News Update
February 16, 2012
Cattle Nutrition Course Offered Through AgriLife Extension
Cattlemen will have a chance to improve their feed management skills during a three-month series of seminars sponsored by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. "Beef Nutritional Management 2015" is a series of educational activities for people involved in the beef industry, according to the organizers.
"Whether you are in the cow-calf, stocker, cattle feeding or allied industry sector; an owner, a customer-based operator or an employee, this program offers an opportunity to learn more about factors influencing beef quality and value," said Brandon Boughen, AgriLife Extension agent for Potter County.
The four meetings making up the program will each take place from 6-9 p.m. The first meeting is March 1 and the last one is May 24, Boughen said. All activities will be at the AgriLife Extension office for Potter County, 3301 E. 10th Ave. in Amarillo. Dinner will be served at each meeting.
Preregistration is required. The fee is $60 per participant and is due by Feb. 27. Registration forms can be found at http://potter.agrilife.org/forms/. The registration form and fee, made payable to Potter Agriculture Committee, should be sent to Potter Agriculture Committee, 3301 E. 10 Ave., Amarillo, Texas 79104.
Speakers for this program are professionals involved in the beef industry or with beef educational programs, Boughen said.
The meeting schedule and topics are:
- March 1 — Introduction to Nutritional Management: review of terminology used in feed/forage analysis, nutritional requirements of cattle, nutritional management objectives and evaluating cost benefits.
- March 27 — Feedstuff: nutritive value of commodities and supplements, commodities and supplements in management programs, and evaluating nutrient costs and relative feed value.
- April 17 — Forages: forage analysis — what's needed; factors affecting forage nutritive value; forage intake and nutritive value; nitrates, prussic acid, bloat and other forage-related issues; and determining stocking rates.
- May 24 — Supplementation: supplementation and substitutions, when are supplements required and what is the best approach, software decision aids and mineral supplementation.
For more information contact Boughen at 806-373-0713.
UNL Extension Offers Beef Cow Herd Profitability Workshops
Calving, breeding and summer pasture grazing are key production times for cow-calf producers. To help producers manage these important aspects of their cow herd enterprise, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) Extension will offer two beef profitability workshops March 8.
The workshops will be at the Washington County Extension Office, 597 Grant St., Blair, Neb., beginning at 1 p.m. and at the Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1071 County Road G, Ithaca, Neb., at 7 p.m. Registration begins 30 minutes prior to the start of the meetings.
Featured speakers are Dave Boxler, UNL Extension educator in entomology, discussing fly and parasite control for cow-calf operations; Rick Rasby, UNL Extension beef specialist, speaking on preparing bulls for the breeding season; Steve Tonn, UNL Extension educator in Washington County, sharing tips on using a calving distribution table; and Monte Stauffer and Sara Ellicott, UNL Extension educators, discussing the Husker Beef Lab Experience.
Preregistration is encouraged by phone, fax, email or mail one week in advance — discounts apply. Cost is $10 for registrations received by March 1 or $15 after. Walk-ins are welcome.
Preregistrations will be accepted at the Douglas/Sarpy Counties Extension Office, 8015 W. Center Rd., Omaha, NE 68124-3175 or call 402-444-7804; the Washington County Extension Office, 597 Grant St., Ste 200, Blair, NE 68008-2550 or call 402-426-9455 or the Saunders County Extension Office, 1071 County Road G, Ithaca, NE 68033-2234 or call 402-624-8030.
Fees include reference materials and refreshments. Make checks payable to UNL Extension in Saunders County and mail or bring it to the Douglas/Sarpy Counties Extension Office, Washington County Extension Office or the Saunders County Extension Office.
For more information or to register, contact UNL Extension educators Sara Ellicott at 402-624-8030, 1-800-529-8030, e-mail sellicott2@unl.edu or fax 402-624-8010; Monte Stauffer at 402-444-7804, email mstauffer1@unl.edu or fax 402-444-6430; or Steve Tonn at 402-426-9455, email stonn2@unl.edu or fax 402-426-3577. Information also is available online at ardc.unl.edu; Washington.unl.edu and douglas-sarpy.unl.edu.
The workshop is sponsored by UNL Extension in Washington, Douglas/Sarpy and Saunders counties. UNL Extension is in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Poll Shows Most Farmers Prefer to be Called Farmers
Many terms are used to refer to people who farm. But how do the people who farm describe themselves? The 2011 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll sought an answer to that question.
"The agricultural press, agribusiness professionals, university scientists, extension professionals and others commonly use descriptive words such as grower, producer and farmer interchangeably," said J. Gordon Arbuckle Jr., a sociologist with Iowa State University (ISU) Extension and Outreach. Arbuckle co-directs the annual Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll with Paul Lasley, another ISU Extension and Outreach sociologist.
"I had often wondered what farmers thought about these terms, so this year we decided to ask the people who produce food, fiber and energy what they prefer to be called," Arbuckle explained.
Farmers were asked to review a short list of commonly used terms that refer to people who farm and select the term they thought best described them, Arbuckle said.
"Sixty percent of the participants selected the term 'farmer' to describe themselves," Arbuckle said. "The proportion who preferred the term farmer was triple the number who selected two other commonly used labels: 18% chose the term 'producer' and another 18% selected 'farm operator.'
"I work with a lot of agricultural scientists who seem to favor the term 'grower,'" Arbuckle noted. "It turned out that only 3% of Iowa farmers preferred that word. Just 1% of Farm Poll participants chose 'rancher.'
"People who preferred the terms farmer, producer, and farm operator were very similar in terms of farm sales and acreage cropped," Arbuckle said. "Farmers who preferred producer were slightly younger and more educated than the other two categories."
Growers tended to be smaller in scale. "Growers had an average of 160 acres in row crops, compared to an average of 375 acres across the other three groups," noted Arbuckle. "Ranchers, as you might expect, were much more likely to raise livestock, and had significantly more land in pasture and hay."
Results from the annual poll are available in the 2011 Summary Report, PM 3016, which can be downloaded at no cost from the ISU Extension and Outreach Online Store, store.extension.iastate.edu.
Arbuckle said 1,276 farmers participated in the poll. On average, the participating farmers were 65 years old, and 51% earned more than half of their income from farming.
The 2011 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll focused on a range of issues that are important not only to agriculture but to all Iowans, Arbuckle said. The 2011 survey also examined farmers' views on climate change, conservation issues, Internet use and investment in agricultural drainage, and their perspectives on reducing the federal deficit and balancing the budget.
Conducted every year since its establishment in 1982, the Farm and Rural Life Poll is the longest-running survey of its kind in the nation, Arbuckle said. ISU Extension and Outreach, the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, and the Iowa Agricultural Statistics Service are all partners in the Farm Poll effort.
The 2011 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll summary report and previous summary and topical reports are available to download from the ISU Extension and Outreach Online Store at store.extension.iastate.edu and Extension Sociology at www.soc.iastate.edu/extension/farmpoll.html.
Good Year for Agriculture Decreases Number of Mediated Farm Debts
The effect of a good year for Minnesota agriculture is evident in the University of Minnesota Extension Farmer-Lender Mediation Program's annual report. The number of lenders sending notices requesting mediation of troubled Minnesota farm debts dropped by 24% during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2011.
This is the first time in four years the activity in the program decreased, according to Dick Senese, Extension senior associate dean.
"In recent years, farmer-lender mediation has given farm operations the chance to stay in business until better times," Senese said. "These are better times for agriculture, but there are still situations where farmers and their lenders rely on this program to help them work together to renegotiate, restructure or resolve their debts."
The report showed there were 494 cases in which farm enterprises used mediation to reach agreement with lenders about debts. In 1,718 additional cases, the right to use mediation to resolve debt was waived by the farmers involved. The amount of debt addressed in mediation dropped by almost 65% from $624 million in fiscal year 2010 to $221 million in fiscal 2011.
Farming is a cyclical business and most farm enterprises had a good year in 2011, according to Brian Buhr, Extension economist and head of the university's applied economics department. That increase in farm profitability made it easier for farmers to pay their bills on time and avoid troublesome situations with lenders. Most remarkably, livestock profitability has returned as moderating crop prices and rising livestock prices have increased margins, he added.
Minnesota law requires that creditors with a secured debt of more than $5,000 against an agricultural property offer farmer-lender mediation before proceeding with foreclosure, repossession, cancellation of contract or collection of a judgment.
Farmers offered mediation can take advantage of a 90-day period to work with lenders to renegotiate, restructure or resolve their debts. A team of mediators, financial analysts and other University of Minnesota Extension professionals manage the program as neutral parties.
Mediation is an informal and confidential process that generally requires less cost and time than adversarial court litigation. To be eligible for farmer-lender mediation, a debtor must own or lease more than 60 acres and earn more than $20,000 in gross agricultural products the preceding year.
Extension's Farmer-Lender Mediation Program, part of USDA's Certified State Agricultural Mediation Program, tracks the number of notices offering mediation — not the total number of farms involved in mediation. The number of notices received is far more than the number of farms involved in mediation. Most Minnesota farm businesses involve multiple family members, and each family member or entity whose name appears on a debt obligation may receive a notice offering mediation.
For more information on Extension's Farmer-Lender Mediation Program or to access the annual report, visit www.extension.umn.edu/community/mediation.
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