Farm & Agriculture

Trick your cows into calving in daylight hours

MOUNT VERNON, Mo. – Producers who want more cows and heifers calving in daylight hours should try to delay putting out hay and cubes until late in the day. “It may sound like an old wives’ tale, but it works and has unbiased research behind it,” said Eldon Cole, a livestock specialist with...

Ag Update Meetings

Every year, Extension agricultural specialists in the Northwest Region conduct meetings that we call “Ag Updates”. These are held in almost all of the counties in our region. The idea behind these meetings is to provide another place for pesticide applicators to obtain or renew their Private...

Feeding corn to cows replaces hay

Wintering cows in a year with bad hay or shortages of hay proves challenging to beef farmers. Prolonged drought last summer upset haymaking plans. Beef nutritionist Eric Bailey, University of Missouri Extension, answered farmers’ questions Dec. 2 at the Missouri Livestock Symposium in Kirksville....

Joplin heifer sale adds quality but bidders remained reluctant

“It was a great night to be a buyer,” Eldon Cole said after the Southwest Missouri Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifer sale. Average price on 311 heifers was $1,586. That’s almost $200 per head below Cole’s prediction. The University of Missouri livestock specialist has managed 39 heifer sales. He...

Farm labor workshops tell complexity of hiring, firing

Source: Joe Horner 573-882-9339 COLUMBIA, Mo. – Major farm management decisions concern capital and labor. Too little attention goes to the labor side of farming, says agricultural economist Joe Horner. To help decision-makers, he plans three University of Missouri Extension workshops across...

Mount Vernon beef producer Steve Jones removed old tags and tagged steers with a number to help feedlot operators track each calf’s progress. He also brought two cattle of his own for the feedout. Photo by Linda Geist.

Beef farmers learn from 50 feedouts

Missouri beef herd owners learn profits and risks of sending their calves to a feedlot. They’ve entered 50 Missouri Steer Feedouts run by University of Missouri Extension. To cut risks in learning, they enter samples of five to 20 head, said Eldon Cole, MU Extension livestock specialist. The...

Crop conference gives updates on dicamba, pests, disease

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The annual University of Missouri Crop Management Conference offers updates on how 2018’s drought-to-downpour growing season affected crops, pests and disease, and provides insights on how trade affects agricultural commodity markets. The event, Dec. 18-19 at the Holiday Inn...

Food Safety Modernization Act Workshop set for Jamesport

Produce Growers have been monitoring developments in food safety for many years. There have been a number of tragic episodes, where some type of produce became contaminated with a dangerous microorganism, which led to illness and even death in the people who consumed the product. Produce growers...

Soybean specialist gives tips for handling weather woes

Mother Nature has much to say about soybean yield and grain quality almost every year, says University of Missouri Extension soybean specialist Bill Wiebold. This year was no exception. Several important soybean-growing regions in Missouri experienced severe drought this year. The most worrisome...

Farm tax workshops set for November

University of Missouri Extension will offer a free farm tax workshop in November at locations throughout the state. This workshop explains major tax changes affecting farms and ranches that went into effect in December 2017. The workshops are 6:15-8:45 p.m. on Nov. 12 and Nov. 19. Extension...