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
July 15: Holt County Pre-Fair Day, 9:00am, Solid Rock Youth Center, O’Neill, NE
July 16: Boyd County Pre-Fair Day, 3:00pm, St. Mary’s Catholic Church Hall, Spencer, NE
July 17: Research Update & Prescribed Burn Tour, 9am, 2:00pm, Holt County Annex Building, O’Neill, NE
July 17: DUE: Boyd County Bucket Calf, Bottle Lamb, and Bottle Goat Record Books
July 17: Boyd County Fair Set-Up, 7:00pm, Boyd County Fairgrounds, Spencer
July 19-20: Boyd County Fair 4-H Shooting Sports Competitions, 2:30pm, Gross, NE
July 22: Entry Day for Boyd County Fair Static Entries
July 22-26: Boyd County Fair, Boyd County Fairgrounds, Spencer, NE
August 2-9: Holt County Fair, Holt County Fairgrounds, Chambers, NE
Are You Spoiling Your Child?
Is it necessary to buy popular or famous brands of dresses, shoes, or toys for your children? Though some brands may cost several hundred dollars for just one item, parents may feel they have to buy expensive items for their children. Parents may think that children need to wear famous brands to be able to compete with their peers or feel they are in the same group as their peers. If you decide to buy an expensive and popular brand of dress or shoes for your children, you might want to think about what kind of values your children will learn.
Although children need to have special or nicer clothes for some occasions, it is not necessary to buy expensive ones. There are many ways to have special and nice clothes for your children. For instance, sew clothing for your children; make some changes to old clothes to fit your child's needs and styles; use clothing from older siblings or others. These can be very special and meaningful for your children. Children also need casual and comfortable dress to wear for daily play and activities.
Regarding shoes, there is no need to spend a lot of money on buying a popular brand because children grow so fast. Children need the right size and comfortable shoes to wear. Buying popular or famous brands of items for your kids all the time is likely to make your kids materialistic.
You may have a question about how your children can compete with their peers because most parents buy popular brands for their
LaDonna Werth
Extension Educator
Phone: 402-336-2760
E-mail: lwerth2@unl.edu
children, or your child asked for a famous brand of shoes because his friends wear that brand. This can be a good moment to teach your children about values, decision making, choices, money management, saving, etc. There is a Chinese saying: "People compete with people only makes everyone angry and frustrated and the competition is never ending." That means, if you use materialism as a way to teach your kids to compete with their peers, eventually your children might have a hard time learning good values, making wise choices, and managing money effectively. Therefore, don't spoil your kids. Be a good role model and teach them good values and skills to become a productive citizen.
Source: Nina Chen, Ph.D., Human Development Specialist, Jackson County University of Missouri Extension
Bacterial Diseases in Nebraska Dry Beans: A Potential Problem
With the recent thunderstorms, hail and higher temperatures, growers may experience widespread bacterial disease problems in dry beans throughout the Panhandle. Growers should be on the lookout for the major bacterial diseases and be able to identify these pathogens.
Four major bacterial diseases affect Nebraska dry bean crops: common blight, halo blight, brown spot, and wilt. Each disease is caused by a distinct pathogen and favored by environmental conditions involving high levels of moisture.
These diseases are enhanced when plants are wounded by storms, hail or any physical damage from humans, animals, or farm equipment. Bacteria cannot infect plants by themselves but instead require either natural openings in leaves or plant wounds to initiate infection. Storms with high winds and hail provide the perfect opportunity for bacteria to become established, as they can cause wounding and will move the pathogen and/or infected plant residues between and within fields.
Bacteria can survive in crop residues until environmental conditions favorable to infection occur. Daily temperatures that promote the development of each respective disease vary slightly:
- Halo blight - less than 80°F
- Brown spot - less than 85°F
- Common blight and wilt - greater than 85°F
Amy Timmerman
Extension Educator
Phone: 402-336-2760
E-mail: atimmerman2@unl.edu
Making the correct diagnosis can also be critical to control. Because the efficacy of several control measures depends on the particular pathogen involved, the first and most important step is to accurately identify the pathogen in order to make the right management decision.
Management
Disease development and recommended management are similar for all these diseases. Unfortunately, bacterial diseases are not easy to manage, and good control options are limited. Chemical control using copper-based products is variable, depending on pathogen, weather and disease pressure. Recently, we have seen some success in infested yields using products containing hydrogen dioxide as the active ingredient.
Genetic tolerance is available in a few cultivars, but complete disease resistance packages are difficult to obtain. The plant pathogen and dry bean breeding programs are both currently working toward producing new cultivars with better resistance to bacterial diseases. Several popular cultivars have good levels of resistance to certain bacterial diseases but are more prone to infection by rust or white mold. Other cultural practices that may aid in management include:
- Avoid planting infected seed or beans near fields infested the previous year.
- Implement some form of tillage to accelerate decomposition of infested tissues, which limits bacterial survival.
- Avoid unnecessary wounding of plants. Any type of mechanical damage can open the door for bacterial pathogens to infect plants. Even walking through infected fields in the morning when wet with dew provides an opportunity for spreading disease. It is often better to wait until afternoon when the foliage has dried to enter fields for scouting or field operations.
Source: Bob Harveson - Extension Plant Pathologist (CropWatch – July 11, 2025)
Annual Forage Options for July or August Planting
If planting in July, warm season annual grasses are good options for forage production. They can be used to produce hay, silage, green chop, or grazing both during the summer or winter. However, if the desired use is winter grazing and the need is for high quality forage, then delaying planting until late July/early August and using cool-season winter sensitive species like oats may be a better fit. This article provides information on species selection and some key management considerations based on desired use.
Hay Production
When planted in early July, sorghum-sudangrasses can produce 3 to 4 tons by early-mid September where pearl millet will likely produce 2 to 3 tons per acre, although there are improved varieties of pearl millet that can produce similar forage yields to sorghum-sudangrass. Forage quality depends on the stage of maturity at harvest. A good balance between yield and quality is to cut sorghum-sudangrass or pearl millet hay during the boot stage. Forage quality can range from 55 to 65% total digestible nutrients (TDN) and 6 to 10% crude protein when the plant is between the dough and boot stage.
Foxtail millet hay yield potential is less than sorghum-sudangrass or pearl millet. Typical hay yields range from 1.5 to 2.5 tons/acre, but it is also earlier maturing and dries quickly. Seed cost is also usually less for foxtail millet.
Bethany Johnston
Extension Educator
Phone: 402-336-2760
E-mail: bjohnston3@unl.edu
Silage Production
While both sorghum-sudangrass and pearl millet can be used for silage, forage sorghum may be a better option due to its greater yield potential with expected yields of 4 to 6 tons of dry matter (DM) (11 to 17 tons at 35% DM). The energy content of sorghum silage can be 60 to 65% TDN with a crude protein content of 7 to 8%. A good target is to harvest at soft dough, especially if you do not have the ability to process the kernel. It may be necessary to swath and then chop to get the correct moisture (30 to 35%).
Grazing During the Summer and Fall
Sudangrass (not the hybrid) may be best suited for grazing. It has smaller stems and will regrow after the initial grazing, resulting in equal or better yields in a grazing situation. Sudangrass also has less risk of prussic acid poisoning than sorghum-sudan. Pearl millet can also be used for grazing, and unlike sudangrass and sorghum-sudangrass, it does not produce prussic acid which means that it can be grazed during the initial frost period. To avoid prussic acid poisoning when grazing sudangrass or sorghum-sudan, cattle should be removed prior to the first frost and can be allowed to start grazing again 7 days after the killing frost. Grazing can begin when sudangrass and pearl millet reach 15 to 20 inches in height, but cattle should be moved when stubble height reaches 6 to 8 inches to allow for regrowth. Do not start grazing sudangrass before it reaches 15 inches as there is a risk of prussic acid poisoning. If the growth is greater than 36 inches tall, harvesting as hay, or silage may be best since grazing cattle will trample the forage and result in both waste and slow regrowth. Thus, if the goal is for late summer grazing, it may be advantageous to delay planting until mid to late July to ensure that the plants are at the desired stage for grazing.
Grazing During the Winter
High yield, but lower quality winter grazing. If the target animals are non-lactating, spring calving cows, then forage quality does not need to be high. In this situation, planting a forage with increased forage yield potential is a good option. Sorghum-sudangrass and pearl millet planted in mid-July, would have TDN from 50 to 55% and crude protein of 6 to 8% in the early winter. These forages are sensitive to cold temperatures and will usually die due to frost in early October.
Both sorghum-sudangrass and pearl millet can grow up to 5 to 6 feet tall. When grazing as stockpiled forages, managing forage allocation will improve grazing utilization. In fact, windrow grazing or swath grazing is worth considering. Windrow or swath grazing makes forage allocation for grazing these tall forages much easier and reduces waste. Essentially, this system involves cutting the forage and gathering it into a windrow or swath, which is then strip grazed. The NebGuide “Windrow Grazing” provides strategies and benefits of using this method.
These high yielding warm season forages could also be used with supplementation to meet the needs of animals with higher protein and energy requirements. Pairing these forages with distillers grains in the winter can provide a cost effective winter method for developing heifers or fall pairs.
The NebGuide “Summer Annual Forage Grasses” provides detailed information on using these warm season annuals for forages, including seeding rates, fertilization and other special considerations.
Lower yield, but higher quality winter grazing. For moderate to high quality winter grazing, the cool-season, winter sensitive forages like oats, spring triticale and brassicas are good forage options. These species will have greater fall forage production than winter hardy species, such as cereal rye or winter triticale. The target planting date for cool-season winter sensitive forages is from late July through August. If planting oats or spring triticale in early August, there is likely a forage quality advantage with the “forage” varieties since they are later maturing. This may allow for greater quality than mid or early maturing varieties. If planting in mid- to late-August, there is likely little quality advantage to using forage varieties over dual-purpose or “grain” type small cereals.
Brassicas can be planted with winter sensitive small grains for grazing. While there are forage varieties, use of non-improved varieties such as purple top turnip or rapeseed may be the most cost effective. Nutritive value of brassicas, when planted in August, does not appear to vary much among brassica species. The brassicas are low in fiber and high in both energy and crude protein, with nutritive value more similar to concentrates than forages.
In general, brassicas and small grains both maintain their quality well into the winter. Given their cost, either purple top turnip or rapeseed, can reduce seed cost compared to a small grain monoculture while simultaneously improving feeding value of the forage. Studies we conducted at USMARC in Clay Center, NE have shown oat brassica mixtures to have TDN levels in the 70 to 80% range with losses less than 5% into January. Crude protein of the brassicas is typically around 20 to 25% and oats 15 to 20% crude protein. Some have concerns about cattle choking on the root (bulb) of purple top turnips. Using a non-bulb brassica like rapeseed may be more attractive in this instance.
Research conducted at the High Plains Ag Lab at Sidney has shown that late summer planted oats can maintain quality amazingly well through the winter. Data from oats planted in late July and early August of 2012 and harvested and analyzed in early March of 2013 showed oats at 13% crude protein with TDN values in the mid 60’s. Similarly, trials at the West Central Research and Extension Center in North Platte found late October yields of 3 to 4 tons/acre with crude protein content ranging from 13 to 17%. TDN values were also in the mid 60’s.
Forage quality of late-summer planted small grain forages with or without brassicas is high and best suited to the requirements of lactating cows or growing calves. While there are many combinations of seeding mixtures, a mixture of 50 lbs/acre of oats with 3 lbs/acre of rapeseed has produced forage yields similar to oats alone but slightly greater gains when grazing weaned calves. Weaned calves grazing stockpiled oats and brassicas have gained between 1.5 and 2.2 lbs/d.
The NebGuide “Annual Cool-Season Forages for Late-Fall or Early-Spring Double-Crop” provides additional information on utilizing forages in a double crop system.
Source: Mary Drewnoski - Nebraska Extension Beef Systems Specialist, Daren Redfearn - Nebraska Extension Forage and Crop Residue Specialist (BeefWatch – July 1, 2025)