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.

We must all be ready for winter

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.

Rick's Ag Roundup

Mole and gopher control demonstration A few years ago, when I lived out south of Ellinwood, a gopher chewed threw my satellite television cable and I lost reception. It was then that I declared war. If you have ever seen the movie "Caddy Shack," you know how the psychotic groundskeeper, played by Bill Murray had fits trying to get rid of the gopher at the golf course. Frankly I always thought the movie was "trashy," ...

Secretary Vilsack announces Conservation Program payments that are boosting natural resources on wor

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Nov. 5, announced that U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will begin issuing Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP 08) and Conservation Security Program (CSP 02) payments this month to thousands of farmers and ranchers in all fifty states to help maintain and improve the natural resources on their land. The yearly contract payments totaling $500 million are authorized under the 2002 and 2008 Farm Bills. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) administers ...

Rick's Ag Roundup

GIVE THANKS Yes, I do believe it was a million dollar rain over most of Barton County recently, and then some. The newly planted wheat was looking pretty weak prior to the rain. Some of it would not have come up without that rain, which varied from .75" to 3" in this immediate area. I had 2.44" on the 11th and 12th and another .07" on the 14th. So that 2.5" is more than we ...

Rick's Ag Roundup

WHEN DO THINGS GO DORMANT? I finally got a freeze cold enough to kill everything at my house the other morning! This is the first time this year and when it gets to be early November I guess it supposed to be cold. I had been covering my tomatoes for several days to try to ripen the green fruit but that morning it wilted the leaves even under cover. That brings me to think that ...

It will be worth it

It seems like nearly every meeting and many conversations in farm country eventually work around to the question, how can I remain successful and continue farming?

Barton County Conservation District Updates

Jenna Snell, sophomore at Ellinwood High School, will be representing Barton County at the Kansas Association of Conservation Districts (KACD) Annual Convention Nov. 22 in Wichita. Jenna competed in a speech contest against Bonnie Boulinghouse, sophomore at Great Bend High School. The topic was "Soil. Can You Dig It.?" Both girls did an excellent job of presenting their speeches and the judges admitted they had a tough job before them. The winner of the Barton ...

Rick's Ag Roundup

RICK'S AG ROUNDUP by Richard C. Snell, Barton County Extension Agent - Ag Temple Grandin to speak at K-State It is amazing what people can do with their talents and what they can overcome when they set their mind to it! Temple Grandin, a world-renowned animal behaviorist and a person with high functioning autism, will speak at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 9 at Kansas State University in Forum Hall at the K-State Student Union. ...

Stow the phone

Self absorbed. It's all about me. I am the center of the universe. All of these words come to mind when I see today's endless stream of motorists talking, tweeting, twittering and Face booking while speeding down the boulevard. This recent phenomenon has become epidemic and it's spreading. Harsh words? Certainly, but there are also harsh consequences in lives lost, bodies maimed or injured permanently in traffic accidents caused by those ...

Ag Foundation to hold annual meeting

The 2010 Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom (KFAC) Annual Meeting will be held on Thurs., Nov. 18 in Wichita. The meeting will be held in conjunction with the Kansas Agri Business Expo at the Century II Performing Arts and Convention Center.

America’s Farmers Grow Communities Program provides $2,500 Donations in 81 Kansas Counties

As the leaves on trees begin to change and evenings become shorter, farmers throughout Kansas are busy harvesting crops. While they are hard at work in the fields, farmers are also working hard to make a positive impact in their communities by participating in Monsanto Fund's America's Farmers Grow CommunitiesSM . This program offers farmers in more than 1,200 counties across 38 states, the unique opportunity to designate a $2,500 donation to their favorite local ...

University team receives $9.6 million USDA grant to help develop solutions for beef cattle grazing s

Drought, flooding, extreme heat, subzero temperatures: All of these climatic events and more in Kansas can threaten the supply and affordability of the nation's beef supply. It's hard to do much about the weather, but a team of Kansas State University scientists will be trying to find solutions so cattlemen can better adapt to any future climate extremes in their grazing operations.

Wandering about wheat

Looking at wheat throughout the central region of Kansas during the first couple days of May, members of the Wheat Quality Council (WQC) labeled the crop in fairly average to slightly above average condition.

Barton County Farm Bureau awards scholarships

Trees need care through dry weather

The question that I seem to get most often right now is why are my trees dying? Most of the time, the answer is the drought. Even though we have had some moisture recently, we are still in a severe drought. Driving around the county, you will even see old, big Red Cedars dying in the tree rows. That is because we have had two summers that were extremely hot and dry which baked the ...

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.