Extension
It Starts With Us
Author: Chuck Flowers
Major Program: Grain Crops
With 83.53% of the land in all four river counties used for crop production, agriculture holds a strong presence. AG Day is to highlight agriculture in Ballard, Carlisle, Fulton, and Hickman County. The 2nd year for the event, WAVE River Counties AG Day, was held at Carlisle County Fairgrounds in Bardwell, KY on July 19 from 7:30 am to 2:00 pm. The theme “Lets Grow With It” was chosen again. The WAVE Ag Day was a joint venture including all four county judge executives, the
Author: Clinton Hardy
Major Program: Grain Crops
Land utilized for corn and soybean production comprises approximately 122,000 acres, more than 40% of Daviess County’s land surface. Combined, their gross value annually meets or exceeds 66 million dollars. The Daviess County Extension grain variety demonstration plots for corn and soybeans are the most trusted and relied upon source of data chosen by farmers and landowners when selecting brands to plant on their farms. Major regional and national seed suppliers contact t
Author: Robert Amburgey
Major Program: Grain Crops
Due to the above average rainfall eastern Kentucky experienced in 2018, soybean farmers have experienced an unprecedented amount of soybean pod and seed diseases. The increase in these diseases have not only lowered expected yields in these fields, but has also accounted for a significant price reduction at the elevator. The loss in revenue from the 2018 weather pattern has many producers asking what they might expect from those same fields in 2019 as it relates to disease pressure.
Author: Chuck Flowers
Major Program: Grain Crops
New Farm Bill –Winter Ag ConferenceThis year our Winter Ag Conference focused on the Farm Bill. The Farm Bill is important to farmers’ daily activities. Crop sales just in Carlisle County is $34,054,000. The need for this information to get out is necessary to our producers. We teamed up with Adult agriculture educators from WKCTC to bring an informational meeting to the farmers on the new information. The meeting was hosted in Pilot Oak, Kentucky by Lo
Author: Chris Ammerman
Major Program: Grain Crops
The 2014 Farm Bill allowed farmers to begin to grow industrial hemp as a part of a research project conducted in partnership with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Further policy passed late in 2018 moved industrial hemp into a viable crop on a national scale. Furthermore, successes experienced by initial research project cooperators and the influx of processing companies into the area increased the interest in production of industrial hemp.A multi-county, one day conference wa
Author: Clinton Hardy
Major Program: Grain Crops
The 2014 Farm Bill included a provision allowing industrial purpose hemp production in the United States for research and demonstration production knowledge gain. Participating states were required to create a grower application and vetting system to ensure regulatory requirements were upheld. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture was quick to implement a system which provides individuals and universities the opportunity to participate in pr
Author: Camille Lambert
Major Program: Grain Crops
Hemp is undoubtedly the hot topic right now. The Henderson County Extension Service gets weekly questions about the production and practices related to hemp. Lots of talk started when the 2014 Farm Bill was introduced allowing industrial hemp production to take place for research and demonstration purposes. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture has been the workhorse getting the program up and running in our state, and in 2018 the updated farm bill allowed for commercial production without the
Author: Gregory Drake
Major Program: Grain Crops
Grain Crop Production is an important enterprise in Butler County. Agriculture is the county’s largest industry, and grain crops are our leading enterprise most years. Grain Farms tend to be large and getting larger. Grain storage facilities have increased in size as farming operations have increased infrastructure and capacity. Farm leadership in the community decided to secure “grain bin rescue equipment” for the fire departments and rescue squad. &nbs
Author: Kathryn Wimberley
Major Program: Grain Crops
Joint Ballard/McCracken Dicamba Applicator TrainingSituation: As part of the new label requirement for Dicamba products used on Dicamba-Tolerant Soybeans, all applicators, both commercial and private, must attend yearly training on the proper use, handling and application of these products. Tom Miller, Ballard County ANR Agent and Kathy Wimberley, McCracken Horticulture Agent, organized a joint meeting for Ballard and McCracken producers at the new Extension Office in McCracken County. &nb
Author: Carrie Knott
Major Program: Grain Crops
In 2018 soybean seed companies and seed producers endured a particularly challenging year with the production of ‘seed’ soybean. ‘Seed’ soybean are the soybeans that were produced in 2018 to provide seed for producers to grow in 2019 for commercial production. Excessive, frequent rains made harvest of ‘seed’ soybean impossible. It is well known that multiple cycles of wetting/drying of soybean, which occurred in 2018, greatly reduces the vigor of soybean seed.
Author: David Appelman
Major Program: Grain Crops
Growing crops on plastic and using drip irrigation is rarely used in our farming region. Due the planned hemp crop that will be grown using this technology, a plastic culture field day was planned to share information with area growers. Over 100 growers from 11 Kentucky counties and 2 Ohio Counties attended a regional field day in Bracken County that highlighted the requirements, machinery, and methods used for Plastic Culture crop production. Each segment of the
Author: Chuck Flowers
Major Program: Grain Crops
EFCP-Soil MeetingCarlisle, Fulton and Hickman County had a market value of $337 million in agricultural products last year – equal to the single largest producing county in the state. This region spent over $70 million on fertilizer, seed and chemicals alone last year. After discussing with CEC board and Ag council, agents wanted to offer a program geared toward younger farmers getting ready to transition toward making farm decisions while being a part of the family farming operation. It w
Author: Carrie Knott
Major Program: Grain Crops
The summer of 2018 was the first year of the USDA-NIFA funded REEU (Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates) internship. The main goal of the program is to produce undergraduate students with exceptional research and extension skills capable of immediately addressing challenges of sustainable agricultural production within the workforce or in graduate programs. To achieve this goal, ten students were selected through a competitive process for the internship opportunity. Each intern
Author: Curtis Judy
Major Program: Grain Crops
In February, Extension agriculture agents from southwestern Kentucky and north-central Tennessee hosted the sixth Kentucky/Tennessee Grain Conference in Russellville, KY. Agents from Todd and Logan Counties in Kentucky; and Montgomery and Robertson Counties in Tennessee cooperated in this effort, along with specialists from both states.The program included presentations on 2019 grain-crop fertilizer considerations, Kentucky and Tennessee farm equipment transportation regulations, a soybean
Author: Chuck Flowers
Major Program: Grain Crops
Early Career Farming ProgramThe Agriculture and Natural Resources Agents from Fulton, Hickman, and Carlisle Counties talked for several years of developing a program for the producers in their counties that were beginning their own operations or working into becoming the decision-makers of the family operations.Existing programs like KY FarmStart or Next Generation Farmer were programs that had some of the topics these producers needed, but did not fit into large grain only operations or grain/c
Author: Edwin Ritchey
Major Program: Grain Crops
Kentucky Agriculture Training School (KATS) was developed from the Wheat Field School that started in 2016. We transitioned from the Wheat Field School to KATS in order to bring additional crops and participation to the trainings. The trainings are focused towards crop advisors, managers, government employees, and other individuals involved with production agriculture to provide realistic scenarios that would be experienced in their operations. Training the trainers provides us with a large info
Author: Edwin Ritchey
Major Program: Grain Crops
David Stalion from Ag Communications has developed a nice promotional video to use during extension talks and other venues to advertise the KATS training sessions. We put him on contact with past attendees to discuss why they thought KATS was beneficial and what they learned from the program. He blended interviews and excerpts from different sessions to provide the viewers what the KATS training really offers to clientele. This new video can be used by faculty and staff to help promote the KATS
Author: Chad Lee
Major Program: Grain Crops
The severely high rainfall in central and eastern Kentucky in August and September caused severe damage to soybean seed quality. The extreme weather events overwhelmed any possible management by producers to overcome the disaster. Phone calls, text messages, emails, and farm visits were conducted to assess the damage and discuss options with growers. Philip Konopka, Lewis County ANR Extension Agent, and I visited several fields in Lewis County and nearby fields in neighboring counties. (The farm
Author: Chad Lee
Major Program: Grain Crops
A farmer and seed dealer asked Boyle County ANR Extension Agent, Jerry Little and grain specialist, Dr. Chad Lee, to look at a commercial cornfield because of problems they were seeing with a particular hybrid they were considering putting in their variety line up to sell next year. The corn hybrid was missing ears on several of the plants in the field. We dug and looked at roots, cut stalks for examination, and we looked at healthy plants as well. Preliminary results showed that the plants miss
Author: Chad Lee
Major Program: Grain Crops
A farmer reported corn during seed fill period that was flooded entirely. The farmer intended to harvest the corn as cattle feed. Don Sorrell, Campbell County ANR Extension Agent, and I visited several bottom fields where mud covered corn plants from the soil to the tassels. We identified areas of the fields where corn was more damaged than others. We worked with the grower to develop a strategy to monitor the crop and identify what areas of the field might be safe to harvest. We quickly identif
Author: Samantha Anderson
Major Program: Grain Crops
The passage of the 2018 Farm Bill brought forth many new changes to the landscape of American agriculture. In cooperation with Purchase area agents, Graves County Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Samantha Anderson, identified the need to address these changes and their impact to local producers.The 2019 Annual Winter Agricultural Conference consisted of a panel discussion on policy updates from Dr. Will Snell, University of Kentucky, and Joe Cain, Kentucky Farm Bureau, and
Author: Chad Lee
Major Program: Grain Crops
A farmer in Breckinridge County reported poor stands of soybeans in the spring of 2019. Carol Hinton, County ANR Extension Agent, and I visited the fields. The farmer knew how to take stand counts and we confirmed his estimates. We observed some slug damage on soybeans, and stand losses from slugs. The heavy rains had made planting soybeans difficult and heavy rains made walking the fields a challenge as well. We identified one field that did not need to be replanted. We identified another field
Author: Chad Lee
Major Program: Grain Crops
The problem: Kentucky farmers grew rye 150 years ago in Kentucky but have not grown it on any large acreage the last 50 years. Several researchers are conduting studies on rye with support form the Kentucky Small Grain Growers. To accelerate our learning, four farmers agreed to grow cereal rye on their farms and share production information, yield and grain quality. Three of the farms grew 25 acres and the fourth grew 20 acres. Two of the four were guaranteed revenue equivalent to 25 acres, 70 b
Author: Chad Lee
Major Program: Grain Crops
The Kentucky Corn Growers Association sponsors the Crop Observation and Research Education. The program was co-developed with the University of Kentucky and works with a group of young producers on agronomic and professional development. Three classes have completed the program and Class IV starts the fall of 2019. The alumni trip is an international trip. In 2019, the alumni decided to travel to the Humid Pampas of Argentina to learn about farming without subsidies. Producers and agronomists in
Author: Jerry Little
Major Program: Grain Crops
The agriculture agent along with the grain specialist, Dr. Chad Lee were requested by a commercial seed corn dealer because of problems with a particular hybrid they were growing to consider putting in to their variety line up to sell the next year. The corn hybrid was missing ears on several plants in the field. We dug and looked at roots, cut stalks for examination, and we looked at healthy plants as well. Preliminary results showed that the plants missing ears had a fungus on them. We sent sa
Author: Don Sorrell
Major Program: Grain Crops
Todd and Nancy Kloentrup called me with a voice of urgency and asked for help in determining what to do with 20 acres of silage corn that had been totally immersed (under water for up to 6 days) due to heavy summer rains. I coordinated a farm visit with Dr. Chad Lee, UK Grain Crops Extension Specialists, to look at the flooded corn. Three other farmers, who had flooded corn, also participated in our farm visit. This corn represented a major part of the Kloentrup’s winter feeding
Author: Chad Lee
Major Program: Grain Crops
Through years of research and extension efforts in sustainable and profitable wheat production, farmers now produce a reliable wheat crop. That reliable crop attracted Siemer Milling Company to build a facility in Hopkinsville, KY and has allowed their business to thrive. Recently, Siemer Milling Company donated $1 million to the Grain and Forage Center of Excellence. This donation was a result of those years of research and extension activities and exemplifies the partnerships developed slowly
Author: Chad Lee
Major Program: Grain Crops
To support the Grain and Forage Center of Excellence, the Kentucky Corn Growers Association developed the UKAg Benefactor Program, which allows people to become lifetime members of the Corn Growers and simultaneously donate to the Grain and Forage Center of Excellence. As of this writing, that program has generated over $160,000 in donations, representing over 100 growers, crop consultants, county extension agents and other friends. This support is an example of trusted relationships built on ye
Author: Patrick Hardesty
Major Program: Grain Crops
After glyphosate was introduced in the mid 1970’s, it was used primarily as a burndown herbicide in corn and soybeans. Since the introduction of Roundup Ready crops in 1996, glyphosate has been used widely for burndown and in-crop weed control with the increase in use and many dropping pre-emerge herbicides from their weed control program weeds have become resistant. Two weeds, palmer amaranth and waterhemp, were identified as resistant in 2005. These pigweeds are very a
Author: Matthew Futrell
Major Program: Grain Crops
West Kentucky Hemp ConferenceIndustrial Hemp has been a long standing tradition in Kentucky. In the 19th and 20th century Kentucky was the world leader in hemp production. Then in the 1970’s the war on drugs outlawed the sale and production of cannabis sativa and made it a schedule 1 substance. In 2014 a bill was passed that allowed Kentucky to start growing and researching hemp development and production to offset a slowing tobacco industry. In
Author: Glen Roberts
Major Program: Grain Crops
Collaborators: ANR Agent, Glen Roberts, KSU SFA, Danny Adams, ANR assistyant, Terry Bertram, Wayne County Grain Growers, KY Corn Growers, KY Wheat Growers, and KY Soybean Growers, University of KY Grain Yield Contest, USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service, KY Field OfficeWayne Co grain growers are faced with a limited amount of available, suitable land for row cropping. They need to optimize yields and maximize efficiency in order to compete with farmers in other areas who have access to
Author: Leann Martin
Major Program: Grain Crops
Grain production is a huge part of the local economy in south central Kentucky but with lower grain prices and profit deficits, it has become a major focus for efficiency. With increased efficiency, producers are able to expand their margins and allows them to continue production. The increased need for efficiency can be achieved with education and it is for that reason, the KY-TN Grain Conference continues to strive to educate producers to reach their highest potential for success.The Cooperati
Author: Shane Bogle
Major Program: Grain Crops
Industrial Hemp has been a long standing tradition in Kentucky. In the 19th and 20th century Kentucky was the world leader in hemp production. Then in the 1970’s the war on drugs outlawed the sale and production of cannabis sativa and made it a schedule 1 substance. In 2014 a bill was passed that allowed Kentucky to start growing and researching hemp development and production to offset a slowing tobacco industry. In 2014 there were 20 approved growers and 33 acres
Author: Colette Laurent
Major Program: Grain Crops
The UK Wheat Science Group and Grain Crops Group work to help Kentucky growers produce corn, soybeans, wheat and other grains more efficiently and sustainably. The challenge as a group is to plan and carry out programs that bring research and educational extension together for the benefit of KY Grain crops community. The groups meet annually in a central location to coordinate educational programs and research collaborations for the upcoming year. This meeting also provides
Author: Colette Laurent
Major Program: Grain Crops
The addition of the UK Grain & Forage Center of Excellence has brought with it new researchers and extension specialists who are expanding Grain Crop research and updating information. The challenge for the UK Grain Crops group is the timely dissemination of this new and updated information. Combining field demonstrations with current agronomic information relevant to decision making and education, is the balance we strive for at our annual Corn & Soybean Field day. To better
Author: Teresa Rogers
Major Program: Grain Crops
The Kentucky Agriculture Training School (KATS) was developed to provide hands-on trainings to those individuals who are seeking advanced knowledge in various areas of agriculture and crop production. The program is open to everyone, but with the focus being on crop advisors, managers and others that may influence and assist producers. It is important to keep them up to date with new technology and research findings, so they may be able to help individuals make wise decisions that will affect pr
Author: Teresa Rogers
Major Program: Grain Crops
There were four KATS workshops in 2017 and four in 2018. With a planning committee officially put into place in the fall of 2018, we have set dates to increase the number of trainings in the 2019 growing season to at least six. Increasing the number of trainings per year also increases the number of opportunities for people to attend. Each training usually covers topics that are relevant at that time of the growing season, and having multiple trainings gives the best opportunity to e
Author: Kelsey Mehl
Major Program: Grain Crops
Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is one of the top yield reducing pests on soybeans, causing great economic losses all around the world. The SCN Coalitions is a multi-state group of Extension specialists, university researchers and agricultural company representatives who are trying to bring attention to the growing threat of soybean cyst nematodes. This is the second coalition, with the first one beginning in 1997. The reintroduction of the coalition is to help spread awareness that SCN has started
Author: Kelsey Mehl
Major Program: Grain Crops
KATS (Kentucky Agriculture Training School), formally known as the Wheat Field School was started in 2017. The school was created to be a more hands on, in-depth alternative to field days. These small group meetings are important to help facilitate better group discussions and let the participants interact more directly with extension specialists. KATS trainings are held during different critical points in the growing season to help participants better understand the different management decisio
Author: Carl Bradley
Major Program: Grain Crops
Southern rust of corn can be an extremely damaging disease of corn if weather is favorable and if infections occur early enough in the season for yield losses to occur. Although southern rust does not impact corn yields in Kentucky every year, the 2016 growing season was an example of a year where southern rust reduced yields by up to 60 bushels per acre in some fields. Fortunately for Kentucky corn growers, southern rust does not overwinter much in the U.S., but it does survive in
Author: Carl Bradley
Major Program: Grain Crops
The soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is the most destructive soybean pathogen in the United States. In 2018, the soybean cyst nematode caused an estimated loss of over 128.8 million bushels in the U.S., with an estimated loss of over 2.8 million bushels in Kentucky. Above-ground symptoms are not always observed when SCN is causing yield reductions, which can make it a “silent yield robber”. Beginning in 2018, Dr. Carl Bradley began a soybean cyst nematode education program de
