Carter County Newsletter Cooperative Extension Service Carter County 94 Fairground Drive Grayson, KY 41143 (606) 474-6686 Fax: (606) 474-8542 www.ca.uky.edu/ces Upcoming Events September 4-October 4 Tobacco Phase I Cost Share Program Application period at the Carter County Extension Office September 4 Horse College, #1 Nutrition for Your Horse, 6:00 p.m. at the Carter County Extension Education Building September 4 Little Sandy Beekeepers Club meeting, 6:00 p.m. at the Carter County Extension Education Building September 7 Last day to get free hay testing; call the extension office to schedule testing of your hay September 10 Customer Appreciation Pot Luck Luncheon from 1:00-3:00 p.m. at the Olive Hill Farmers Market September 10 Hog Finishing and Processing, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the U.K. Robinson Center, Jackson, KY September 11 Horse College, #2 Facilities for Horses and Basic Horse Behavior, 6:00 p.m. in the Carter County Extension Education Building September 15 East KY Replacement Bred Heifer Sale, 1:00 p.m. at the Lee City Stockyards, Lee City, KY September 17-23 National Farm Safety Week September 18 Horse College, #3 Forages: Including Hay and Pasture, 6:00 p.m. in the Carter County Extension Education Building September 22 Robinson Center for Appalachian Resource Sustainability (RCARS) Taste of the Mountains Field Day, 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. at the U.K. Robinson Center, Jackson, KY September 25 Horse College, #4 Basic Health Care for Your Horse, 6:00 p.m. in the Carter County Extension Education Building Tobacco Phase One County Agricultural Investment Program The Carter County Agricultural Advancement Council, Tobacco Phase I Cost-share Program Application will be ready on September 4, 2012 in the new Carter County Extension Office, 94 Fairground Drive, Grayson, KY. Appointments are available on Tuesday, September 9th in the Extension Office. If you want to work with someone to complete the Application call 474-6686. Sign-up period is September 4, 2012 – October 4, 2012. All applications must be turned in no later than October 4, 2012. Again this year applicants are ranked on scoring criteria, NOT first come first serve. The scoring criteria are designed to give the tobacco dependent farmer priority. County Agricultural Investment Program, (CAIP)consists of a total of eleven investment areas: The following have a limit of $4,000.00: Agricultural Diversification, Cattle Genetics, Cattle Handling, Farm Fencing, Farm Structure & Commodity Handling, Farmland Improvement and On-Farm Water. The following investment areas have a limit of $2000.00: Commercial Poultry, Dairy& Swine, Goat & Sheep Diversification, On-Farm Energy Efficiency & Production, Technology & Leadership Development. Participant may select no more than 3 investment areas. Total amount requested cannot exceed $4000.00 total. All programs are 50% cost share on a reimbursement basis. Horse College Scheduled A Horse College has been scheduled for every Tuesday night in September. The programs will begin at 6:00 p.m. each night. The first session on September 4th will be held at the new Carter County Extension Office. The remaining 3 will be held in the Carter County Extension Education Building. The schedule and topics are: September 4th – Nutrition for Your Horse September 11th – Facilities for Horses and Basics of Horse Behavior September 18th – Forages Including Hay and Pasture September 25th – Basic Health Care for Your Horse Everyone is welcome to attend. There is not any registration fee, but pre-registration is required so we know how many to plan for. To preregister, please call the Carter County Extension Office at 474-6686 by 4:30 p.m. on the Monday before the session. Advanced Horse College The Horse College will be flowed by an Advanced Horse College. The Advanced Horse College will be held at 6:00 p.m. each Monday night in October in the Franks Building at the Boyd County Fairgrounds. The schedule is: Monday October 1st Body Condition Scoring how to and what it means (Coleman) live horses if possible Monday October 8th Feeding Concerns for different situations (Coleman) Monday October 15th Emergency Hoof Care (Kentucky Horseshoeing School) Monday October 22nd Emergency First Aid what do you need and what to do till the vet arrives (Boyd Co Vet) There is a $10 registration fee for the advance college. Please call the Carter County Office to preregister. 2 16th Annual East Kentucky Hay Contest Our 16th Annual East Kentucky Hay Contest will be held at the UK Robinson Center on Saturday, September 22, 2012 during the noon meal at the RCARS field day. The deadline for submitting hay and haylage samples for testing will be Friday, September 7. Forage samples need to be delivered to the Robinson Center where the KDA will conduct the testing on Monday, September 10. This event is open to all producers in District 1 & 2. If you plan to conduct a hay contest in your county as part of a county field day or county fair, you can simply submit those KDA hay testing results to me for competition. However, all hay and haylage samples must be collected by the ANR agent with a hay probe. Please give me a call ASAP to schedule a time to collect samples if you want to have your hay tested. This is a free service for this event. You can have your hay tested free without entering the contest as well. This is an excellent management tool and will help you plan your winter feeding program. 14th Annual East KY Bred Heifer Sale The East Kentucky Beef Cattle Council will be sponsoring its’ fourteenth Replacement Bred Heifer Sale on Saturday, September 15, 2012 at the Lee City Stockyard. The sale will begin at 1:00pm. Inspection will begin at 12:00 noon. The Lee City Stockyard is located approx. 2 miles off the Mountain Parkway on Route 205 about 10 miles east of Campton in Wolfe County. There will be approximately 150 bred heifers offered for sale. These heifers have been professionally developed in cooperation of local County Agents and UK Beef Specialist. Each heifer has been vaccinated against the respiratory disease complex (IBR, BVD, PI3, BRSV, and Hemophilus), the clostridial diseases (Blackleg, etc.) and the reproductive diseases (lepto and vibrio). Each heifer has been treated for internal and external parasites. Each heifer had to meet or exceed a pelvic area of 160 sq. cm. Pelvic Area was age adjusted to one year of age on all heifers. All heifers were tested and confirmed BVD persistent infection (PI) negative. All the heifers have been checked by ultra-sound for intramuscular fat. This data will be provided on buyer request. The heifers were artificially inseminated to the Select Sires bull Rito 6EM6. Black Angus clean-up bulls were used that met Heifer CE requirements. 85 of the heifers in the sale are AI bred. There are 14 registered Black Angus in the sale. Average weight was 900 on August 1, 2012. The majority of the heifers are Angus or Angus cross. Most of the heifers will calve between early February and mid March. All heifers are guaranteed bred for 60-days following the sale. There will be free delivery for purchases of 10 or more up to a 200 mile radius of Lee City. For more information about the sale or program you can contact Dr. Les Anderson at the University of Kentucky Animal Science Department (859) 257-2856, Larry Clay (606) 438-9914 or Charles May (606) 4362044. All the data on the heifers is posted on the Perry County web page. http://ces.ca.uky.edu/perry On the left side of the page click on Agriculture and Natural Resources. Farmers Market Customer Appreciation Day The Olive Hill Farmers Market will celebrate their Customer Appreciation Day on September 10 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. with a free pot luck lunch. Be sure and visit the Olive Hill Farmers Market on the Save-A-Lot supermarket parking lot for some good home cooking and fresh vegetables. 3 Hog Finishing and Processing Dr. Gregg Rentfrow – Speaker Pig slaughter and curing are long standing traditions in the Appalachian region. Dr. Rentfrow will discuss safety during slaughter along with demonstrating how to fabricate a pork carcass into wholesale and retail cuts. In addition, he will be demonstrating how to dry cure the hams, shoulders, and bellies to produce Country Hams, dry-cured shoulders, and Country Bacon. Finally, Dr. Rentfrow will talk about how to grind and season the trimmings to produce breakfast sausage or bratwursts. Kentucky Beef Cattle Market Update Last week, USDA released their mid-year cattle inventory estimates and this month’s article will be dedicated to discussing that report. The report was largely as expected, confirming large decreases in cattle numbers since July of 2011. The only year-over-year increases in the report were in cattle on feed, which was up by 1% from a year ago. Total cattle and calves were down by about 2%, while beef cow numbers were down by about 3%. Much of this is due to severe drought in major cattle producing areas in 2011 and continuing into 2012. While state-by-state numbers are not available in the mid-year report, drought and competition for pasture and hay ground would suggest that Kentucky beef cow numbers would be following a similar trend. Heifer development got some attention following the January 2012 Cattle report as it showed a small increase from January of 2011. However, that increase in beef heifer development was really pretty small when compared to the decrease in beef cow numbers. The recent report, which is summarized in the table below, shows heifers held for beef cow replacement steady from a year ago. Of course steady heifer development numbers, coming off a year when beef cow inventory fell by 3%, suggests a continued decrease in cow numbers. Higher cattle-on-feed numbers and considerably lower beef cow numbers tend to suggest tighter feeder cattle supplies down the road. This should be a positive factor for a feeder cattle market that is still trying to gain some traction in what has been a brutal summer. The picture will become clearer as we gain a better understanding of the size of the 2012 corn crop in the coming months and get a feel for the strength of beef demand this fall. 4 Burley Tobacco Curing Advisory Website The University Of Kentucky College Of Agriculture has a new electronic, interactive tobacco curing tool that may help burley tobacco growers better manage curing conditions in their barns. The web-based tool was developed by retired Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering professors George Duncan and Linus Walton, drawing on their wealth of expertise and experience curing burley tobacco, in collaboration with two scientists from the University of Kentucky Agriculture Weather Center, agriculture meteorologist Tom Priddy and information support technology specialist Wanhong Wang. The curing advisory uses real-time data from the Kentucky Mesonet system, now in 62 counties across the commonwealth, and from other sources, to produce a summary of average weather conditions including temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed for the previous 48 hours, and forecasts the conditions for the coming 24 hours. On the website, growers select their county from a pull-down menu, and the advisory summarizes weather conditions for the specific location and advises opening or closing ventilators and, in extreme conditions, adding supplemental ventilation or moisture. The advisory only provides general guidance, and growers should use the recommendations in combination with their own experience, and taking into consideration their own curing structures and situation. Also, the guidance is primarily applicable during the first 5 to 6 weeks of air-curing mature tobacco that is housed at proper spacing in traditional style barns with doors and ventilators that allow growers some measure of control over curing conditions. But hopefully, this tool can be of assistance to many tobacco growers in managing curing structures to produce the best quality tobacco under a wide range of curing conditions. To access the interactive electronic burley curing advisory, go to weather.uky.edu/burley_curing.html, or find a link to it on the UK Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Department extension web page. Contact John Wilhoit at jwilhoit@bae.uky.edu for more information. Sincerely, Myron Evans, County Extension Agent for Ag/Natural Resources 5 Cooperative Extension Service University of Kentucky Carter County 300 W Main Street #121 Grayson, KY 41143-1274 PRESORTED STANDARD US POSTAGE PAID GRAYSON, KY PERMIT 115 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED 6