Friday, November 15, 2013

End of season harvest report.....at least from my point of view

I just finished writing a harvest piece for the Sidney Herald and thought I would share it. 



Another crop production year has come and gone and I can say with some amount of certainty that, in the 4 crop production cycles that I have witnessed, no 2 of them have been alike.  This year was highlighted by early spring rains that delayed planting in some areas quite a bit but allowed for enough moisture to get the crop off to a good start.  This was followed by some significant amounts of moisture that ultimately lead to disease pressure in many of our fields.  Then, just as we thought we were sailing smoothly on to harvest, many producers in the Yellowstone Valley around Sidney received significant hail damage which really knocked back the sugar beets and leveled many wheat and barley stands.

All in all, however, I would still dub this year’s harvest as a success across the board.  There certainly were challenges along the way, but I think that most of the crop came in with fairly decent yields.

Small Grains- I always try to find hard and fast facts whenever possible because in discussing the crop with producers I typically only get reports when the crop is either really good or really bad.  So for a report on the wheat and barley crop, I turned to the harvest reports from the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee (http://wbc.agr.mt.gov/wbc/Buyers/Quality_reports/).

This report does not have yield figures for Eastern Montana, but my assumption based on anecdotal evidence (barber shop talk) is that the winter, spring, and durum wheats all yielded fairly well.  Test weights, according to the statistics were up but protein was down quite a bit.  While this information encompasses all of Eastern Montana, I feel it is a pretty fair assessment of the results we found here in Richland County.

There is no hard and fast data on the 2013 barley crop that I could find.  However, I believe it fared just as well as the wheat crop did, with one exception.  For whatever reason, much of the crop that was harvested early had a considerable amount of sprout damage and, as such, did not make malting quality.  As harvest progressed, I believe that this situation became less drastic but there was quite a bit of the first few fields that were harvested that had to be sent into the feed barley market. 

Alfalfa and other Hay- Fortunately for our livestock producers, we had another good hay year.  With last year’s crop not being so great, this hopefully helped to alleviate some concerns with having enough hay to get through the winter.  This can be supported by the most recent weekly Montana Hay report out of Billings (http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/bl_gr310.txt)   which states that “All classes of hay continue to trend steady.  Interest is very light to light for all classes of hay, with light to moderate demand….  Hay supplies are adequate assuming that they don't receive a very hard winter that lasts late into spring.

Sugarbeets- I would say that the sugarbeet campaign this year was another successful one.  Harvest seemed to progress rather quickly this year compared to others.  Tonnage appeared to be pretty good but sugar content was maybe not as high as it has been in the past.  I was pleasantly surprised to see how fast the sugar beet crop that got hailed out in and around Sidney put new leaves on and continued to grow.  This however, did not help with increasing the sugar content of the crop.

Corn- I really have not heard much of anything in regards to the corn crop.  I believe that just about all of the crop is harvested and this was a really good year for corn production.  We started off the year lacking the heat units to get the crop going but made up for it in the middle and end of the crop’s production cycle.  The problem with the corn crop that was harvested for grain is that much of the nation had a good corn growing season and, as such, prices are not as strong as they have been in the past.  This is not a concern for those that harvest to corn for silage though and I assume that there was plenty of good silage harvested.

Pulse Crops and oilseeds- Our pulse crop and oilseed producers I would guess are pretty happy with this year’s crop.  There were a few fields that had some disease issues because of the wet spring that we had but all in all, it was a pretty good year for these crops as well.  The weather cooperated for the most part when it was time to harvest and this allowed for a fairly quick harvest period.

I guess that all in all, one could classify this year’s harvest as another fairly successful one.  There were localized bouts of hail and wind damage that completely leveled some crops, grazing land, and hay stands but even in most of those spots, a fair amount of the crop was able to be harvested. 

In closing, I just want to say as sincerely as possible, thank you to those of you who spend your lives making sure that the rest of us have food on our plate.  I truly appreciate all that you do and I know it’s a thankless job most of the time.



Friday, November 8, 2013

Fraudulent USDA Letter Circulating


I receive a weekly newsletter from the American Sheep Industry and this was included in this week's newsletter.  I thought it would be good information to share.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been made aware that there is a fraudulent letter circulating to producers and/or contractors. The signature line in these letters reads Frank Rutenberg and the sender claims to be a USDA employee seeking information about the recipient.

These letters are a fraud, the sender is fictitious and recipients should not respond.

Should you receive one of these fraudulent letters, please notify your local Farm Service Agency or a USDA service center representative.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Soil Health Workshops Scheduled for November across Montana



Local agricultural producers will share tips and tricks they have learned while focusing on improving their soil health at six workshops across Montana the week of November 18, 2013. The workshops are sponsored by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Montana chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society.
Workshop Dates and Locations:
Monday, November 18, 2013
Missoula, Montana
Ruby's Inn and Convention Center
4825 North Reserve Street
12:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Lunch not included; RSVP by November 15; 406-676-2841 extension 111
Speakers: Jon Stika, Doug Peterson

Tuesday November 19, 2013
Bozeman, Montana
Best Western Grantree Inn
1325 North 7th Avenue
9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
$15 includes lunch; RSVP by November 15; 406-587-6852
Speakers: Jerry Doan, Doug Peterson, Brendon Rockey

Great Falls, Montana
Best Western Heritage Inn
1700 Fox Farm Road
9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
$15 includes lunch; RSVP by November 15; 406-727-7580 extension 127
Speakers: Jon Stika, Ray Ward, Rick Bieber

Wednesday November 20, 2013
Billings, Montana
Billings Hotel
1223 Mullowney Lane
9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
$15 includes lunch; RSVP by November 15; 406-657-6135 extension 117
Speakers: Jerry Doan, Brendon Rockey, Ray Ward

Glasgow, Montana
Valley Event Center
54141 Highway 2
9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Lunch not included; RSVP by November 15; 406-232-7905 extension 115
Speakers: Jon Stika, Rick Bieber, Kris Nichols

Thursday November 21, 2013
Miles City, Montana
Sleep Inn
1006 S. Haynes Avenue
9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Lunch not included; RSVP by November 15; 406-232-7905 extension 115
Speakers: Jerry Doan, Brendon Rockey, Ray Ward

For full speaker biographies, visit the NRCS Montana website at www.mt.nrcs.usda.gov and click on the “Unlock the Secrets in the Soil” graphic.
Private applicator recertification credits and Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for Certified Crop Advisors will be awarded for attending. Sign up for credits at the door when arriving at the workshop.