32 ounces of Eraser 41% you have to use the acid equivalent per gallon, not the salt.
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3 pounds per US gallon of the acid, glyphosate.
Use 32 ounces per acre
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4.5 pounds per US gallon of the acid, glyphosate.
Use 21 ounces per acre
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4 pounds per US gallon of the acid, glyphosate.
Use 24 ounces per acre
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Beef, Small Ruminants, & Forages
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Helping Texas Wildfire Victims
Texas A&M Extension has set up drop off points for producers in Texas that were effected by the wildfires. They are in need of hay, feed and fencing supplies. I have heard from a few that would like to donate hay, but don't have a way to haul, so if anyone knows of a hauler that might donate a trip with a load of hay let me know. The button below is a link to the Texas A&M Extension Wildfire Relief site.
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The Value of Calving Distribution
Scott Clawson, OSU Cooperative Extension NE Area Agriculture Economics Specialist
Commercial cow-calf producers can face an overwhelming number of records, data, and ratios that promise to boost the bottom line. Hidden in these options is one simple measure that can provide useful information about the cowherd’s performance that we can start tracking today. That measure is our calving distribution. Calving distribution is simply tracking when our calves are born within our calving season.
This measure is useful in three areas.
1. There is a litany of research that emphasizes the improved individual animal performance of calves born early in the calving season. Better weaning weights, stronger feedlot/carcass performance, and improved reproductive efficiency of retained heifers are all well documented research.
2. It helps us identify which females are excelling within our environment and management by settling early in the breeding season.
3. It can help us identify which cows are making the largest annual profit contribution to the ranch. It is common to discuss annual cow cost or cost per cow. This is a bit misleading in the sense that we manage the herd not the individual. As a result, the cows all share an equal part of the annual cost. The cows that calve early in the season will bring in more revenue (via older and generally heavier calves) than the late calving cows that share the same portion of the cost.
The collection of information to do this is simple. Start by tracking the dates that calves are born and split your calving season into segments. The by the book method is to use 21-day increments. Take the number of calves born in that segment and divide it by the total calves born. The answer will provide the percentage of calves born in that period. The target is to get as many cows calving in the initial 21-days as feasibly possible.
While making progress can be slow, diagnosing our current distribution and finding cost effective ways to front load our calving season can have significant financial benefits. In the commercial cow-calf setting, calving distribution is a go-to production measure for its ease and the information it provides. It highlights that while she needs to have a calf every year, that calf needs to hit the ground earlier rather than later.
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2024 AGLC Grazing Conference
The 2024 AGLC Grazing Conferences will be held in Hope on March 28 and Harrison on March 29. They have a great line up scheduled this year. It costs $40 a person to attend.
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Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue Renovation Workshop
The University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture is partnering with the Alliance for Grassland Renewal to host an all you need to know workshop about renovating pastures with novel endophyte tall fescues. Speakers from across the southeast will join us to discuss everything from the history to economics of fescue toxicosis and managing tall fescues that have a fungus that helps the plant without the negative side effects on animal production. There will also be a tour of old and newly renovated stands of novel fescues at the research station. The workshop is March 21 at the Livestock and Forestry Research Station located at 70 Experiment Station Drive, Batesville, AR. The workshop begins at 8:15am and will conclude at 4:30pm. For meal and materials planning, everyone is asked to pre-register ($40/person).
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Arkansas River Valley Small Ruminant Conference
Save the date for the upcoming River Valley Small Ruminant Conference in April. I will have more information and an agenda soon.
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North Central Arkansas Small Ruminant Conference
The North Central Arkansas Small Ruminant Conference will be April 19, 2024 at Damascus at the Damascus Road Cowboy Church. The agenda is almost finalized for this meeting so hopefully I will have it next week.
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Here is this weeks Cattle Market Notes Weekly
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Livestock Market Report
The weekly livestock market report is available on the Arkansas Department of Agriculture website.
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Pesticide Applicator Training
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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.
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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.
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.
Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue Renovation Workshop - March 21, 2024 - 8:15 am to 4:30 pm at the Batesville Livestock Research Center.
AGLC Grazing Conference - March 28, 2024 in Hope, March 29 in Harrison starting at 8:00 am.
River Valley Small Ruminant Conference - April 13, 2024 - 9:00 am - 12:00 pm at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville.
North Central Arkansas Small Ruminant Conference - April 19, 2024 - Damascus Road Cowboy Church in Damascus
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