K-State Research and Extension will host the 20th-annual Cover Your Acres Winter Conference in Oberlin, for crop producers and consultants on Jan. 17 and 18.
Cover Your Acres is a producer-driven meeting focused on new ideas and research-based updates in crop production in northwest Kansas and the central High Plains region.
The conference, which typically draws more than 400 attendees from Kansas and other states, highlights the latest technology, methods, and conservation practices to improve crop production in the region.
2023 Speaker Topics
• Are you able to help your neighbor? There were numerous suicides in the Kansas ag community in 2022. The skills provided in this session will help you notice when someone is struggling and help you help them.
• Cover Crops, Grazing, and Soil Health in Western Kansas: A review of recent research on integrating covers with livestock, the economics, and what changes in soil quality are being observed.
• Current Financial Status of Northwest Kansas Farms: Using data from northwest Kansas farms, we take a look at opportunities for profitability and where producers should be alert for possible concerns.
• Dryland and Limited-irrigation Row-Crop Decisions: We’ll take a look at recent research in corn seeding rates, planting dates, long-term dryland rotations, and matching cropping options to water supply.
• Grain Market Outlook: A deeper look at local, domestic, and global drivers in 2023 Make Your Plan: Weed Management 2023: The latest in label changes, product updates, trial data, and most importantly, using that to make a plan.
• Nutrient Management Strategies: How does fertility management change with today’s fertilizer prices? Where are there dollars on the table from improved fertility management?
We’ll take a look at oils, and surfactants, and drift Agents, Oh My! We’ll discuss when to utilize the many products on the market to maximize herbicide efficacy.
• Weather Outlook and Mesonet Tools: We’ll take a look at the outlook for the coming year as well as the tools and data available to you from the Kansas Mesonet.
• Wheat: The crop with nine lives: A look at recent research in Kansas on yield components of wheat and what realistic expectations and management opportunities are for the 2023 crop.
When to Hold Them, When to Trade Them? A panel discussion with producers, dealership experts, bankers, and economists on the topic of machinery management
The program is the same each day, you can choose which day you want to attend. To register go to www.northwest.ksu.edu/coveryouracres. For questions, call 785-462-6281.
Stacy Campbell is an Agriculture and Natural Resources agent for Cottonwood Extension District. Email him at scampbel@ksu.edu or call the Hays office, 785-628-9430.
