Farm Facts for Fairfield County
Farm Facts for Fairfield County
for June 28, 2002 ; also seen on Fridays in the Lancaster Eagle Gazette
Typically, hay can provide the majority of the nutritional needs of a cow herd during the fall and winter months. This year, however, may present some unique challenges due to the extreme variations in forage quality that's been harvested thus far. On the other hand, by taking an inventory now of the quantity and quality of your forages, there's plenty of time to plan for supplementing whatever forage has been harvested with the correct and most cost effective supplements.
To properly supplement livestock, each forage lot to be fed should be sampled and analyzed. The tonnage, and location in the hay storage area of each, also needs to be recorded. OSU Extension forage testing fact sheet ANR-2-98, available on the web (http://ohioline.osu.edu/anr-fact/0002.html) or from the OSU Extension office, describes the proper sampling techniques for various forages and explains the results.
In the Extension office, we, as well as some of the local feed suppliers, have a forage test probe that can be borrowed. Both can also provide a list of laboratories that provide forage testing services.
Watch for Potato Leafhopper Activity
Potato leafhopper Potato leafhopper (PLH) numbers have exploded during the past week around Ohio. Some fields that did not get sprayed are showing considerable yellowing and hopper burn at this time.
A rescue treatment is warranted on alfalfa for PLH when the number of adults and nymphs exceeds the height of the alfalfa in inches. For example, if more than 6 leafhoppers were collected per 10 sweep sample on 6 inch alfalfa, a rescue treatment should be considered.
If fields are too severely damaged by PLH, then early cutting may be necessary. If early cutting is used for control, be sure to check the next cutting for PLH after a week or so of regrowth has occurred.
Poor Soybean Stands and Postemergence Weed Control
One of the concerns created by late or poor emerging soybean is the weed control challenges that it creates. The low and variable soybean stands we see in some parts of the county are likely to cause problems with total post weed control programs. The soybean stand provides most of the weed control within several weeks after a typical postemergence herbicide application. When there is an inadequate number of plants or plant spacing becomes variable, mid- to late-season suppression of weeds by the soybeans will be reduced. This is likely to result in the need for a second postemergence application in some fields. Giant foxtail, burcucumber, giant ragweed, and black nightshade are likely weed targets for the second postemergence application in these situations. Some things to remember in this situation include:
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Farms Facts is a weekly newspaper column, written by the agriculture staff at the Ohio State University Extension office in Fairfield County.
All educational programs conducted by Ohio State University Extension are available to clientele on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender, age, disability or Vietnam-era veteran status.
Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Keith L. Smith, Director, Ohio State University Extension.
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