Grain Bin Safety Training was held at the Haskell Ag Lab on Wednesday evening, February 8th with 95 in attendance. Attendees learned about the hazards of grain handling, best practices for preventing injury and fatalities and life saving techniques. Attendees included EMS, fire & rescue departments, farmers, industry, students, and sheriff departments. The Grain Bin Safety Training was free and was a cooperative event by AgHealth Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, CVA, Grain Handling Safety Council, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension. Thanks to staff at the University of Nebraska Medical Center for coordinating the training. It was a very informative and important training. The Haskell Ag Lab was pleased to host this training.
Ag Land Management, Leasing Workshops Scheduled
Nebraska Extension and the Center for Agricultural Profitability at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will host a series of in-person workshops covering agricultural land management and leasing considerations for 2023. They will be held at locations across the state during the winter months.
The workshops will offer updated leasing information relevant to landlords and tenants, including tips for communication and negotiating. They will address topics like equitable rental rates, managing and adjusting farmland leases, landlord-tenant issues, pasture leasing, crop share leasing and other management considerations.
The presentations will be led by Allan Vyhnalek, an extension educator specializing in farm and ranch transition and succession, and Jim Jansen, an extension agricultural economist. Both are with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Center for Agricultural Profitability.
The meetings are free to attend, but registration is required for each date. The schedule and registration information for each location are listed below. More dates may be added. A complete schedule is available at https://cap.unl.edu/succession.
Farm and Ranch Lease Considerations for 2023 Schedule
Feb. 20 in Lyons: 1 to 4 p.m. at the Lyons Community Center, 335 N. Main St.
Register: 402-374-2929.
Feb. 27 in Hartington: 1 to 4 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 105 E. State St. Register: 402-254-6821.
Cow Nutrition Considerations at Calving and Early Lactation
During any given production year on the ranch, cows/heifers are faced with nutritional and environmental stressors. They have periods of high and low nutritional demands. Knowing the stress periods that can result in nutrient deficiencies is where you, the rancher, must manage to your and your ranch’s best ability to help the cow/heifer meet these nutritional challenges. How well do you know your ranch? Does it have any advantages or shortcomings that you can utilize or need to augment to affordably meet any nutritional challenges? Some examples of advantages could be wet meadows, irrigated pasture, dryland annuals, windbreaks, proximity to crop residue, etc.
What can you afford? Realizing that you cannot always afford to meet the cow’s nutrient requirements will help you in your nutritional plan, i.e., put body condition on your cows when their energy requirements are the lowest (Fig. 1), and let the cow use that body condition as an energy source when you cannot afford to meet her requirements. Feed costs are a major expense for any cow/calf operation. As such, knowing what type of supplement is needed, when it is needed, and how to compare supplements based on nutrient content will help you make better decisions on needed supplement purchases.
Another important question is, “What are the cow effects of your management?” Do you have dystocia problems? Are you managing your cowherd so that the cows are rebreeding every year? Are you managing to the genetics of your herd? Are your pastures/forages sustaining from year-to-year? A final question to ask is, “What are the calf effects of your management of the dam?” When calves are born are they vigorous and able to get up and suckle the dam? Are the cows producing sufficient colostrum? Is there sickness in your calves? What are your weaning weights? Questions like these can help in your management to ensure that you have healthy calves and cows that have a calf every year.
Body condition scores (BCS) describe the relative fatness of a cow through the use of a nine-point scale. Body condition scoring is an effective management tool to evaluate the nutritional status of the herd. For a spring calving herd, the key times to BCS your gestating females are late summer (early wean if needed), fall, weaning, 45 days after weaning, and 90 days before calving (your last opportunity to economically put condition on your cows/heifers). The most economical time to put condition on thin cows is after weaning. Ninety days before calving is the last opportunity to put condition on cows economically. If possible, sort thin and adequate condition scores into different feeding groups. This will help develop a feeding plan that will maintain cows in adequate body condition or will provide needed weight gain for thin cows prior to and through the breeding season. Having an inventory of your feed on hand for both quantity and quality will help you with your feeding and supplement decisions. Testing your feedstuffs will enable you to have a more strategic feeding program and you will be able to prioritize your quality feedstuffs to younger and thinner females.
As you consider the nutrition requirements of your cows and heifers, keep in mind that their requirements change depending on their stage of production. Photo credit Troy Walz.
Cost: $50 at the door. Plan to arrive 15 minutes prior to start of training to sign in. Questions: Call the Dixon County Extension Office at 402-584-2234.
Land Application Trainings Set for 2023 By: Leslie Johnson, Animal Manure Management Extension Educator
The Animal Manure Management team has announced the locations and dates for land application training events in 2023.
Area locations include: West Point on March 7
O’Neill on March 14
Columbus on March 28.
Pre-registration is required for all events and will cost $75 per operation. Multiple people may attend from an operation under the $75 operation fee, but all individuals must be registered. Learn more and register at water.unl.edu/lat. We look forward to seeing you.
Please plan to join us at the Haskell Ag Lab for Coffee and Conversations on Tuesday, March 14 at 9 AM. Please invite friends and neighbors to attend with you. If you have ideas for other presentations at Coffee & Conversations, please share with us.
Save the Dates for events at the Haskell Ag Lab Pruning Workshop - Thursday, March 23rd - More information and details will be in the March newsletter. Also watch our Facebook page for information.
Arbor/Earth Day Spring Fling - Saturday, April 29th - More details will be coming in upcoming newsletters.
Haskell Ag Lab Family Field Day - Thursday, August 10 - More information will be forthcoming.
Suggestions/Requests
Do you have a suggestion or a request for a program at the Haskell Ag Lab? We want to hear from you.
Click this link and complete this form and submit. We will look at all suggestions and requests. The form is available at: https://go.unl.edu/halsuggest
You can also reach us by phone at 402-584-2261 with your suggestions/requests for programs.
