Rick's Ag Roundup

A LEGEND IN MANY WAYS - REMEMBERING BILL I have been fortunate and blessed over the years to have known many fine people. One of those is Bill Vanskike. I say "is" because I am sure he is still around, I just can't see his physical form anymore. Bill was a legend! I don't mean he was made up; oh no, with Bill what you saw was what you got. No, Bill was a legend ...

Wildlife specialist demonstrates how to solve rodent problem

Moles and pocket gophers can be among the most destructive pests to home landscapes.The Barton County Extension Office in Great Bend gets many calls annually from homeowners with holes, tunnels and mounds on their property which disrupts mowing and plant growth. Recently, Charlie Lee, Kansas State University wildlife damage control specialist, came out on the afternoon of Saturday, Dec. 4, to the Jim And Marlies Stevens property southeast of Great Bend with Rick Snell, ...

Kansas Department of Commerce to host five-part agritourism course

Farmers, business owners and entrepreneurs interested in agritourism are invited to attend a five-part agritourism course in February and March at Pratt Community College in Pratt.

Pass the heel, please

You've got to forgive me, but during this holiday season, seems like my thoughts turn to food and all of the wonderful homemade dishes of this season. I do enjoy the great fellowship with family and friends, but alas, what would this be without something good to eat.

K-State wheat research leads to multi-state entomology grant

MANHATTAN – Kansas State University joins four other land-grant universities in sharing a three year, $1.9 million grant to study pest control methods, treatments and best management practices in wheat. The USDA's Risk Avoidance and Mitigation Program (RAMP) awarded the grant, which provides resources that allow scientists from the five institutions to complete their work.

It’s a new year already

You've got to be kidding me, a new year already! 2011 will be here in just a few days and there will be a lot going on. Read on for some great educational opportunities.

Rick Snell Column

BEEF RED BOOKS AVAILABLE You've got just enough time before Christmas to buy one of the beef red books at our office for $6.00 each. Yes, that's right folks; you won't want to miss out on deals like this, especially since we only have a few! So much for the commercial but, once again this year, we will have the red beef cow-calf record pocket calendars for sale at $6 each. These make great Christmas ...

Rick's Ag Roundup

LAST FARM SPRAYER SCHOOL FOR A LONG TIME On Wednesday, Jan. 5, Dr. Bob Wolf from K-State Ag Engineering will be here to conduct a sprayer school at the old 4-H Grounds north of Great Bend on Highway 281. We will be in the big 4-H building with plenty of heat. Dr. Wolf is retiring soon, so this maybe the last sprayer event that we have for a long time. Bob will talk about various ...

Insight

If you're even a casual observer of weather, you know the East Coast was brutalized with the season's first round of snow and blinding winds that brought the New York state region to its knees.

Christmas past recalled

Seems a long time ago my mother told me about one of her first Christmas celebrations. The Christmas was 1930 and she would have been six years old.

KFB Young Farmers & Ranchers to hone leadership, advocacy skills

MANHATTAN – More than 400 farmers and ranchers between the ages of 18 and 35 will gather next month in Wichita to network, learn and help position themselves as leaders in agriculture and rural Kansas.

Kansas Farm Bureau Annual Meeting

The Kansas Farm Bureau annual meeting was held Nov. 19-20 in Manhattan.

Rick Snell Ag Roundup

ANALYZE YOUR FIELDS NOW We may still have a field or two of grain sorghum to harvest in Barton County, where the crop was planted late and the grain moisture has not dropped sufficiently. However, harvest flew by this year for most crop producers and with the open fall weather; we were finished much earlier than normal. You now have some time to give your fields some much-needed (TLC) tender loving care. This is one ...

KFAC, KFB host Be Ag-Wise workshops

KFAC, KFB to host 4th annual Be Ag-Wise educator training workshops this winter Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom (KFAC) and Kansas Farm Bureau (KFB) will host the fourth annual Be Ag-Wise educator training workshops in early 2011. The workshops, which are designed especially for agricultural education presenters at the county level, will give participants the opportunity to receive training for a variety of agriculture-based, hands-on learning labs; receive resource materials; share ideas; network ...

Conservation Innovation Grants application deadline Dec. 28

SALINA - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack this week announced that USDA is seeking proposals for grants to improve water quality, air quality and promote energy conservation. USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is making available $25 million through the Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) program to address natural resource concerns nationwide with a special emphasis on the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and the Mississippi River Basin.

Divide remains in Congress over Farm Bill, food stamps

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House and Senate Agriculture Committees laid the groundwork this week for reducing the size of the federal food stamp program, approving farm bills that would shrink food aid and alter the way people qualify for it.

Kansas CRP meetings for landowners prior to signup hosted by PF

Pheasants Forever is hosting fifty-one informational meetings across Kansas for landowners and agricultural producers in advance of the USDA Farm Service Agency's Conservation Reserve Program general sign-up that runs May 20 through June 14. Led by Pheasants Forever Farm Bill Wildlife Biologists, landowners can learn how to increase their farm or ranch income while creating wildlife habitat in the process.

Even Animal Lovers Prefer No Rabbits in the Garden

This week, I found a column from K-State's Mary Lou Peter about the rabbits that are out and about. They may be cute hopping around in a field, but when they get into your garden, their cuteness wears a little thin.

MILC, SURE, and NAP will restart on May 8

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrator Juan M. Garcia announced today that farm payments, which had been temporarily suspended due to sequestration, are scheduled to resume today, May 8th. This includes payments for the 2011 Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments Program (SURE), the Noninsured Crop Assistance Program (NAP) and the Milk Income Loss Contract Program (MILC).

Why Does It Matter?

This is finals week at Barton and many of the other colleges around the state. For instructors it's time to evaluate what students learned over the last semester. For students it's time for that one last push to maintain or raise their grades. While faculty see testing as a method to evaluate learning and adjust accordingly, students often see testing as a way to be tortured. Students focus on the grade while faculty focus on ...

Play safe on the farm

The dream of many young farm boys and girls is to ride on a tractor. For a youngster, the mammoth tractor epitomizes raw power, responsibility and coming of age.

FFA officers installed at banquet

Soil Stewardship Week

In 1955, the National association of Conservation Districts began a national program to encourage Americans to focus on stewardship. Stewardship Week is officially celebrated from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in May. It is one of the world's largest conservation-related observances.

Small raised garden

Do you have a small backyard? Do you wish you had the space for a garden, but don't want to sacrifice your entire yard to be able to grow your favorite vegetables? Well, an option for you is to garden is a small raised bed. When you garden in a raised bed system, one of the most important things to consider is the soil that you are going to use. One of the major reasons ...

The Law of the Minimum

There isn't much to say regarding the wheat crop right now but to wait so let's go in a different direction this week. First, the Crop Protection class at the college toured the area south of the college this past Wednesday travelling as far south as the Hudson area. Normally they can examine wheat, alfalfa, and newly emerged corn. Since the weather went south pretty quickly, the tour was a bit abbreviated. It's safe to ...