Holt Boyd News Column for the Week of August 24, 2025

N Extension Holt-Boyd Counties

Nebraska Extension Educator - Holt & Boyd Counties - LaDonna Werth
Nebraska Extension Educator - Holt & Boyd Counties - Amy Timmerman
Nebraska Extension Educator - Holt, Boyd, Garfield, Loup, & Wheeler Counties - Bethany Johnston
Nebraska Extension Educator - Brown, Rock, & Keya Paha Counties - Brittany Spieker
Nebraska 4-H Assistant - Holt & Boyd Counties - Debra Walnofer

August 22 – September 1:  Nebraska State Fair, Grand Island, NE

September 13 - 14: Nebraska State 4-H Shotgun Championships, 8am - 6pm, Heartland Public Shooting Park, Alda, NE; For more information: https://sites.google.com/view/nestateshotgun/home

October 1: ServSafe Manager Training, 8:30am - 6pm, Hall County Extension Office, Grand Island, NE

October 1: Knowing, Growing, and Grazing Grass Registration Deadline, Register at: go.unl.edu/knowing_grass

October 13 - 30: Knowing, Growing, and Grazing Grass Webinar Series, Monday and Thursday evenings, 7:30pm - 8:45pm CT, go.unl.edu/knowing_grass

 

Back to School

It is that time of year again when kids have returned to school, the excitement of the first days is starting to wear off, and families are adjusting to their new schedules. The beginning of the school year can bring lots of excitement and joy to kids, but it can also bring nerves, anxiety, and even some sadness that comes from a change in schedules and longing for the routine, or lack of routine, from summer. There are many ways parents can help their child(ren) feel out their emotions and help create a successful year for their child.

The importance of having parents understand their child’s emotions is a critical step in helping direct their next step to helping the child feel better. Parents need to listen and let the child express their emotions without judgment. This creates an environment where youth will continue to communicate with parents about their day, highs, and lows. Validating to assure youth that it is normal to feel a mix of emotions.

Prepare students by talking through what their days might look like to reduce uncertainty. Finally, parents should encourage and support their children by highlighting positives and being patient with behavior changes while everything is “new.”

To best help combat the new school year jitters, here are some tips that families can implement in their homes to make the school year a success!

LaDonna Werth

Extension Educator
Phone: 402-336-2760
E-mail: lwerth2@unl.edu

LaDonna Werth
  1. Set clear goals – setting goals helps the parents and the children know what they want to accomplish in the year ahead. These could be academic goals, like increasing a grade in math, or it could be personal, like joining a club or improving time management.
  2. Stay organized – keeping up to date calendar of events so everyone in the family can know what is going on. Help students label their folders and maintain organization within them, rather than allowing papers to float around in their backpacks.
  3. Creating a routine – creating a consistent routine helps everyone know the “game-plan” of the day and start on the right foot. Create a routine for waking up, homework, meals, and bedtime. It is also important to ensure that kids are getting enough sleep, eating a balanced diet, and getting physical activity.
  4. Stay involved in schools – parents should know what is happening during the school day by keeping up with communications, parent-teacher conferences, communicating with the teacher about the needs of the student and respecting the teacher's perspective, and collaborating on solutions. Youth should get involved in activities in different groups to help learn relationship skills and to help them feel a sense of connectedness to the community and school.

These are just a few tips to help create a successful school year. The important thing is to find what works best for your family to foster a learning environment for youth to grow and flourish.

To learn more about positive youth development, visit: https://4h.unl.edu/pyd/. To learn about more parenting or youth development topics, please contact your local Extension Office.

Source: Mickayla Blender – 4-H Educator (UNL For Families – August 25, 2025)

What’s in Your Manure? Keeping Plastic and Other Junk Out of Your Fields

If you've ever looked out over a freshly fertilized field and noticed a tangle of net wrap or a bit of old plastic poking out of the soil, you're not alone. Recent work on my own farm reminded me of something that might be bugging you too: finding plastic and other junk in livestock manure and worse, seeing it show up in the field.

We all know that a good, clean manure application is important for soil health, crop performance, and even how our operation looks to others. But getting there takes more than just spreading what’s in the pit or pile. It starts all the way back at the feed source and it follows through every step from pen to crop harvest...using preventative common sense.

One of the biggest culprits I see is net wrap and twine (see photo). Look, I get it, it’s tempting to just toss a whole bale into the feeder or tub grinder and keep moving. We're all busy. But that plastic wrap doesn’t just disappear. If animals don’t eat it (which can cause serious health issues), it gets collected with the manure and ends up in the spreader. From there, it makes its way to your field or worse, into your equipment.

Let’s not forget about wildlife either. They can ingest plastic or get tangled in it, leading to injuries or death. So, take an extra minute to remove that wrap and twine properly. It’s a small step with big impact.

Amy Timmerman

Extension Educator
Phone: 402-336-2760
E-mail: atimmerman2@unl.edu

Amy Timmerman

Whether your animals are housed inside or out, stuff happens. Tools break. Gloves and tags fall in. The wind blows in plastic grocery bags or feed sacks. Bits of wood rot and fall apart. And sometimes, concrete chips away during pen cleaning.

All of that can end up in manure. So regular pen inspections and quick cleanups are key. The more junk you pull out early, the less ends up in the pit, pile or field.

This is also a good time to talk about mortality management. If an animal dies in the pen and isn’t removed quickly, it can spread disease and breed flies. Also, over time, bones and tissue decomposing in pits clog up pumps and spreaders. A quick daily walkthrough can catch these issues early and keep your system flowing the way it should.

When manure is clean, equipment runs smoother; spreader beaters are less likely to jam, and hoses don’t plug as often. And when it’s time to apply manure and let’s be honest, we’re usually racing against weather, that reliability is priceless.

But it’s not just about avoiding breakdowns during application. Foreign materials left in the manure can cause problems later. I’ve personally pulled net wrap off closing wheel bearings on our planter more times than I’d like to admit. I’ve heard horror stories of twine messing up tillage tools and concrete chunks being sucked into windrowers, balers, and combines. None of that is cheap or quick to repair.

A little bit of maintenance up front saves a lot of frustration down the road. Whether it’s removing twine from bales, picking up fallen tools, or walking pens to check for debris, every step you take keeps manure and fields cleaner and safer. Let’s keep plastic and other junk out of manure and off fields. Crops will grow well and uniformly, equipment will run smoothly, and you will have peace of mind.

Source: Leslie Johnson - Animal Manure Management Extension Educator (CropWatch – August 20, 2025)

Tips for Selecting a Hay Core Sampler

Accurate forage testing starts with how you collect the sample.

  • Grab samples only represent the quality of about one square foot in the field, which does not capture the natural variability across a hay lot.
  • Quality can vary not only from bale to bale, but also within a single bale, with outer layers often differing from the interior.

Using a hay probe is the only way to obtain a sample that represents the whole lot. By coring into the bale and sampling at least 20 different bales, you collect material that best represents the variation across the field. Combined, these cores should total about ½ pound of forage, providing a reliable sample for testing.

Key Features for a Hay Probe

While many acceptable probes are available, they differ in design, ease of use, and durability. Below are key features to consider when selecting a probe:

Bethany Johnston

Extension Educator
Phone: 402-336-2760
E-mail: bjohnston3@unl.edu

Bethany Johnston
  1. Length of the Probe- Select a probe 14–24 inches long so you reach well into the bale and sample all layers. Shorter probes risk under-sampling the bale’s interior.
  2. Diameter of the Tube- A tube diameter of 3/8 to 5/8 inch works well. Smaller tubes don’t collect enough material, while larger ones can be difficult to push into dense bales.
  3. Cutting Edge Design- Look for a sharp, hardened, or serrated tip. Blunt or dull edges compress or shred hay, skewing results toward leafy portions. Probes with replaceable or sharpenable tips are best for long-term use.
  4. Sample Collection System- A collection canister or side window makes it easier to empty cores into a sample bag. Avoid probes that require emptying out material each time, they slow the process and may lead to under sampling when fatigue sets in.
  5. Power Source- For sampling one lot, hand-driven probes are adequate. Hand-driven probes are simple, reliable, and always ready. For multiple hay lots, probes that attach to a drill can save time and energy, again reducing the risk of under-sampling.

Hay Probes for Sale 
This list is not exhaustive and is provided for reference only; inclusion does not imply endorsement, nor does omission imply disparagement.

Source: Mary Drewnoski, Nebraska Extension Beef Systems Specialist (BeefWatch – August 19, 2025)