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The last chicken is gone as another county fair is in the booksBy Richard C. Snell Barton County Extension Agent, Agriculture Kansas Which was the last chicken standing? As this year's Barton County Fair came to an end, I couldn't help but wonder how many chicken halves had been cooked in the past 50 years and how many people had helped. The county fair is over and I'm dead tired both mentally and physically. Some counties are just getting started with their fairs and others are a couple of weeks away yet. No matter when you hold it, it is a lot of work for Fair Board members, 4-H families, volunteers and extension educators. Even the trustees from the county jail provided a lot of labor and we are grateful to them and Sheriff Buck Causey. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the folks who made this year a rousing success. If you made it out to the fair you saw a lot of nostalgia. This was the 50th year for the 4-H chicken barbecue. It was started in 1957. This is one of the few and maybe the only one of its kind. Volunteers put the chickens in metal racks over an open pit fire and apply the special recipe barbecue sauce. About 2,200 people who purchased tickets were fed again this year. Next year, we are going to serve beef since beef is the most raised livestock and meat commodity in our area and thus some area businesses are willing to donate it. According to Mike Murphy, retired Barton County farmer, who helped for many years with the fair in various capacities, the chicken barbecue was started to bring people out to our 4-H livestock sale. They had about 400 people the first year. Bill Van Skike, retired Barton County 4-H agent, says that in the beginning, K-State's poultry department came out and did a lot of the work the first three years and then turned it over to the local folks. I had the privilege of working with Bill for two years before he retired in 1989. According to Mr. Murphy and Mr. Van Skike, one of the Great Bend Vocational Agriculture classes built most of the barbecue racks that are still being used. If I would have thought of it, I would have written this before the fair. But, in the middle of all the stress I had other things on my mind such as county extension budgets, wheat plots, judges for the fair, the livestock sale, crop exhibits, the business appreciation and other things. I just don't think that well under stress. We had a very successful fair and one of the best livestock auctions we have ever had. We had great weather (which normally we do). Even though we had a couple of muggy days with high humidity, it seems to get a lot hotter the week after our fair. I guess in some ways it pays to be early. This year was the first fair we have had without Gary Ewing, a devoted fair board member and livestock superintendent. He paved the way for what our swine judge said was one of the best run shows he had seen. As each year passes we have some new things, we drop some things and some new people try to replace those we have lost. Next year will be a new phase. I will miss the chicken, but I am looking forward to the beef. More on blossom end rot Last week I started to tell you about blossom end rot. As I mentioned, it is not really a disease but is one of the most common conditions for tomato growers and one that we get a lot of questions about. BER appears as a large, dark brown, soft spot at the bottom of the tomato just as it is beginning to ripen. You can't save a tomato once it is affected, and picking off all of the bad fruit will allow the plant to devote it's energy to developing healthy tomatoes. The ruined fruit can be tossed on the compost pile. I have been known to cut off the bottom half and keep the top half. BER is caused by a calcium deficiency, which is usually the result of an uneven water supply. Tomato plants need a steady supply of water to absorb the necessary calcium from the soil. Leaves sometimes curl (roll inward) and water flows to the leaves to try to keep the plant from wilting. Calcium moves with the water flow and bypasses the fruit; thus, BER develops. After the plant acclimates by increasing root development, the BER goes away. My best cure is to water deeply and thoroughly to encourage your plants to send out deep roots that aren't as sensitive to brief dry spells as shallow roots. The best time to water is in the morning. Do this only once or twice a week. Water at the base of the plant and give them a good soaking. Don't just sprinkle. Secondly, mulch around your plants to help the soil retain moisture. The mulch should be light enough to allow air to get to the plants. Adding extra calcium does little good. Lush-vined varieties are more prone to problems and early varieties are more prone because they produce fruit earlier in the season. Pick off defective fruit to encourage new ones to form. Heavy fertilization or fertilization with certain fertilizer elements (such as ammonium nitrogen forms) should be avoided since this competes with calcium for root uptake. BER usually disappears in late July. There is some controversy as to whether adding Epsom's salts helps. I have tried this and one year I thought it helped and the other year I thought it made it worse. Epsom salts is primarily magnesium sulfate. So unless you are short of magnesium, it won't help. I have heard of people grinding up a few Tums to get more calcium. The bottom line and the easiest thing to do is mulch the soil and water deeply. This will give you many beautiful tomatoes. Date: 8/9/07
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