Early Bird Meetings Scheduled for Three Locations

Chad Lee, Extension Professor, University of Kentucky

Every year, farmers are encouraged to make some orders and purchases this fall and winter for the next growing season. Farmers are feeling the pinch of declining commodity prices and need to look carefully at each purchase decision. To help producers with these decisions, the University of Kentucky Grain Crops Team and Cooperative Extension Service are happy to offer the Early Bird meetings for 2014. The three meetings are scheduled for December 8, 9 and 10, 2014 and will occur in Henderson, Sedalia, and Elizabethtown, Kentucky. The meetings will begin at 8:00 am local time and end with lunch.

The primary goal of these meetings is to bring in the latest research to discuss your options for next season. Some of the topics will include tackling herbicide resistance, sudden death syndrome in soybean, irrigation options, maximizing nitrogen from manure, grain crop budgets for 2015, and understanding the farm bill. While these are the planned topics, your questions are vital to the meetings.  

Your commodity associations, the Kentucky Corn Growers, the Kentucky Soybean Board and the Kentucky Small Grain Growers, are sponsoring the meetings and the meal. We have been approved for 4 CCA continuing education credits and have requested Pesticide credits as well.

For more information about the meetings please click here or contact your county extension agent.

Fall Armyworm Moth Captures Rebounding

Doug Johnson, Extension Entomologist, University of Kentucky

 Capture of fall armyworm moths (FAW) in the UK- IPM traps at the UK-REC in Princeton, KY have increased for the last two weeks. These captures are not as great as those from the known outbreaks of 2007 and 2012. Nevertheless, the current capture level is greater than the rolling five year average,

Some Resources for Grain Storage Bags

Sam McNeill, PE and Extension Agricultural Engineer, University of Kentucky

With the expected high yields, low prices, weak basis and clogged traffic at elevators, many producers are looking for temporary storage options. Grain storage bags or "silage bags" are one possible options. Below is a list of resources on grain storage bags. It is not intended to include all available resources, but contains information from a mix in public and private sectors to provide a balanced view. Field studies on these systems are not available for all locations but has been conducted in Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas, as noted. Numerous other items of interest were found by searching for “grain storage bags”, including popular press articles and You tube videos, but these were not included to keep the list manageable. Exclusion of companies who manufacturer, service and/or market similar handling equipment or systems was not intended.

Fall 2014 Wheat Planting Decision

Greg Halich, Extension Ag Economist, University of Kentucky

Kentucky grain farmers have just started harvesting corn and are getting to the point where they will decide how much wheat they will plant this fall. In Kentucky, wheat is almost always planted in the fall following the harvest on corn ground, and then double-cropped with soybeans in early summer after the wheat harvest. This allows for two crops in one year. However, soybeans planted after the wheat harvest are more susceptible to summer drought, which means on average yields are lower for these double-cropped soybeans. In Kentucky, this yield reduction typically averages around 20%. As a consequence, the majority of soybeans planted in KY are full-season plantings rather then double-cropped.