Farm School for Women

The Annual Buffalo Trace Farm School for Women will Take place on Tuesdays in October, (October 2, 9, 16, 23) starting at 6:00 p.m. and will conclude by 7:30 p.m. Each session will be held at the Mason County Extension Office and dinner will be served each night. It is open to any Lewis County Lady that is interested in agriculture. The school will cover meat cutting, agrability, beneficial insects, and shii-take mushroom workshop. There will be no cost to attend. We do ask to register with the Lewis Coun-ty Extension Office at 796-2732.

Master Cattlemen

Don’t forget to sign up for Master Cattlemen. It is 10 class series that will go in-depth on beef cattle production. During this series we will discuss forag-es, health, management, facilities, reproduction, genetics, environmental, marketing, nutrition, and end product. All meeting are evening meetings that run from 6:00 to 9:00. You must attend 8 out to the 10 sessions. There will be an $80 registration fee. Classes start on Monday October 1 and run on Monday night till December 3rd. Supper will be served each night. To register for the school call the Lewis County Extension Office at 796-2732.

Bull Value Assessment Program

The Buffalo Trace Counties are offering a 2 night class on bull value assessment. The class will be held on November 1st and 8th starting at 6:00 and will be held at the Fleming County Extension Office. There is a $25 registration and space is limited to 50 people. The first night will look at: .

Understanding and utilizing EPDs, Matching Ge-netics to your management and environment, breeding soundness exams, proper nutrition and health programs, tools for selection, selection deci-sions for different marketing options. On the second night there will be a mock auction and evaluating of bull purchase.

Harvest Fest

The 15th annual Farmers Market Fall Harvest Day Fest will be held on Saturday, September 29th at the Farmers Market in Vanceburg. There will be farm fresh produce, arts and crafts, and contests. At 10:30 a.m. 4H PUMPKIN CONTEST, then 11:00 a.m. 4H HAM AUCTION, followed by APPLE PIE CONTEST at 12:00 noon; 1:00 p.m. OPEN PUMPKIN CARVING CONTEST (pumpkins must be carved before); and then followed up with the all new WATERMELON EATING CONTEST at 2:00 p.m. For a complete lest of rules for the contest call the Extension Office at 796-2732.

New Crimson Clover Available: Kentucky Pride

Dr. Norm Taylor was the clover breeder at UK for over 50 years. One of his last variety releases was an annual crimson clover named Kentucky Pride. This variety provides many cover crop and forage op-tions that were not available in previous varieties.

Lewis County Agriculture & Natural Resources

October 2018

Cooperative Extension Service Lewis County 284 Second Street Vanceburg, KY 41179 (606) 796-2732 Fax: (606) 796-6428 lewis.ca.uky.edu

stand facing the corn plant and push the stalk with one hand at a 30-degree angle at eye level. If the stalk breaks or does not return to standing, the stalk integrity is compromised.

If the corn is ready to harvest, and stalk rot is sus-pected, a pinch test may be used to reduce the amount of breakage from a push test. Pinch the stalk somewhere between the lowest two inter-nodes. If you feel the stalk “give” or compress un-der your fingers, the stalk integrity is compromised. Lodged corn that comes in contact with soil can also lead to secondary ear rot development and reduce grain quality. If 10 percent of the stalks tested are compromised, the field should be harvested as soon as possible to avoid yield and grain quality losses due to late-season Lodging. Quick grain harvest and immediate grain drying is the best option to mini-mize losses from flooding. If grain drying is not an option, then these fields cannot be harvested until grain approaches harvest moistures near 15%. Most grain elevators likely will not accept corn at very high moistures.

Ensiling Options

The greatest risk to ensiling corn comes from the mud left by the receding waters. The mud may con-tain Clostridium bacteria, which can interfere with fermentation. This can lead to botulism toxins. Any flood-damaged corn that is ensiled should be bagged separately, marked and sampled for poten-tial toxins before feeding. Good ensiling techniques reduce the risk of poor fermentation, but they do not prevent contamination from the mud. For corn with heavy silt residues, perhaps harvesting and bagging high moisture grain is the better option. Again, store any flood-damaged corn separately from other corn. Monitor it for any toxins before feeding.

Market Facilitation Program The Market Facilitation Program (MFP) provides di-rect payments to help corn, cotton, sorghum, soybean, wheat, dairy, and hog producers who have been directly impacted by illegal retaliatory tariffs, resulting in the loss of traditional exports. Producers may apply for MFP beginning September 4, 2018 through January 15, 2019.

Kentucky Pride is more winter hardy, later in ma-turity for more spring grazing, and has better toler-ance to poorly drained soils than the long term standard crimson clover Dixie. The best time to plant Crimson clover is early to mid-September to allow establishment before winter, but the majority of production is late March, April and May. Like all annual clovers, it then dies after flowering, but in it’s short life it is very productive and excellent at fixing N.

Flooded Corn Late in the Season

Northern and eastern Kentucky received a lot of rainfall late in the season. Some cornfields were flooded. The heavy rains north of the Ohio River will add to the river’s water volume, potentially flooding fields downstream.

If flooding fully submerges corn in fields with soil temperatures above 70 degrees Fahrenheit for more than 24 hours, the corn will not survive. For corn at blacklayer, seed fill was complete. The flooding event, itself, will not affect seed fill. For corn that was near blacklayer, these plants will die prematurely, reducing yields. In either scenario, flooding will slow grain drying and possibly com-plicate harvest.

Stalk Problems

Flooded corn is more prone to stalk rot develop-ment. Fungi and bacteria can colonize weakened stalks and roots, contributing to stalk rot and lodg-ing when waters recede. Check plants for stalk rot in several areas of the field by using a push test or a pinch test. To conduct a push test,

If these waters stay below the ear, then the biggest risk is in-creased stalk rots. Image Source: Rob Amburgey, County ANR Ex-

Let’s use a real world example. The farm we will dis-cuss had 100 fall-calving cows. The average body weight of these cows was about 1300 lbs. at a BCSof 5. These cows calved in good condition, averaging a BCS of a nearly 6. However, lack of rain resulted in limited pastures and the producer began to feed hay approximately September 1st, which coincided with the onset of calving The hay was below average in quality (TDN of 48CP of 7%). Money was tight for this operation so they made the decision NOT to supple-ment these cows. Making the assumption that these cows were average lactating cows and that they would consume about 27 pounds of hay (as fed) dai-ly, the hay provided only 82% of their maintenance energy needs and would result in a loss of one BCS in about 57 days. This producer decided to synchronize and AI his cows. On November 21st when the timed AI was performed, the average BCS had decreased, as predicted above, averaging a strong 4. Remember each BCS equals about 75 pounds so these cows were losing weight rapidly. After the insemination, the bulls were turned out for 60 days then removed. The cows were diagnosed for pregnancy about 90 days after the insemination and their average BCS was a weak 4 so the cows likely lost another 30 pounds or so of body weight. Reproductive perfor-mance was terrible as only 29 conceived to the AI, 31 conceived via natural service, and 40 were OPEN!

This example may seem exaggerated but this scenar-io actually occurred on a farm and is a real-world ex-ample of improperly managing body condition score. The question then becomes which was the more eco-nomical management scheme; no supplementation and reduced reproduction or supplementation to meet nutrient needs. To help determine this let’s first look at our losses. In the above scenario, 40 cows were examined as open. Of these, let’s assume 7 would have been open regardless so 33 calves were lost due to the reduced input management. Let’s say these 33 calves (17 steers, 16 heifers) would have weaned at 525 pounds (550 for steers, 500 for heif-ers) so we lost 17,350 pounds of product. If we would have sold these calves last week they would have av-eraged about $145.19 cwt (average price for steers and heifers). Our lost income would be about $25,190 (173.5 x $145.19).

On or about December 3, 2018, CCC will announce a second payment rate, if applicable, that will apply to the remaining 50 percent of the producer’s pro-duction. An MFP payment, based on at either the initial or second payment rate, will be made after a producer harvests 100 percent of the crop and cer-tifies the amount of production. The initial MFP rates are as follows:

• Corn $0.01 per bushel

• Soybeans $1.65 per bushel

Wheat $0.14 per bushel

• Dairy $0.12 per cwt.

• Wheat $0.14 per bushel

Crops If requested, a producer must provide supporting docu-mentation as determined by CCC for the amount of pro-duction. The documentation must be verifiable or relia-ble records that substantiate the reported amounts. Producers requesting a MFP payment must have a crop acreage report on file with FSA for MFP crop commodi-ties.

Where to File the Application MFP applications are available online at www.farmers.gov/MFP. Applications can be completed at a local FSA office or submitted electronical-ly either by scanning, emailing, or faxing.

The Real Cost of Limiting Nutrients

Fall is rapidly approaching and all cow-calf produc-ers need to access the body condition score (BCS) of their herd. Spring-calving cows are nearing weaning time and the fall is the most economical time to put weight back on. Now is also a key time to manage BCS score in fall-calving cows. Most realize the link between body condition score and reproductive rate but what is the economic impact of allowing BCS to decline? Each year producers faced the deci-sion of how much money should I put into my cows? Can I afford to feed them? So, what is the cost of letting your cows get thin? What is more cost effective; reducing costs by limiting nutrition to your cows and living with reduced reproductive per-formance or feeding your cows to perform?

So what is cheaper? What if we would have separat-ed the thin cows and fed them to match their nutri-ent needs? What if we would have taken the $4,000 we used for the AI and used it to purchase supple-ment? What if we had cut our hay earlier so that the TDN exceeded 55% (nutrient needs of the lactating cow) even though we would have made less hay?

We could ask several more questions. We could con-sider several more options. The decision to supple-ment is pretty easy math.

Sincerely,

Philip Konopka County Extension Agent for Agriculture & Natural Resources

Allowing the cows to lose weight likely also in-creased the cost per AI pregnancy. Our data from thousands of properly conditioned cows suggested that typically we achieve a 60% conception rate to AI and 92-93% overall pregnancy rate. The cost per cow to perform the insemination totaled approxi-mately $40 ($10 CIDR, $13 GnRH & PG, $5 techni-cian, $12 semen) per cow or $4,000 total. The re-productive failure basically doubled the cost per pregnancy from $67 ($40/.60) to $138 ($40/.29) making it impossible for this operation to recoup the cost of the AI.

What would it cost to supplement these cows to maintain their weight for this period of time? To meet their nutrient needs, these cows would need about 12 pounds of our soyhull/corn gluten supple-ment mixed at a ratio of 2:1 assuming a 1:1 substi-tution of supplement for hay intake. The cost of our supplement averaged $150 per ton for the feeding period which lasted from September 1st to bull re-moval on February 1st or 123 days. So the cost of supplementation would be about $11,070 ($.075 per pound x 12 pounds x 123 days x 100 cows = $11,070). If you back calculate, the break-even weaning weight for this level of supplementation is slightly less than 350 pounds.