|
|
|
Grazing management school coming to Great BendBy Richard C. Snell Barton County Extension Agent, agriculture Kansas The Kansas state song is "Home on the Range." Rangeland is still one of our most important natural resources and is an important source of income for ranchers. To learn more about the range, plan on going back to school, Aug. 19-21, right here in Barton County. K-State Research & Extension is teaming up with the State Conservation Commission and the Natural Resources Conservation Service to hold Principles of Rangeland Management, a grassland school. It will be held at Camp Aldrich, located 15 miles northeast of Great Bend or just southwest of Claflin, north off Highway 156. The sponsoring organizations are all part of the Kansas Grazing Lands Coalition, Inc. The session starts at 9:30 a.m., on the first day and ends at noon on the third day. The school is limited to the first 30 participants. Tuition, room and board for attending the school is $250 per person. Additional persons from the same business will be charged $200. Lodging will be in air-conditioned sleeping rooms with double occupancy. Meals are provided with a steak fry set for the last evening meal. There will be two lunches, two suppers, and two breakfasts. Although only about one-fifth of our land in Barton County is comprised of grassland, it is much higher than that state-wide and in adjoining counties. Some of the principles to be learned during the school include: plant identification, forage and animal behavior, landscape art using fire, reclaiming the range--tolls and strategies, managing rangelands for wildlife, and planning with a purpose--putting it all together. Register by logging onto www.kglc.org or by stopping by our office at 12th and Baker in Great Bend, filling out the form and mailing a check. Ranch management field days Since we are already on the subject of ranches and grassland, I have some ranch management field days to tell you about. These are sponsored by Kansas State University and the Kansas Livestock Association. The first one is Aug. 19 near Peru, in southeast Kansas. However, the second one is closer to us. It will be held Aug. 21 near Beloit. Fletchall Ranch of Beloit will host the second in this year's series of KLA/K- State Ranch Management Field Days. The event will take place on the ranch, owned by Marty and Sharon Fletchall. Business interests of the Fletchall family focus on a cowherd, backgrounding cattle and a farming operation. A focal point of the program will be K-State animal nutritionist KC Olson telling producers how to reduce input costs, including stretching out the grazing season and matching calving dates with available grazing resources. Marty Fletchall will discuss his experience with using canola as an alternative grazing resource and will answer questions about planting rates, expected costs and cattle performance. K-State veterinarian Larry Hollis and Dorrance cattleman Lyman Nuss will explain how producers can protect their interests by participating in the state's premises registration program. The use of grain by-products to reduce feeding costs will be addressed by K-State's Dale Blasi and Karl Harborth. A later field day will be held Sept. 26 at the Gant-Larson Ranch of Medicine Lodge. Each of the three events is free to attend, courtesy of the sponsorship provided by Bayer Animal Health and the Farm Credit Associations of Kansas. For more information on the 2008 ranch management field days, log onto www.kla.org and look for the details. Manhattan to host state-wide agronomy field day Plan now to be in Manhattan, Aug. 22 for the 2008 Agronomy Field Day. The location will be the North Agronomy Farm, located at 2200 Kimball Avenue, across the road north from the K-State football stadium. This year's theme will be "Agricultural Solutions to Global Change." The day begins with registration at 8 a.m. Topics discussed during field tours will be: Bio-energy Production Systems, Greenhouse Gases and Climate, Water Quantity and Quality, and No-Till Cropping Systems. I will already be there, from moving a daughter for her freshmen year of college. So, if any of you are planning to attend, I would like to catch a ride back home with you, since my wife will have taken our van back home. Risk and profit conference I wrote about the K-State Risk and Profit Conference last week. It will be held Aug. 14 and 15 in Manhattan. The early deadline has passed but you can still attend for just $220. Actually, it should be well worth that price if you farm for a living or do a lot of business with farmers. Not only that, but I will even provide the transportation if you need it. I should have plenty of room. There will be a lot of topics on the table relating to the wild value of both commodities and input costs. For example: Managing the Threat of $3 Corn, Fertilizer Supply Risk and Other Issues Affecting Kansas Agricultural Cooperatives, Impacts of Irrigated Agriculture in Northwest Kansas. All of these issues will be addressed by K-State Ag Economists, with the exception of Jason Henderson of the Federal Reserve Bank. Call me at 620-793-1910 for rides or more information. 8/11/08 Date: 8/7/08 Advertisement
Copyright/Privacy
Copyright 1995-2009. High Plains Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Any republishing of these pages, including electronic reproduction of the editorial archives or classified advertising, is strictly prohibited. If you have questions or comments you can reach us at High Plains Journal 1500 E. Wyatt Earp Blvd., P.O. Box 760, Dodge City, KS 67801 or call 1-800-452-7171. Email: webmaster@hpj.com |
Market Snapshot Inside Futures |
