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Extension Living With Fire Program Director Christina Restaino said, “We feel unstable in our relationship with our place now. That's a really unsettling thing.”
Living With Fire | |
Steve Foster, our local Extension educator, is a Certified Crop Advisor. To help area producers, Steve assesses fields in the county’s upper and lower valleys weekly.
He looks for challenges, develops recommendations for best managing them and shares this info with area producers. This helps farmers to manage crop stresses, ensuring the crop's long-term survival.
Steve said that even with careful management, production and income will be down this year. That's because of a lack of water. Farmers have had to leave some of their fields fallow and are getting fewer harvests.
Learn more about Steve and how our College is working to help producers cope with drought in this Nevada Today article: unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2021/alfalfa-drought.
Our College is looking for long-term solutions to help farmers during drought. In the mean time, our local Extension educator, Steve Foster, says alfalfa growers need to take steps now to help their plants come back next year.
Producers should refrain from harvesting their last crops of the season too late. They should also leave at least six inches of top growth. Here's why:
The plants need time and leaf area to create and store energy from photosynthesis in their roots. That energy storage will help them to survive winter and begin growing in spring. For the stand to be productive, at least five plants or 40 stems per square foot must make it through.
He said, “We need to hope that soil moisture increases by next March, so that good root growth and high yields can occur next season.”
To learn more, visit unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2021/alfalfa-drought.
Our local Extension educator, Steve Foster, has done the math on alfalfa in Nevada.
Steve found that a farmer needs to harvest over a ½ ton of alfalfa per acre per cutting to cover just the harvest expenses, and more to cover other costs, including increased costs due to the pandemic. And, he found that a farmer's profit per acre grows the more alfalfa he grows.
Because production is down this year, Steve thinks farmers' profits will be too, despite the higher prices alfalfa growers can get for their product this year.
This leaves producers with a tough decision to make when water is getting shut off before what will be the last cutting of the season. They have to try to evaluate whether it is worth the expense of harvesting the not-fully-grown crop, or not.
Learn more in this Nevada Today article unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2021/alfalfa-drought.
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Our 4-H Youth Development Program would like to thank trainer Matt Shontz, as well as the horse leaders and parents, for all their help at the May 14 4-H Horse Club meeting!
To learn more about 4-H, visit extension.unr.edu/4h.
University of Nevada, Reno Extension 4-H Youth Development | University of Nevada, Reno Extension | | |
Attention dog lovers! Our 4-H Dog Club is meeting at La Casita in Lovelock on Sunday, May 23 at noon (without our canine friends) to learn "dog speak." Questions? Contact Colby Burke at 775-273-2923 or
[email protected].
University of Nevada, Reno Extension 4-H Youth Development | |
