By Mark Badertscher
Hardin Extension Office
We could sure use a rain.
Although it seems very dry, we are not too far off from where our precipitation normally is this time of year. The difference was that we received it all in a short period of time and have not seem much rain since then in most areas.
For the time period of May 1-May 31, Extension rainfall reporters recorded an average of 3.27 inches of rain in Hardin County.
Last year, the average rainfall for the same time period was 3.70 inches. Rainfall for May 1-May 31, 2016 is 0.62 inches less than the ten year average rainfall during the same dates.
The old trick of making hay hasn’t brought rain as I have seen several people baling hay during this dry spell. The payoff has been some really nice hay. To read more about our May rainfall, see the attached May 2016 Rainfall Summary.
Test strips and soil sampling
Since last week, we have been laying out test strips and soil sampling in the second Nitrogen Rate plot and also flagged and sampled one of the two Nitrogen Timing plots.
The other Nitrogen Timing plot will also need to be sampled for soil nutrients before moving on to soil sampling in the Nutrient Placement plot. I hope to finish this work by tomorrow so that we can move on with other plot work. I’ve been trying to stay ahead of the sidedress applications, so that the cooperating farmers can get their work done in a timely manner.
One of the purposes of doing nitrogen studies is to update what we know about proper rate, placement, timing, and sources of nitrogen. There’s some new technology out there, and we plan to use some of it in our on-farm research plots. For more information about some of this new technology, see the attached article written by Putnam County OSU Extension Educator Jim Hoorman.
Direct marketing
OSU Extension has a Direct Marketing team that works with growers to develop and grow their agribusinesses whether they be small farms, alternative agriculture, produce farms, greenhouse, and other non-traditional operations.
There are several of these types of operations in Hardin County, so I have included a schedule of upcoming webinars that you can participate in for free from the comfort of your own home or office.
The next one on the schedule is ‘Product Labeling’ and it will be live on June 16 at noon. You can see a full listing of these webinars on the document that I have attached to this email. If there is one of interest to you that has already been held, you can go back and watch a recording of the program at http://go.osu.edu/DirectMarketingWebinars.
