Nebraska Extension Educator - Holt/Boyd Counties - LaDonna Werth
Nebraska Extension Educator - Holt/Boyd Counties - Amy Timmerman
Nebraska Extension Educator - Brown/Rock/Keya Paha Counties - Brittany Spieker
Nebraska Extension Educator - Holt/Boyd/Garfield/Loup/Wheeler Counties - Bethany Johnston
Nebraska 4-H Assistant - Holt/Boyd Counties - Debra Walnofer
December 30: YQCA Face-to-Face Training, 8:30am-10am, Holt County Courthouse Annex, O’Neill, NE https://yqcaprogram.org/
January 6: DUE: Holt County 4-H Shooting Sports Members Enrollment, https://v2.4honline.com/
January 15: Face-to-Face Private Pesticide Training/Beef Update, 10am, Midplains Community College, Valentine, NE, pested.unl.edu/
January 23: Face-to-Face Private Pesticide Training/Beef Update, 10:30am, Stuart Auditorium, Stuart, NE, pested.unl.edu
January 23: Face-to-Face Private Pesticide Training/Beef Update, 1pm, Antelope County Fairgrounds, Neligh, NE, pested.unl.edu
January 23: Face-to-Face Private Pesticide Training/Beef Update, 6pm, Antelope County Fairgrounds, Neligh, NE, pested.unl.edu
January 29: Commercial and Noncommercial Recertification Applicator Training, Holt County Courthouse Annex, O’Neill, NE, pested.unl.edu
January 31: Face-to-Face Private Pesticide Training/Beef Update, 1pm, Bloomfield Community Center, Bloomfield, NE, pested.unl.edu
February 3: Face-to-Face Private Pesticide Training/Beef Update, 9:30am, Holt County Courthouse Annex, O’Neill, NE, pested.unl.edu
February 3: DUE by Noon: 2025 4-H Special Garden Project Seed Order, https://go.unl.edu/holtboydspecialgardenseeds
February 12: Commercial and Noncommercial Recertification Applicator Training, Holt County Courthouse Annex, O’Neill, NE, pested.unl.edu
Encouraging kindness is an important responsibility for all adults who care for children. Here are some ways you can help children show kindness toward others and experience the positive feelings that grow out of kind and caring behavior.
- Set a good example. Children learn constantly from adults’ words and actions.
- Involve children in acts of kindness. Even with a busy schedule, you and your children can take a minute to help an elderly neighbor or give canned goods to a food bank in order to demonstrate concern for others.
- Explain to children why you want them to engage in kind behavior. Children are more likely to comply with adults’ wishes when they hear a reasonable and understandable explanation. For example, “Aunt Jean has been visiting with Grandma all week at the hospital so she is really tired. Would you please play quietly so that she can rest and relax?”
- To be an effective adult role model, you must match your words with your actions. For example, if you compliment someone’s new clothes but make fun of the way the clothes look when the person is gone, children receive a powerful message. They learn that saying one thing and doing another is acceptable.
- Expressing appreciation for kind and thoughtful behavior is another way to set a good example for children. By reinforcing children’s kind behavior, you are helping them to understand that their kindness makes a positive difference. For example, “Corrina, I’m really glad that you shared the blocks with Andy. See how much he likes playing with them!”
LaDonna Werth
Extension Educator
Phone: 402-336-2760
E-mail: LWerth2@unl.edu
- Children need to know that the adults in their lives care about them and others. Children who experience respect and appreciation from adults are more likely to demonstrate caring toward others.
Creating foundations in the early years (birth to age 5):
- Trust: The quality of care you give to infants can greatly influence their later development. If babies learn that the adults around them are kind and dependable, they will learn to trust the world and themselves. When you respond sensitively to babies’ needs, they feel valued and important, which builds the foundation of kindness toward others.
- Consistency: If you express consistent expectations, children develop predictable views of the world. Be consistent and clear with directions and explanations so children will feel safe in exploring the world and trying new things. If your requests and reasons are inconsistent, children become confused and unsure about what is expected.
- Positive guidance: Young children learn best when they are not frightened or angry. By using guidance based on love and respect, you can help young children become aware of the consequences of their behavior for others. Research says that harsh physical punishment can weaken children’s trust in adults. Physical punishment does not help children learn self-control. When adults use physical discipline, children feel angry at adults and ashamed of themselves. When young children experience consistent and positive guidance, they are more likely to act kindly toward others.
Building bridges between children and others (ages 6 to 12):
- Encourage children to think about others: Many school-age children are able to see the world through another’s eyes. By encouraging this ability, you are helping children to reason and think about interpersonal matters. If a school-age child engages in unkind behavior with another child, explain to her or him why the behavior is unacceptable and how this behavior makes the other child feel.
- Create opportunities and express appreciation: During the school years, you can give children more responsibility for being helpful and kind to others. By creating such opportunities for children, you also can tell them how much you appreciate their helpful behavior and how this behavior affects others. This enables children to experience the good feelings that result from being kind to others and may result in them initiating acts of kindness on their own.
- Practice empathy: Empathy is defined as “the ability to identify oneself mentally with a person or thing and so understand his/her feelings or meaning.” Empathy also involves connecting with the feelings and needs of things other than people, such as animals and the environment. You can practice empathic behavior and encourage school-age children to do the same. You can show them how empathy can help solve everyday problems.
Source: Adapted by Kim Leon, Ph.D., former State Specialist, Human Development and Family Studies, University of Missouri Extension
Early response is key to controlling volunteer eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) in range and pastures. Although cedar trees (especially male species) can be ideal windbreak trees due to their hardiness and rapid growth, seed-producing female trees can move a low cedar population pasture to overrun with large cedar trees within six to seven years. Why? Each female cedar tree has the potential to reproduce enough offspring within seven years to significantly impact 26 additional acres of grazing. For example, a mature single cedar tree can grow roots over 25 feet deep and reduce forage grazing production by over 30%.
To control scattered cedar trees in a pasture, it may be effective to simply cut each cedar tree off using a hoe, saw, spade, loppers or mechanical shears; the key is killing the cedars while they are small. Provided that no branches are left on the main trunk after cutting, these conifer trees will not grow back from their roots. Also, cedar seeds do not blow long distances like most noxious weeds. Although birds feeding on the round blue seeds can spread the cedar trees wide distances, research has shown that 95% of seedlings grow within 200 yards of their parent cedar tree. Thus, persistent cutting of young seedlings can be an effective control.
Another option might be chemical control for trees less than 10 feet tall. A foliar spray application of entire trees with Tordon 22K®, Graslan L® or Surmount® can be applied when the cedars are actively growing in May or June. Or, soil applications with Spike®, Tordon 22K® or Velpar L® chemicals can be applied under branches in April to May or September to October. For larger pastures or higher cedar populations, prescribed pasture burning may be the best solution. Since these trees grow in height about 1 to 1½ feet
Amy Timmerman
Extension Educator
Phone: 402-336-2760
E-mail: atimmerman2@unl.edu
per year, plan to burn while trees are still smaller. For safety, prescribed burning cooperatives incorporate well planned events with plenty of burn helpers, equipment and clear communication with local fire departments. For example, the Central Platte Burn Alliance based in Gothenburg is a non-profit burning group with about 20 ranchers and neighbors jointly burning pastures. Usually, burning is delayed for at least one year after cedars have been cut in a pasture.
More details regarding cedar control and pasture burning are available on CropWatch or Nebraska Prescribed Fire Council.
Source: Todd Whitney - Extension Educator (CropWatch - December 17, 2024)
How much feed or hay do you have going into winter? Will you have enough feed to provide for current cattle numbers? An inventory now before winter hits full swing could be helpful.
First, get a final idea of what is available. Count bales, measure silage, evaluate remaining fall and winter pasture, and estimate crop residue grazing opportunities. Consider best- and worst-case scenarios. While keeping an eye on the weather outlook is helpful, consider what happens if conditions turn cold and snowy and pasture or residue grazing won’t be as effective.
We also need to get an idea of how many animals need to be fed and what quality that feed needs to be. Keeping May calving cows through the winter is different than growing stockers. Factor storage and feeding losses into your planning as well. Silage uncovered outside or improperly stored hay can easily have over 25% dry matter losses in storage. How you feed will also add to the amount of loss you can expect.
After we make a final assessment, it’s time to plan. Some may have too much feed laying around that is getting old. Selling some may generate a premium. If we come up short, consider options. Do you have the fixability to sell off some animals if feed is getting tight or do we need to pad our reserves? If so, is buying feeds that are cheaper now and storing them through the winter a possibility? Or do we roll the dice on needing to purchase later when availability is lower and costs might jump.
Bethany Johnston
Extension Educator
Phone: 402-336-2760
E-mail: bjohnston3@unl.edu
Planning is indispensable. Having a feed inventory and checking prices and availability now will go a long way to reducing the anxiety of what we will feed our cows this winter.
Source: Ben Beckman - Extension Educator (CropWatch - December 13, 2024)