Feed aggregator

Friday, December 18, 2020

Multi-species grazing can be an option to more fully utilize grazing resources. In this month’s BeefWatch Producer Perspective Podcast, Jim Jenkins from Custer County, Nebraska discusses why he made the decision to add a band of sheep to his operation and the opportunities he sees for sheep to complement cattle in Nebraska.

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Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Greetings Nebraska Beef producers! My name is Jesse Fulton. I am the new Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) State Coordinator for Nebraska. For the past five years, I was with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) where I worked on the Producer Education team. My duties at NCBA included working on the National BQA and Beef Quality Assurance Transportation (BQAT) program, managing the National Cattlemen’s College event, Cattlemen’s Webinar Series, and the 2016 National Beef Quality Audit.

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Looking for ways to keep your children busy during winter break? We've got you covered! From the team that brought you Living Room Learning, we're proud to announce our new Winter Fun Pack! We’re sharing 5 days' worth of activities that youth can easily do with materials that can be found at home. The Winter Fun Pack comes with instructional videos, easy-to-follow lessons, and family engagement activities to help fill the time at home during winter break. All these resources are available for FREE. Youth and families do not need to be involved in 4-H to access the resources or complete the activities. 

Winter Fun Pack

Soybean harvest by the Spohn Farms combine crew near Friend, Neb. Oct. 3, 2016. Photo by Craig Chandler / University Communication Photography. Nebraska Extension will hold a series of virtual landlord-tenant cash rent workshops in lieu of in-person meetings that were scheduled across the state through February. They will be geared toward current and future landlords and tenants and will cover current trends in cash rental rates and land values, lease provisions, crop and grazing land considerations and current university crop budget information.

Nebraska’s P. Stephen Baenziger has developed wheat varieties that are used on more than 50% of Nebraska’s wheat acres. Craig Chandler | University Communication

In the spring of 2020, the pesticide safety training season — like most everything else — was upended by COVID-19. Numerous in-person training sessions were canceled, and alternative training methods were devised.

Figure 1. Soybean plant with dark discoloration at the soil surface. Dissection of this area shows two larvae, assumed to be in the third instar. Since 2018, soybean gall midge has expanded its range, claiming eight new counties in Nebraska this year. With its aggressive spread, Midwestern producers are encouraged to attend a three-part webinar series featuring the latest information on this invading soybean pest.

The 2021 Nutrient Management Record Keeping Calendars are now available from Nebraska Extension. Tracking manure application rates, part of the calendar’s recordkeeping tools, is important for getting the maximum crop nutrient value from manure and documenting one’s environmental stewardship.

A drone’s eye view of UNL dry bean variety trial plots at the Mitchell Ag Lab north of Scottsbluff. Results of the 2020 variety trials for dry edible beans and field peas conducted by the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center are now available.

The 2021 Nebraska Crop Production Clinics will feature live presentations on research updates and information tailored to regional crop issues and grower interests via Zoom for nine days throughout January. The 2021 Nebraska Crop Production Clinics will feature research updates and information tailored to regional crop issues and grower interests in a new online format this year. The sessions, which will be hosted via Zoom, will cover a wide range of topics, including cropping system management, soil nutrition, irrigation, pest management, ag technology and agribusiness management.

2020 is delivering more challenges than many of us have experienced before. The holiday season is quickly approaching and potentially could be more stressful than previous years given all of the events of the past year. As individuals and families plan holiday gatherings during a global pandemic, many will be modifying holiday traditions based on ensuring the safety and well-being of families and others. Breaking from rituals can be challenging and upsetting, however, with some planning and creative thinking these changes might help your family develop new traditions.

Children and youth often anxiously await the holidays which often mean a time to gather with family, share gifts, and participate in traditions such as baking favorite holiday foods, decorating one’s home, or attending religious celebrations. Changes to holiday traditions and routines might add to youth’s feelings of anxiety, sadness, or depression. Research shows that the social, emotional, and mental health of our youth have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The mental health impacts of COVID-19 and potential changes to a typical holiday routine can compound the feelings and emotions youth are experiencing.

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Friday, December 4, 2020

The BeefWatch Webinar series is designed to highlight management strategies in grazing, nutrition, reproduction, and economics to increase cow/calf and stocker production efficiency and profitability. Each session will feature industry experts and plenty of opportunity to interact to get your questions answered. More information about the BeefWatch Webinar Series can be found on our webpage: https://beef.unl.edu/beefwatch-webinar-series 

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Dipak Santra, alternative crops breeding specialist, stands in the field pea variety trial plots. Results of University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s 2020 variety trials for field peas have been compiled and posted in the variety trials section of the CropWatch website.

Photo by Glennis McClure

The 2021 University of Nebraska-Lincoln crop budgets include 83 production budgets for 15 crops as well as information on crop budgeting procedures, standard costs used and a production cost summary. One new spring wheat budget was added this year, No. 74, using southwest Nebraska land values.

Wednesday, December 2, 2020 In a joint effort, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri Extension are hosting a free three day webinar series in January to address how producers can capture the economic value of decisions. Each webinar will begin at 7:00 PM Central Time and will last for about an hour. Registration includes all three webinars.Spanish: