Robert Pore's Ag Blog

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Two University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension workshops will inform livestock and poultry producers about the economic value of manure resources.

The workshops, hosted by UNL Extension's Comprehensive Nutrient Management Planning team, will take place Aug. 22 in Columbus and Aug. 29 near Scottsbluff. Morning and afternoon sessions will teach participants how to use manure resources, comply with state and federal regulations and initiate a nutrient management plan.

The Columbus event will be held at the Ag Park Club Room. Morning session topics include: land application registration, value of manure, managing manure nitrogen, brief overview of manure use plan spreadsheets and record keeping for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits. Participants also will work on a case study dealing with feedlot solids and swine lagoons.

Following lunch, an afternoon session will be held at the Bill Luckey farm north of Columbus. Presentations will be given on Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality regulations and phosphorous index application and management options. Field demonstrations will be done on soil and manure sampling and calibration equipment.

The Scottsbluff event will begin at the Knorr-Holden corn plots. During the morning session, participants will learn about land application registration, phosphorous index application and management options, soil and manure sampling and calibration equpment. Afternoon sessions will be at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center and cover land application registration; value of manure; nitrogen recommendations, availability and balance; use of manure use plan spreadsheets and record keeping for NPDES permits.

Workshop participants will receive NDEQ Land Application Certification by completing the program. Producers from permitted operations will need to complete a phosphorous index assessment by Dec. 31 for fields receiving manure as well. Therefore, producers who have fulfilled their land application training are still welcome to attend and learn about other regulatory updates and tools available to complete the assessment.
Registration is $45 and includes lunch. Additional persons from the same farm can attend for $15 each. Preregistration is requested.

For more information or to register for the Columbus event contact Aaron Nygren at (402) 352-3821, e-mail anygren2@unl.edu or Steve Pritchard at (402) 395-2158, e-mail spritchard1@unl.edu. For the Scottbluff event contact Tom Holman at (308) 632-1480, e-mail tholman1@unl.edu.

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Four University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension field days will reveal what soybean growers need to know about soybean cyst nematodes and the damage they can cause to soybean yields.

Soybean cyst nematodes cost Nebraska soybean producers millions of dollars in reduced yields each year, said John Wilson, extension educator in Burt County. The problem is that soybean cyst nematodes often have no visible symptoms and go undetected.

"Yield losses of 20 to 30 percent have been documented in the state with no above ground symptoms on the plant," he said. "The first indication of the problem is soybean yields that have leveled off or even started to drop while corn and other crop yields in the same field continue to improve."

Twenty years ago, soybean cyst nematodes were only found in eastern Nebraska along the Missouri River. Today, the nematodes have been identified in 34 Nebraska counties with high counts being reported as far west as Kearney, Wilson said.

The field days are designed to teach producers to identify and manage soybean cyst nematodes infestations, said Loren Giesler, UNL plant pathologist in the university's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Participants will see soybean cyst nematode-resistant and susceptible soybean varieties and examine cysts on infested soybean plant roots. They also will receive a free kit for one soybean cyst nematodes analysis.

"If SCN caused holes, lesions, spots or other plant abnormalities, it would be much easier to convince producers to test for and manage it," Giesler said. "However, infested plants often look healthy. Soybean cyst nematodes have earned the title of the silent yield robber."

Dates, times and locations for the field days include:
Aug. 9 -- 6:30 p.m., Kenny Reinke farm, from Neligh go 5.5 miles north on Highway 14, turn into farmstead on west side of highway.

Aug. 10 -- 10 a.m., Vaughn Gross-Rhode farm, from North Bend go 2.5 miles north on Highway 79, 2.5 miles east on County Road Q.

Aug. 21 -- 10 a.m., Rex Lukow farm, from Holstein Junction on Highway 6 go five miles south on Holstein Avenue, one mile east on Assumption Road, one-fourth mile south on Wanda Avenue.

Aug. 23 -- 6:30 p.m., Mark Caspers farm, from Auburn go five miles south on Highway 75, 3 miles west on 724 Road, one-eighth mile south on 736 Avenue.

The soybean cyst nematode field days are presented by UNL Extension with support from the Nebraska Soybean Board. For more information, contact a local UNL Extension office.

UNL Extension is in the university's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

By ARS News Service

It looks like Minnesota grain farmers could make more money by switching to organic grain crops. That's the conclusion of a four-year study being announced today at the American Agricultural Economics Association's annual meeting in Long Beach, Calif.

David W. Archer, an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) economist, and Hillarius Kludze, an ARS soil scientist, will present a paper on this study, conducted at the Swan Lake Research Farm near Morris, Minn. The study was unusual in that it analyzed both economic risks and transition effects of switching to organic farming.

The 130-acre Swan Lake farm is representative of typical corn-soybean farms in Minnesota. The ARS North Central Soil Conservation Research Lab in Morris leases this farm for field research from the local Barnes-Aastad Soil and Water Conservation Research Association.

Archer and Kludze compared an organic corn-soybean rotation and an organic corn-soybean-spring wheat/alfalfa rotation--half grown with conventional tillage and half with strip tillage--with a corn-soybean rotation using conventional tillage. Strip tillage involves tilling only the middle of the seedbed. The scientists found that when strip tillage is used with organic farming, one of the transition risks is an increase in weeds until farmers learn to manage the system.

Computer simulations projected costs, yields and risks over a 20-year period, using yield and economic data from the four-year study, as well as crop price records of recent years.

Records showed that organic crops fetched much more than conventional crops: soybeans, up to $14 more per bushel; corn, up to $3 more; and wheat, up to $5 more. Organic alfalfa hay is too new to have a track record, so researchers recorded it as selling for the same price as conventionally grown hay.

Another computer model projected that farmers would net an average $50 to $60 more per acre a year by going organic, even with the highest transition costs. The premium price advantage would outweigh the initial higher costs and possibly lower yields, even if organic prices were to drop by half.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.