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Dr. R. G. Mortimer, a Veterinarian from Colorado State University has written a nice handout on Calving and Handling Calving Difficulties. The Chouteau County Extension Office has a handout available. Our office can e-mail it to you, or you can come into our office for a hard copy. We are located in the basement of the Chouteau County Courthouse. Below is a short summary of the handout. The most common reason for calf losses in the beef cattle industry is still calving difficulty. Looking only at the effects of calving difficulty on the calf,...
Initial Pesticide Trainings in Hingham, Fort Benton, Chester and Great Falls The MSU Golden Triangle Extension Agents are facilitating four private applicator initial trainings this winter. Currently 104 Chouteau County producers have not met the minimum requirements of six private applicator credits. All private applicators will need to earn a minimum of six credits before December 31, 2020 in order to re-new their private applicators license. All four trainings are open to the public. Individuals who have a current private or commercial...
MSU Extension level 1 Master Gardener classes will take place in Fort Benton or Big Sandy in February pending pre-registration numbers. Now is your chance to participate in an excellent educational opportunity. If ten people pre-register, we will have the class, which traditionally begins in late February. Please contact the MSU Chouteau County Extension office at 622-3751 to pre-register. The Level 1 Master Gardener course requires 16 hours of class time, and is taught by local Extension agents, plant professionals, and Master Gardener...
Beef Nutrition Workshop in Valier MSU Extension Pondera County Extension is hosting a Livestock nutrition workshop at the Valier Civic Center on December 21. Agenda: 1:00 - 1:30 - Registration 1:30 - 2:20 - What’s in Your Bale by Adriane Good (MSU Extension Pondera County). 2:30 - 3:20 - Protein and Energy Supplementation Strategies by Dr. Megan Van Emon (MSU Extension Beef Cattle Specialist). 3:30 - 4:20 - Developing a Mineral Strategy That’s Right for Your Ranch by Dr. Carla Sanford (MSU Extension Beef Cattle Specialist). For questions abo...
Thanks in Advance to MaxAg for Sponsoring Lunch at the Seminar in Fort Benton Montana State University Extension will host a free, annual cropping seminar series January 6-10 in Fort Benton, Stanford, Havre, Chester, Shelby, Cut Bank, Conrad, Choteau, and Great Falls. Speakers will cover paraquat safety, cropping systems, crop varieties, pest management, integrated weed management, herbicide resistance, marketing, and risk management. A special thanks to MaxAg for sponsoring the seminar in Fort Benton. Dr. Mary Burrows, MSU Plant Pathology...
12 Golden Triangle Sheep Seminar in Conrad sponsored by the Front Range Wool Pool The annual event will take place on Tuesday, December 17 at the Moose Lodge in Conrad. Registration will begin at 2 p.m. Presenters and content are as follows: • Dr. Whit Stewart, via internet, Wyoming Extension Sheep Specialist Tour of the South American Sheep Industry • Trestin Benson, MSU Wool Lab Co-Manager and Grad Student Integration of Sheep into Vegetable Farming • Brent Roeder, MSU Sheep and Wool Extension Specialist Overview of Electronic Tag Syste...
I found an interesting article from Canada on stretching hay supply with straw. The article is located at https://www.canadiancattlemen.ca/2017/11/06/stretching-your-cattles-hay-supply-with-straw/. I asked Dr. Megan Van Emon (MSU Assistant Professor, Extension Beef Cattle Specialist) to review the article to see if it is a good fit for Chouteau County producers. I have included Megan’s comments. Travis Peardon, the regional livestock specialist in Outlook, Saskatchewan says straw has its limitations when used in beef cattle diets. Straw does n...
The Montana State University Central Agricultural Experiment Station will host its annual research roundup event in Lewistown from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 10. The event will showcase ongoing projects at the research center and offer time for public input along with a local meal. The event is free and is co-sponsored with Fergus County Farm Bureau, Wilbur Ellis, Gavilon Grain, Stockman Bank and Moore Farmers Oil. One of seven Montana Agricultural Experiment Station research centers, the CARC conducts a range of research including...
Free Gardening Management Calendars available at Extension Office The 2020 Urban IPM calendars are packed with monthly information on how to take care of your yard & garden, along with photos from horticulturists around the state! Get yours today by contacting the Chouteau County Extension office. Below are a few examples of information included in the Calendars. Several insects come into homes in the fall seeking shelter. Most do not survive inside throughout the winter. Pests that do survive do not reproduce inside the home. Make sure door...
Sampling of hay is essential to livestock management. Hay sampling is best accomplished with a hollow core probe consisting of a stainless-steel tube and a sharp cutting end. The Chouteau County Extension office has a hay probe available for check out. One core should be sampled from at least 20 bales from a lot of hay. A lot of hay is defined as hay harvested from a field of uniform maturity within two days. A lot should not exceed 200 tons. Poor sampling techniques and an inadequate number of subsamples (less than 20) are the largest sources...
The MSU Extension non-soil agricultural fumigation manual for private applicators (EB0229) is available at the Chouteau County Extension office. Many fumigants are classified among the most toxic pesticides currently available for use. Accidents are rare but when they do occur, they can result in the fatality of applicators and bystanders. The disparity between fumigants and other pesticides is significant, including personal protective equipment, the use of monitoring devices, determining dosage, etc. The manual was created as an aid in...
The annual Chouteau County Livestock Protective Association meeting will take place on Thursday, November 21th at 3:00 p.m. at the Vets Hall in Geraldine. A social will follow the business meeting at 5:00 p.m. followed by dinner at 6:00. Please RSVP Buck Goldhahn at 622-5572 so the cooks can have notice on how many people will be attending. This year’s guest speaker is Dr. Carla Sanford (MSU Extension Beef Specialist). Dr. Sanford will cover heifer management in Montana. Reproduction is the single most important factor in ranch productivity. A...
Should I spray Canada thistle this Fall? According to Tim Seipel, MSU Cropland Weed Extension Specialist, producers need to wait until it warms up before they spray. Hopefully, producers will get another window of good fall weather to get out and clean up fields. Glyphosate will not be absorbed if temperatures are below 40 degrees. In addition, spraying depends on what is going to be sprayed. Canada thistle stalks from this year were recently hammered by the cold. Stalks have most likely finished moving sugars around especially if the...
The article below is a portion of an article written by Peter Kolb (MSU Extension Forester). The article is available in full at the Chouteau County Extension office. The article explains the natural phenomenon of fall needle drop, insect management, and proper watering techniques for pine and spruce trees. Every fall a lot of concern arises when conifers such as pines, spruces and firs start to drop their older needle cohorts in preparation for winter. This is essentially an energy conservation mechanism for surviving the winter as all living...
Pre-seeding fertilizer tips for farmers Clain Jones, MSU Extension Soil Fertility Specialist Presented at the Montana Agricultural Business Association last winter in Great Falls. The majority of the presentation contained a variety of fertilizer tips to help producers prepare for the upcoming seeding season. In addition, information for this article was taken from the Fertilizer Guidelines for Montana Crops (EB161), which is available at the Chouteau County Extension office. • MSU Extension has an on-line tool designed to assist producers i...
Managing horticultural landscapes in September is essential to healthy production during the growing season. Below are a few recommendations for Chouteau county gardeners. • The average first frost is September 15 (Carter), September 18 (Kenilworth and Highwood), September 20 (Big Sandy), September 25 (Fort Benton) and September 28 in Geraldine. All fruit and vegetables should be harvested before temperatures drop below 40° to 50°F. • Ripen tomatoes in a paper bag along with an apple, or hang the entire plant upside down in the garage. • Pla...
The 2019 Chouteau County 4-H and FFA livestock carcass contest took place at Pioneer Meats in Big Timber. A total of 63 Chouteau County 4-H animals were evaluated for carcass quality by Mark King (MSU Extension Sweet Grass County). The purpose of the carcass contest is to teach 4-H youth how to correctly select, feed and finish livestock based on carcass data. If carcass criteria are met, youth can be confident they are producing a high quality product that is safe, nutritious and good tasting to the consumer. Out of 36 market swine entered at...
Many Chouteau County producers research their winter wheat varieties in the spring and their spring crop varieties in the Fall. As a result, it is time to let producers know about a new malt barley called Buzz. Malt Barley is generally rejected when seed is not plump and/or protein is too high. Hockett, a malt barley released by MSU, generally has stable plumps and good yield under dryland conditions. However, grain protein can be too high. Hockett is also slow to germinate, complicating the malting process. The malt quality of Hockett is also...
4-H, the nation’s largest youth development organization, grows confident young people who are empowered for life today and prepared for career tomorrow. 4-H programs empower nearly six million young people across the U.S. through experiences that develop critical life skills. 4-H is the youth development program of our nation’s Cooperative Extension System and USDA, and serves every county and parish in the U.S. through a network of 110 public universities and more than 3000 local Extension offices. Globally, 4-H collaborates with ind...
Managing horticultural landscapes in September is essential to healthy production during the growing season. Below are a few recommendations for Chouteau county gardeners. • The average first frost is September 15 (Carter), September 18 (Kenilworth and Highwood), September 20 (Big Sandy), September 25 (Fort Benton) and September 28 in Geraldine. All fruit and vegetables should be harvested before temperatures drop below 40° to 50°F. • Ripen tomatoes in a paper bag along with an apple, or hang the entire plant upside down in the garage. • Pla...
MSU Agriculture research centers have three test plots for winter wheat in Chouteau County. Research plots are managed by MSU Western Triangle Agricultural Research Center (WTARC) south of the Knees, MSU Northern Agricultural Research Center (NARC) north of Loma and MSU Central Agricultural Research Center (CARC) west of Geraldine. A special thanks to John Miller (WTARC agronomist), Peggy Lamb (NARC agronomist) and Jed Eberly (CARC agronomist) for establishing and maintaining the Chouteau County test plots. The Extension office would also like...
It is recommended to allow a minimum of 30 days between the last harvest and the first killing frost in the fall to allow alfalfa plants time for sufficient carbohydrate accumulation. It is important to know the average date of the first killing frost in your area when determining the last harvest date. Frost-freeze dates for Chouteau County are estimated with 90% accuracy. Big Sandy is September 21, Fort Benton and Geraldine are September 24, Loma is September 22, and Iliad is September 18. It is equally important that a stand is healthy,...
• Water trees three times a month in addition to watering your lawn. • Deep watering to a depth of 12” inches below the soil surface is recommended. Saturate the soil around the tree within the “dripline” (the outer edges of the tree’s branches) to disperse water down toward the roots. • For evergreens, water 3’-5’ beyond the dripline on all sides of the tree. • The objective is to water slowly, dispersing the flow of water to get the water deep down to the trees roots. Watering for short periods of time only encourages shallow rooting whi...
Bobcat is a high yielding solid stem hard red winter wheat with improved yield potential relative to other solid stem varieties. The variety will be available for non-certified seed producers in fall of 2020. The variety was developed by Phil Bruckner and Jim Berg from the Montana State University winter wheat breeding program. Bobcat is a selection from a composite cross of two unreleased Montana solid-stemmed experimental lines and an unreleased Montana hollow-stemmed line. Bobcat is awned, white-glumed, semi-dwarf wheat with medium to late...
The following article was prepared by Kevin Wanner (MSU Extension Entomologist). Alfalfa weevil is the key insect pest of alfalfa, causing variable levels of economic damage across Montana each growing season. Montana weevil populations are a bit lower this year with some pockets of economically damaging numbers. With the cool spring weather alfalfa has been out growing the weevil. Weevil development is starting to ccelerate but first bloom and harvesting has also begun, so first harvest should take care of most of the weevil larvae this year....
