Richland County office one of many sites hosting a webinar on mineral leases April 4th

Montana State University Extension will sponsor a free webinar "Mineral Leasing in Montana," on Wednesday, April 4, from 10-11 a.m.

Featuring Tim Fitzgerald, assistant professor of Agricultural Economics at MSU, the webinar will outline the importance of the leasing process, current trends in oil and gas development in Montana, structure of an oil and gas lease, and related concerns. Both mineral and surface owners will find the discussion useful, as well as owners with existing leases. Participants will also be provided a check list for oil and gas leases, sample lease forms for oil and gas leases and a sample surface damage agreement.

Montana has recently experienced a flurry of interest in mineral leasing. Land and mineral owners interested in the leasing process will find this webinar useful to help understand and address their role in leasing and development issues, whether located in a proven area of the state, or in a lesser-known mineral-rich area.

There are two ways to participate in this no-charge webinar: Watch and participate individually online; or visit one of the locations offering classroom space (in Broadus, at Powder River County Courthouse; in Choteau, at Choteau Country Club; in Culbertson, at the RC Complex; in Havre, at the Northern Agricultural Research Center; in Sidney, at the Richland County Extension office; in Terry, at the Prairie County Courthouse; and in Valier, at the Valier Civic Center). For details or accommodations at host classrooms, contact the county MSU Extension agent.

To run the webinar on your personal computer, participants should update their browser to ensure the software can communicate with MSU's webinar software. Detailed instructions for these updates and a connectivity test, which can be run any time before the webinar on April 4, are available at: http://www.montana.edu/softwaredownloads/energydownloads/usingadobeconnect.pdf/

Join the April 4 webinar by visiting the following link: http://www.msuextensionconnect.org/leasing/ Please log in about 10 minutes before the actual start time.

Think your winter wheat is dead, maybe not. Here's how to tell for sure

Last week I had an opportunity to participate in a webinar hosted by NDSU, Ducks Unlimited and a few other organizations. The emphasis of the webinar was looking at winter wheat and making management decisions based on survival. A few producers have questioned whether our lack of winter and snow cover has caused winter wheat to suffer winter kill. My initial reaction was that we probably did have some significant amounts of winter kill but I'm not so sure now.

One way to know for sure whether or not your wheat crop is lost is to perform the "bag test". Here is a link to a video that shows exactly how to do it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soCj2OsLJ_w&feature=youtu.be) and also describes how to determine whether or not your wheat has survived.

I would encourage you to perform the test, especially if you have significant areas of your field that appear to be dead, before making any decisions regarding tearing up the crop or trying to inter-seed a spring wheat crop into it.

I am more than happy to help with the test if needed.

Training for new private pesticide applicators March 23

On Friday, March 23^rd, the Richland County Extension Office will host a hand’s on educational seminar for any individual wishing to obtain a private pesticide applicator’s license. The class will begin with registration at 8:30 and will wrap up around 4:45 in the afternoon. The entire session will be held at the conference center located within the Richland County Extension Office which is located at 1499 N. Central Avenue in Sidney.

Those in attendance will meet the requirements necessary to obtain a private pesticide applicator’s license for the state of Montana. Private applicators who currently hold a license are welcome to attend as well, and will receive 6 re-certification credits.

For more information about the private pesticide applicator program in Montana, please visit http://pesticides.montana.edu/. For questions, directions, or to register contact Tim Fine at 406-433-1206 or by email at tfine@montana.edu.

Conservation Tillage options for beet growers

On Tuesday, March 27 the Richland County Extension Office will host a producer panel for area sugarbeet growers. The focus of the panel will be looking at what types of conservation tillage practices (no-till, strip till, etc...) beet growers are implementing, what accomplishments have been reached by these growers, and what challenges growers face when trying to incorporate these practices into their operations.

There is no cost associated with this program and no need to pre-register. The panel discussion will begin at 6:00 p.m. and run as long as there are questions to be answered. For more information or if you have questions, contact the Richland County Extension Office.