Getting Your Hands Dirty

Never pass up an opportunity to get your hands dirty. Today, I had the pleasure of being a presenter at the 4th Grade Farm Fair at the Gibson County 4-H Fairgrounds. We talked soils, including the layers and types, and attempted to make soil ribbons from sand and sandy loam. Needless to say, a lot of hand soap was expended. Other speakers discussed topics from composting to forestry, swine, quilting, recycling, and wagon rides. Definitely a fun day for both kids and presenters.

Other opportunities to get our hands dirty during the growing season abound through volunteering with the Southern Indiana Cooperative Weed Management Area. Their May newsletter came out very recently, to be found at their homepage, http://www.sicwma.org/. Those wanting to protect their hands can sign up for the Weed Watcher program, an observe and report program for invasive species that allows one to avoid having to pull any of the noxious weeds.

Also, the Gibson County Master Gardeners are picking up their volunteer work for the year. There will be a landscaping blitz at Lyles Station School in the near future, and all are invited to help. For more information on the blitz or the Master Gardener program, let me know (ph: 385-3491 or email hschmitz@purdue.edu)!

Flying on Fungicide in Wheat

$35.00/acre, give or take. That's what we're up against. Flying on fungicide in local wheat, while expensive, may be necessary this year, as the rains butted up against head emergence and flowering in wheat, exposing acres to the risk of Fusarium head blight (FHB). FHB infects and quickly ruins a wheat plant for any commercial use by rendering spikelets useless and accumulating mycotoxins that are dangerous to consume.

What makes an application of fungicide so expensive? Look for low flying yellow planes in the next few days. Wheat cannot be driven through at this point without a significant loss of yield, so the fungicide must be applied via plane at a higher cost.

Do the economics side with spraying? Even with a high risk of infection, the economics are a bit more difficult to justify. Assuming the risk turns real, total loss of a field is not out of the question. In this case, it is most likely justified to absorb the cost of spraying. If infection were not to occur, or not to be very severe, taking a DON dock at the elevator may be preferential to the extra cost. Either way, waiting until disease is present is not a wholly viable option. There is no curative for FHB, only preventatives. Those qualified to fly on fungicide will also get much more busy should FHB be found in the area.

For more information on fungicide decision-making, Purdue Extension specialist Kiersten Wise has a nice write-up in the latest Purdue Pest and Crop Newsletter.

Flood Resources

Despite the threat of severe weather ebbing for a time, the flooding in Gibson County has been widespread, continues to be widespread, and will likely be a threat for the near future.

To ease the burdens of those dealing with flooding, emergency managers and organizations in the county are mobilized. To ease the troubled minds of any in the county, Purdue Extension has ample information (the best way to fight fear) on mitigating flood damage or cleaning up after the damage has been done.

For paper copies of any publication, please call the Gibson County Purdue Extension Office. One of the better resources we have to offer is called "First Steps to Flood Recovery," and this publication is currently available in our office, at the Red Cross office in Princeton, the USDA offices of SWCD, FSA, and NRCS in Princeton, and at the Gibson County Heath Department. A web link to the information is available at this address: http://www.extension.purdue.edu/floodpub/.

The Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) is the main source for extension materials on natural disasters. By going to http://eden.lsu.edu/Topics/Hazards/Floods/Pages/Default.aspx, you can prepare yourself.

If you've been watching any of the broadcast meteorologists, you've heard the grim report that, despite all the tornadic activity in the Southeast and Midwest thus far, May is the month when most tornadoes occur, on average. Please prepare accordingly: http://eden.lsu.edu/Topics/Hazards/Tornado/Pages/default.aspx.

Should versus Am

Well, it's muggy, humid day in Gibson County. Still a little wet from some light rain this morning. The South Annex is pretty comfortable on floor one, but cool air sinks.

What I should be doing for the remaining three hours until the Farm Bureau meeting tonight: Catch up on climate change research, go through about 12 soybean rust articles, and get to work on formatting a newsletter.

What I will undoubtedly be doing: Glued to weather.unisys.com and weather.gov, I will impatiently watch for radar updates and soak up as many different forecast discussions on the possibilities of severe weather this evening. In the end, this cold front that is setting up ever so slowly will probably arrive after dark, ruining convective instability. The front will also probably wait until I'm already in bed to produce an unspectacular thunderstorm for the sole purpose of robbing me of sleep.

Maybe both shoulds and wills get done this evening. One can always hope. Either way, farm visits tomorrow should restore my normal unwavering positivity.

In Need of Rainy Days

I spent two years over in Orange County from 2008-2010 serving in a split 4-H and Ag position with Purdue Extension. Now, during that time, in a county known mainly for woodlands and cattle grazing, contacting farmers was not too difficult. Everything was put on hold to cut hay, but everyone tended to have a slightly different schedule for cutting hay. Only a handful of farmers had enough tillable acres to really be off-the-grid during planting season. Gibson County is nothing like Orange County. Anhydrous tanks are on the move, sprayers are burning down weeds, and I cannot really contact ANYONE unless precipitation is actively falling. Allow me to amend that last statement: I feel awful attempting to contact ANYONE when this much is happening around the county. Farmers are some of the more outgoing, cordial folks around. Very few will intentionally skip or screen a phone call. Which compounds the sense of guilt I feel by asking them to take time out of their day to discuss plans for researchers to scope out their fields. Important business, but none-too-urgent when knives full of anhydrous are going into the ground. So, this is a great time of year to wait for rain while building a newsletter email list. For updates on Gibson County and surrounding area agricultural and natural resource news, send an email to hschmitz@purdue.edu. Newsletters start going out in May.

Now, where was I again?

Campus specialists south of 40 always make me extra-wary to be on my best behavior. Bob Nielsen, a fine human being and corn extension specialist for Purdue University, is on a roadtrip through Gibson, Posey, Spencer, and Jackson counties in Southern Indiana this week. If you missed him in the far SW IN, you still have time. But not much.

In other news, I'm pretty proud of the fact that I can flex time the first two hours of my day out, stroll into the office at 10 A.M., and still be completely confident that I'll be doing some form of work for the next 12 hours. They only call it flex time until you break.

Master Gardener classes are going strong. The third week here in Princeton starts in an hour and a half, a nice little Plant Disease number led by yours truly. Well, it's the internet, so yours falsely seems more appropriate.

Now, I have a little soybean survey to finish up for Orange County and the wonderful folks over there. They had a little problem with Sudden Death Syndrome this past year, but I won't hold that against them.

Busy Busy Busy

The Gibson County Community Foundation's annual farmer meeting is today, with none other than Max Armstrong (http://www.tribuneradio.com/max.htm) as the keynote speaker. Over the weekend, it's Farm Life Family Day at Angel Mounds in Evansville and the Beef Preview Show in Princeton. All the while, I keep my eyes on Egypt, where the true power of peaceful opposition has exhibited itself in a wonderful way. What wonderful times in which to live!

For those of you that know me, such optimism is scarce. I justify it here by observing that when the underdog wins, and the status quo is rejected fiercely, pessimism must take a quick hiatus to celebrate iconoclasm.