neighbors
Saturday, 7.5.14
ON THE WEB: www.yankton.net
PRESS DAKOTAN
PAG E 4
NEWSROOM: [email protected]
Out To Pasture
Using Cover Crops To Improve
Pastures: The Effect Of Overgrazing
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is
the first of a two-part series on
improving pasture land.
———
BY RITA BRHEL
Environmental Training
Program For Livestock
Operations Is July 10
BROOKINGS — An environmental training session for
operators of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or
CAFOs, is set for July 10 in Huron.
Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. at the Crossroads Convention Center (100 Fourth St. S.W. in Huron). The cost is
$50 and includes lunch, breaks and training materials. The
program begins at 8:50 a.m. and concludes at approximately 4:45 p.m.
To register for the training, call Candy Rogness or
Susan Goens at (605) 688-5141. Specialists from SDSU Extension, South Dakota State University, the South Dakota
Department of Environment and Natural Resources and
the Natural Resources Conservation Service are offering
the training.
This training fulfills the environmental and manure-management training requirement to obtain a livestock permit
for CAFOs from the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Certified Crop Advisor credits
are also available for attending this program.
Producers and any other interested individuals who are
not currently applying for a permit also can benefit from the
information and are encouraged to attend. Current federal
(EPA, USDA) and state water pollution control programs encourage livestock producers, even those who do not need
permits, to voluntarily adopt livestock production and manure management practices that protect water quality.
During the morning session, Erin Cortus, SDSU Extension
Environmental Quality Engineer will discuss water quality.
Julie Walker, SDSU Beef Specialist will lead a session on livestock nutrition options for reducing nitrogen and phosphorus content of manure. Jason Roggow, a Natural Resources
Engineer with the South Dakota Department of Environment
and Natural Resources, will give an overview of the South
Dakota DENR Livestock Permit program.
In the afternoon, Anthony Bly, SDSU Extension Soils Field
Specialist, will discuss managing nitrogen and phosphorus
in land applications of manure. Bly, along with Jason Gilb,
Conservation Agronomist with the USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service will go through nutrient management
planning worksheets. John Lentz, Resource Conservationist
with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service will
cover implementing conservation practices to improve sustainability. Cortus will conclude the day’s training with a
session on air quality and odor.
To learn more, visit iGrow.org.
Flooded Crops: Replant Decisions
In Regards To Crop Insurance
BROOKINGS — Farmers
with fields negatively impacted flooding have some big
decisions to make.
“Although at this point the
extent of the damage to crops
is still being determined, some
fields have been compromised
and yield loss will likely
occur,” said Kim Dillivan, SDSU
Extension Crops Business
Management Field Specialist.
“Farmers are asking, do they
replant the field with a different crop or do nothing?”
Additionally, Dillivan
pointed out that they are considering the ramifications
those decisions have on crop
insurance.
“In South Dakota, crop insurance protected $5.6 billion
in liability on growing crops in
2013 and 17 million acres were
insured — which accounts for
about 97 percent of acres
planted to major crops,” Dillivan said, of the important risk
management tool utilized by
producers in many parts of the
U.S. and South Dakota.
———
CROP INSURANCE 101
Multiple Peril Crop Insurance (MPCI) covers crop yield
loss caused by different types
of natural disasters such as
drought, freeze and flooding.
Newer insurance options combine price and yield protection
to protect against loss of revenue.
MPCI, under the Federal
Crop Insurance Program
(FCIP), is one of two types of
crop insurance available to
farmers in the U.S. Crop hail
insurance policies do not fall
under FCIP and must be pur-
chased separately. Like hail insurance, MPCI is provided by
private companies, however,
MPCI policies offered by these
private insurers are supervised and regulated by USDA’s
Risk Management Agency.
“For producers who have
insured crops that have been
affected by flooding, they
should first contact their insurance provider,” Dillivan
said.
Crop agents must be notified within 72 hours following
an eligible loss.
At this time of year, several
options exist for insured producers who have crop losses
caused by natural disasters
such as flooding. These are:
• Leave damaged crop as is
and receive insurance indemnity.
• Replant the same crop.
• Plant a different crop.
“Given that it is early July,
corn replanting, or planting
corn as a second crop is unlikely. However, there may still
be time to replant soybeans,
or to plant soybeans as a second crop,” Dillivan said.
To learn more and to read
the complete article by Dillivan, visit iGrow.org.
P&D Correspondent
There is no land that cannot be improved.
So said Matt Poore, a beef
specialist with the North Carolina State University Cooperative Extension Service in
Raleigh, N.C., who has been
experimenting on pasture at
his parents’ family farm for
the past 12 years and now has
developed a seed mix that,
with smart management decisions like basic fertility adjustments and a rotational grazing
system, he feels can better
any ground, no matter how
bad someone thinks it is.
“Nevertheless, the land
does respond, and this really
low-quality land can be quite
productive agricultural land if
we see potential there,” said
Poore, who shared photographs during an online training to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service
in June of one pasture transformed from a dry, fescuedominated plot to a
flourishing, primarily native
grass mix.
“Land has great ability to
recover,” he added. “There is
good in land that we formerly
thought was poor land.”
Steve Woodruff, an agronomist with the USDA-NRCS East
National Technology Support
Center in Greensboro, N.C.,
had introduced Poore and his
program topic to the training
attendees from around the
United States.
“Soil health has been elevated in recent years,” he said.
“It’s been a hot topic the last
couple of years and has now
moved from not just crop systems but also grazing systems.”
The reason for this, explained Poore, is that many
pastures not only in the
United States but around the
world are overgrazed.
“Overgrazing causes problems with (rain) runoff, and it
takes nutrients with it of
course, lowering forage production and shortening stand
life,” he said. “Well-managed
pastures can benefit the environment through reducing
runoff and improving the cycling of nutrients.”
Furthermore, while overgrazing is more likely to happen during drought
conditions, it is exactly this
scenario that leads to the
death of favorable pasture
plant mixes, Poore said. The
landowners that took great
care not to overgraze their
pastures during drought are
those whose pastures are
more resilient in the long
term; overgrazing pastures
during a drought results in
pastures of lower quality
even during the good years.
Yet, Poore realized, this is
a common mistake by
landowners who try to
squeeze a few more weeks
out of a pasture during a
drought rather than sell livestock or supplement with
hay. And for many subsequent years, landowners may
find themselves dealing with
erosion and invasive or undesirable plant species as they
struggle to find ways to restore the land to its former
quality.
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PHOTO: RITA BRHEL
Vetch and sweet clover are a couple of plant species that can be seeded into pastures in order to upgrade the overall performance of the land.
ent attitude about grazing,”
Poore said. “We shouldn’t
have any erosion at all.”
In his research at North
Carolina State University,
Poore has found that the
amount of runoff can be cut in
half simply by planting any
vegetative cover on bare soil,
with greater improvement realized with well-managed
cover crops.
In cropping systems, cover
crops — the widespread use
of which is still in its infancy
— are used to conserve soil
moisture and plant residue as
well as add nitrogen to the
soil. The cover crop, which is
usually a mix of annual
species, may be used between
cash crops or as the cash crop
is germinating, before the
cover crop is then terminated
so it delivers the fullest benefit to the cash crop without
competing with the cash crop
for water and nutrients.
But what Poore is referring
to, in using cover crops to improve pasture, is basically
planting a cover crop mix to
an otherwise poor pasture as
well to encourage some plant
species more than others,
while improving soil health
through reduction of runoff,
water conservation and building of soil profile. Rather than
terminating the cover crop,
the cover crop is grazed as
would occur on any other pasture.
However, it’s not as simple
as planting just any cover
crop into an otherwise overgrazed pasture.
“We need to get away from
the cookie-cutter approach,”
Poore said.
RTEC Announces Dates for
Next CDL, Welding Trainings
Class A CDL Truck Driving Training (SD Residents):
Take advantage of Mitchell Technical Institute’s truck driving training and
earn your Class A CDL. Sign up for the classroom portion to be held at
RTEC from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. on July 15 & 16, 2014. Classroom instruction
(CDL Prep portion) will prepare you to obtain learner’s permit. Driving times
for those taking full CDL program will be arranged with instructor and held in
Mitchell at a time TBD.
CDL Truck Driving Training (NE Residents):
If you are a Nebraska resident who wants to obtain a Nebraska CDL, you’ll
want to sign up for this streamlined training being offered by Northeast Community College. You’ll spend two days in the classroom at Yankton’s RTEC
and then spend the other three days in Norfolk completing the driving and
testing. Training will run 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. on July 24, 25, 28, 31 & August 1,
2014. Participants must have learner’s permit and a drug screen processed
prior to the start of class. Contact RTEC for registration information today!
Class size is limited to three students.
Basic and AWS Upgrade Welding Classes*:
Applications are being accepted for the next available basic and upgrade
welding courses expected to begin August 18 and August 19, 2014. Both
will be night classes held from 4-8 p.m. two nights per week (basic on M-W
and upgrade on T-Th). Contact RTEC today to learn about possible funding
assistance options. Apply today! Class sizes limited to eight students.
Mitchell Technical Institute & Black Hills State University:
Don’t forget to check out the 9-month Industrial Maintenance Technology
program offered by Mitchell Technical Institute or the 2-year Engineering
Technology degree offered by Black Hills State University. Both programs
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Please contact RTEC for more registration information today!
RTEC
1200 W. 21st St.
Yankton, SD 57078
(605) 668-5700
www.rtecedu.org
, Inc.
Like RTEC on Facebook!
* RTEC is forming an interest list to determine if a daytime welding class would
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