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Golden Triangle Barley Update February 15 in Conrad, MT Barley producers are encouraged to mark Thursday, February 15, 2018, in Conrad, MT on their calendar for the Golden Triangle Barley Update. This event happens only once every three years, and features some of the industry’s top professionals. The meeting will be held at the Pondera Shooting Sports Complex (972 Granite Rd, Conrad), and will run from 8:45 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with registration beginning at 8 a.m. Speakers from Montana State University (MSU) will include Dr. Kent McVay of t...
Master Gardener Level 1 Class in Fort Benton (please pre-register) MSU Extension level 1 Master Gardener classes will take place in Fort Benton in February pending pre-registration numbers. Now is your chance to participate in an excellent educational opportunity. If ten people pre-register, we will have the class, which traditionally begins in February. We currently have three gardeners signed up. Please contact the MSU Chouteau County Extension office at 622-3751 to pre-register. The Level 1 Master Gardener course requires 16 hours of class...
Max Ag of Montana will Sponsor Lunch for Cropping Seminar on January 8 Montana State University Extension will host the annual Cropping Seminar series January 8 – 11. The seminar in Fort Benton will take place at the Ag Center on January 8th at 9:00 a.m. Topics will include integrating beef cattle into cover crops, soil fertility, transfer planning, why pesticides may not work as designed, and partial budgeting analysis. The seminars are free with 1 private and commercial pesticide point available in Fort Benton. A special thanks to MAX Ag o...
Montana Next Generation Conference is scheduled for January 26-27 Registration is now open for Montana’s Next Generation Conference, which will take place Jan. 26-27 in Shelby. The conference will feature sessions on business planning for the farm or ranch and production workshops. The conference begins at 11 a.m. Friday, Jan. 26, at the Shelby Civic Center, located at 669 Park Ave. The day’s events will begin with family farm coach Elaine Froese, a family farmer from Manitoba, Canada. Froese will discuss “Your Farm, Your Family, Your Choic...
Master Gardener Level 1 Class in Fort Benton (please pre-register) MSU Extension level 1 Master Gardener classes may take place in Fort Benton in February pending pre-registration numbers. Now is your chance to participate in an excellent educational opportunity. If ten people pre-register, we will have the class, which traditionally begins the third week in February. Please contact the MSU Chouteau County Extension office at 622-3751 to pre-register. The Level 1 Master Gardener course requires 16 hours of class time, and is taught by local...
Prairie Dog Management and Grazing Management Workshop in Fort Benton and Big Sandy The Chouteau County District NRCS, the Big Sandy Conservation District, the Chouteau County Conservation and MSU Extension are teaming up to bring you a landowner requested prairie dog and wildlife/livestock grazing management workshop on Wednesday, January 24, 2018. Classes will take place in Fort Benton and Big Sandy. Each class will be good for one commercial and one private pesticide point. Prairie Dog Management will be addressed by Stephen Vantassel...
Classes in Fertilizing Pulse Crops, Transfer Planning, Pesticide Performance, Partial Budget Analysis and Integrating Beef Cattle into Cover Crops will all be offered this January Montana State University Extension will host the annual Cropping Seminar series January 8 – 11, 2018, in Fort Benton, Chester, Havre, Shelby, Cut Bank, Choteau, Conrad, Stanford, and Great Falls. Topics will include integrating beef cattle into cover crops, soil fertility, transfer planning, why pesticides may not work as designed, and partial budgeting analysis. T...
Using Straw in Cattle Rations- Frequently asked Questions How much straw can I put in my cow winter ration? It is important to know that straw is a low energy, and low protein feed. It is not as digestible as hay or green feed. Generally, a cow can consume 1.25% of her body weight in straw dry matter (DM). Therefore, a 1400 lb cow could consume 17.5 lbs on a DM basis, or 19.9 lbs on an ‘as-fed’ basis if the straw was 90% DM (17.5/0.9 = 19.9 lbs, this calculation is to adjust for the moisture content of the straw). Near the end of ges...
Christmas Tree Care There are many “tips” to caring for a Christmas tree that propose to make it last longer or stay greener. In truth, all a tree really needs to maintain freshness is adequate water. This is easily done by using the proper tree stand and keeping the water level in the stand above the base of the tree. The following tips will help to maintain the freshness and aroma of a live Christmas tree this holiday season: • Use a tree stand that holds enough water for the size of the tree. The rule of thumb is one quart of water per o...
Montana Pulse Day December 1, 2017 Best Western Heritage Inn The 2017 Montana Pulse Day will take place on December 1, 2017 at the Best Western Heritage Inn. The event will begin at 8:30 a.m. Notable Educational programs of importance to producers: 10:30 – 11:30 am Importance of Rotations and Disease Prevention Mary Burrows, MSU Plant Pathology Specialist. 11:30 – 12:00 Platinum Sponsor Update Johnson Seed Inc., JM Grain, AGT Foods, Hinrich’s Trading, ITC Grain. 1:30 – 2:00 pm MSU Pulse Crop Breeding Kevin McPhee, MSU Plant Breeder. 2:00 ...
Front Range Wool Pool Meeting in Conrad The Front Range Wool Pool meeting will take place on December 5th in Conrad, Montana at the Conrad Moose Lodge. Registration begins at 1:30 p.m. A Potluck Supper will begin at 6:00 p.m. President Pete Cornell from Loma will welcome participants followed by Dave McEwen, who will give an update on the Montana Wool Growers Association. Educational presentations include: • Dr. Lisa Surber-American Wool Council: Wool Quality and Trends • Dr. Megan Van Emon-MSU Regional Beef Specialist: Relearning Drought Man...
November Horticultural Tips Managing horticultural landscapes and house plants in November is important to healthy production during the growing season. Below are a few recommendations for Chouteau county gardeners. • Apply protective mulches to perennial beds. • Use a humidifier to maintain humidity for houseplants. • Prune out dead limbs of woody ornamentals. • Do not fertilize or transplant anything after Columbus Day. • Continue to water landscape plantings (trees, shrubs, and perennials) until the soil freezes. • Apply winter mulch to st...
Upcoming Opportunity in Fort Benton to Learn about Evacuation Planning, Varmint Management, Farm Safety, Fire Safety, and 4-Wheeler Safety MSU Extension in Chouteau County will be hosting the fourth annual Fundamentals for Farm Families Forum from 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. with check-in beginning at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, November 2, 2017 at the Community Bible Center in Fort Benton. The center is located at 911 16th street in Fort Benton. Daycare will be provided for attendees upon request by contacting the Chouteau County Extension Office....
Boss to Speak at Chouteau County Livestock Protective Association Meeting in Big Sandy on Cover Crop Grazing from a Cattleman’s Perspective The Annual Chouteau County Livestock Protective Association meeting will take place on Thursday, November 16th at 3:00 p.m.at the Mint Bar in Big Sandy. A social will follow the business meeting at 5:00 p.m. followed by dinner at 6:00. Please RSVP to Buck Goldhahn at 622-5572 so the cooks can receive notice on how many people will be attending. This year’s guest speaker is Dr. Darrin Boss (MSU Northern Agr...
Chouteau County Juniors and Seniors will participate in 2017 Chouteau County Agricultural Business Day Junior and Senior students from Big Sandy High School, Fort Benton High School, Geraldine High School, Highwood High School, and Chouteau County Home Schools will participate in the 2017 Chouteau County Agricultural Business day on November 8th. The event will take place from 8:50 a.m. -12:00 p.m. at the Ag Center (1205 20th Street) and Fort Benton High School (1820 Washington). An estimate of twenty Chouteau County businesses will be in...
October is a Great Time to order Shelterbelt Trees The Montana Conservation Seedling Nursery (MCSN) is already receiving new orders for shelter belt plantings. Rocky Mountain Juniper is the most popular windbreak species, and is sold out quite quickly. If you are interested in ordering Rocky Mountain Juniper for your shelterbelt, please place your order as soon as possible. Shelterbelt plans should be approved by the MSU Extension Chouteau County agent, Conservation District or MCSN staff. Seedlings are sold on a first come, first serve basis....
Precautions before Grazing Alfalfa and Cover Crops • All producers should use a bloat block and expose the cattle to the bloat block in the pasture shortly before putting them onto a cover crop or alfalfa field. Seven days prior is a good rule of thumb. The bloat blocks can be placed in their salt tub. • Make sure the cattle are full before letting them out on to the alfalfa or cover crop. • Test the crops and weeds for nitrates (cereal grains, kochia, turnips and radishes). Turnips and radishes seem to have the highest nitrates of the cover...
Factors Affecting Wheat Germination and Stand Establishment in Hot Soils Hot soil conditions at sowing also reduce coleoptile length. The coleoptile is a rigid, protective structure that covers the emerging shoot to aid it in reaching the soil surface. Once the coleoptile breaks the soil surface, it stops grow¬ing and the first true leaf emerges. If the coleoptile does not emerge through the soil surface, the first true leaf emerges below ground, takes on an accordion-like appearance, and the wheat plant typically dies. For this reason, wheat...
Personal Protection Equipment and Paraquat The use of highly toxic pesticides that require respiratory protection were on the decline for over two decades; however one highly toxic active ingredient has been on the rise due to glyphosate resistant kochia in Montana. This active ingredient known as paraquat is in such formulations as Blanco®, Drexel Quik-Quat®, Devour®, Firestorm®, Helmquat 3SL®, Gramaxone Inteon®, Gramoxone SL®, Cyclone SL 2.0®, Bonedry®, Willowood Paraquat 3SL®, Paraquat Concentrate® and Para-Shot 3.0®. Paraquat is a photos...
September Horticulture Management Managing horticultural landscapes in September is essential to healthy production during the growing season. Below are a few recommendations for Chouteau county gardeners. • The average first frost is September 15 (Carter), September 18 (Kenilworth and Highwood), September 20 (Big Sandy), September 25 (Fort Benton) and September 28 (Geraldine). All fruit and vegetables should be harvested before temperatures drop below 40° to 50°F. • Ripen tomatoes in a paper bag along with an apple, or hang the entire plant up...
Summer Pneumonia in Beef Calves Summer pneumonia in nursing beef calves is not uncommon, but occurs with low frequency. A wide variety of risk factors for summer pneumonia exist including relative success of colostrum antibody transfer, commingling of groups, weather changes, nutrition changes or deficiencies, pathogen exposure, handling stress, calving difficulty, and operation-specific risk factors like lack of labor. The immunity a calf receives through colostrum is called passive immunity, and is the major source of immune function in the n...
Top Yielding Winter Wheat Varieties for Chouteau County MSU Agriculture research centers have three test plots for winter wheat in Chouteau County. Research plots are managed by MSU Western Triangle Agricultural Research Center (WTARC) south of the Knees, MSU Northern Agricultural Research Center (NARC) north of Loma and MSU Central Agricultural Research Center (CARC) west of Geraldine. A special thanks to John Miller (WTARC agronomist), Peggy Lamb (NARC agronomist) and Pat Carr (CARC superintendent) for establishing and maintaining the...
Grazing Residues Following Harvest Grazing is the easiest way to harvest crop aftermath. Grazing crop residues allows animals to select a higher-quality diet than would otherwise be obtained by harvesting and mechanically feeding. In grazing scenarios, ruminants preferentially will consume grain and leaves before consuming lower-quality stalk material. This is an important consideration when developing diets based on crop residues. Stocker cattle may have acceptable gains if allowed to selectively graze residues. Younger cattle should be...
Turf to Trees (Applied Urban Integrated Pest Management Workshop) Montana State University’s Urban Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program will host its first training on August 24, 2017. Are you interested in Urban IPM Certification or do you want to learn more about plant diseases, insect pests and plant identification in urban environments in Montana? Then this workshop is for you! Continuing education credits will be available. Our guest speaker will be Dr. Megan Kennelly from Kansas State University. Dr. Kennelly received her Ph.D. in Pla...
July Cropping Notes from Chouteau County Extension What is the status of the orange wheat blossom midge in Chouteau County for 2017? Only one wheat midge was documented in five traps across Chouteau County in 2017. If more than nine midge are found on a trap, the producer is required to go out at dusk and determine if populations exceed the economic threshold. The economic threshold is when one or more midge are observed for every 7 to 8 heads. Visit 3-4 different sites in the field. How were wheat head armyworm numbers this year? Moth trap...