Rain, Rain, Go Away
I know my 3 year old isn’t the only one singing this song the last few weeks. The amount of moisture we have been getting is just getting ridiculous. As I write this the last day of June, we have gotten 20 days of precipitation in our area. I’ve been checking the rain gauge, and these days where it has just sprinkled all day haven’t really given us a lot of rainfall, just enough to ruin good haymaking for the most part. It’s time to start thinking creatively about what you are going to be able to do to make it through the winter and what you will be feeding.
In addition, our crops and gardens are suffering from the lack of sunshine, I hope it gives soon
If you have any unidentifiable insects or plants, bring them by the office or send me a picture to
Be Patient with Wet Hay Fields
Mark Sulc, OSU Extension Forage Specialist
July Newsletter1AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
I know many hay producers reading this article are frustrated by the rainy weather. They know that forage quality is declining with each day that goes by (and why did I have to state the obvious, right?). However, I want to urge hay producers to change their focus and be patient, to make sure their hayfields are dry enough to support their equipment before they try to get out on them once the sun starts to shine again.
The loss of quality in one cutting, even the complete loss of the value of one cutting, is less than ruining a forage stand for the remainder of its productive life by running equipment on ground that is still too soft, especially if it is a younger stand. So do what is really easy for me to say, but super hard to practice right now - just be patient. Take the long look and wait until the field is dry enough to support the equipment without damaging the forage stand.
There is potentially a silver lining for
those of you who have overgrown hay fields that were saturated before you could harvest them. That is this: Flooding damage is usually much more severe in newly harvested stands than in stands with full growth present during periods of soil saturation.
Research conducted in Wooster, OH by Dr.
Al Barta a number of years ago demonstrated that alfalfa damage was most severe when the alfalfa had been harvested right before a flooding event. In contrast, flooding damage was much less severe in alfalfa that was full grown, in flower stage, and had not been cut prior to the flooding event.
So place your focus on that and watch how over-ripe fields recover compared with fields that were cut right all the saturated soil conditions developed. This is probably good news for some of you, but bad news for others who did get their hay cut before all the rain. But whatever the case, let's keep hoping that we will all soon be making hay while the sun shines!
July Newsletter1AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Injury Prevention
Safe Pesticide Handling
AG S.T.A.T Newsletter
Kent McGuire, OSU Ag Safety and Health Coordinator
A pesticide is any substance or mixture of substances used to prevent unwanted living organisms from causing damage to crops, animals, or humans. Common pesticides used on the farm include herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. Exposure to pesticides causing poisoning or a health condition is the most common injury. Exposure can be through ingestion (through the mouth), inhalation (breathing) or skin absorption. Following some safety guidelines for pesticides can greatly reduce the risk of an unhealthy exposure causing an injury.
Pesticide Storage:
- Keep pesticides and related materials in a designated locked cabinet, isolated room or separate building.
- Control access to the storage area and post “Pesticide Storage” signs to warn others.
- Never store pesticides near food, seed, feed, fertilizers or other products that can become contaminated.
- Always store pesticides in the original container with an attached label.
- If storing pesticides on shelves, store liquids below dry powders or granuals.
- Check pesticide containers periodically for leaks, breaks, or corrosion.
Pesticide Handling:
- Become familiar with the pesticide being used. Read and follow the information on the label.
- Use all label recommended personal protective equipment for mixing, application, and clean up. Examples include: chemical gloves, goggles, respirator, chemical apron, long sleeve shirt, long pants, and proper footwear
- Mix or pour concentrated pesticides below waist level, to minimize any splash or fumes near the face.
- Stand up wind so that fumes or dusts are blown away from the body.
- Mix or pour in a well - ventilated area.
- Prepare only the amount needed for application.
- Clean up spills or leaks immediately.
- Follow first aid procedures on the label if an exposure occurs.
- Securely close containers immediately after use.
- Use the proper equipment and follow the label requirements for application.
- Exercise caution when applying in sensitive areas where drift could affect others.
- Follow the pesticide’s re-entry time and procedures after application.
- Triple rinse and dispose of empty containers properly
- Wash personal protective equipment and exposed clothing immediately after use.
Working with pesticides can be done safely when precautions are taken and users read and follow the pesticide’s label.
For more information about OSU Ag Safety visit or contact Kent McGuire, OSU Agricultural Safety & Health, at or 614-292-0588
July Newsletter1AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Backyard Flocks and Avian Influenza
July Newsletter1AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
July Newsletter1AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
The following is from the United States Department of Agriculture regarding how to keep your backyard flock safe from Avian Influenza.
If you need more information, please contact the office at 740-732-5681 or email me at
Haylage in a day?
July Newsletter1AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Rory Lewandowski, Contributor for Ohio BEEF NewsletterExtension Educator Wayne County
Given our recent weather pattern, the topic of haymaking is almost certain to come up in any conversation with farmers. Last week while bemoaning the havoc our rainy weather is inflicting upon harvest schedules and hay quality, a member of my program advisory committee brought up the topic of haylage in a day. This is a concept that is being promoted in New York by forage folks at Cornell. Later, that member sent me a copy of a newsletter from Cornell that outlined some of the important principles of the haylage in a day concept. Those principles include maximizing photosynthesis, maximizing cutting widths, and wide swaths. Now let's look at each of these factors in a little more detail.
After forage is cut, quick dry down is driven by photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process where the plant uses water and carbon dioxide to produce sugars (carbohydrates) and oxygen. This only happens when the sun is shining. Even though the plant has been cut, photosynthesis will continue until the plant reaches approximately 60% moisture. In a cut plant, the only source of available water is the moisture in the plant tissue, particularly the stem. The more leaf area that is exposed to sunlight after being cut, the more of that moisture is used and the quicker the plant dries down to 60% moisture content. Ideally, forages can be chopped for haylage between 65and 55% moisture content. According to the Cornell newsletter another benefit is that the sugars produced by photosynthesis in this drying down process stay in plant tissues since they can't be moved into the roots as would normally occur with the whole (roots attached) plant.
The other, and obvious, benefit of sunshine is that the more sunshine that hits plant material the higher the temperature of that material and the quicker it dries. So, in order to maximize the plant surface area exposed to sunlight, there must be a wide swath width. Anything that restricts swath width after the forage is cut will increase dry down time. Work at Cornell has shown that any swath width that is less than 80% of the cutterbar width will make it difficult to achieve haylage in a day especially in first cut crops and/or heavy yield forage stands. Farmers in New York who have bought into the haylage in a day are removing center diverters in mowers and in some cases adding spreaders to the back of mowers to increase swath widths to 90% or more of cutterbar width. Other farmers are removing deflector shields to reduce clumping and provide more uniform wide swaths.
The key components of this concept are mowing without conditioning so that stems remain whole, and spreading out the cut plants into a wide swath so that photosynthesis and sunlight hitting plant material is maximized. Of course we have no control over whether the sun shines or not, but when it does, we can be ready to take maximum advantage of even a day of sunshine.
July Newsletter1AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES