Putting The Profit Back In Your Crop

A series of producer meetings entitled “Cropping Decisions 2016: Putting the Profit Back in Your Crop” have been scheduled for December 7-11 across northwest North Dakota. The NDSU Extension Service in McKenzie County will be hosting one of these meetings at the Cartwright Hall in Cartwright on Thur., Dec. 10th at 9:00 a.m. Central Time. The “Cropping Decisions” meeting series is designed to cover a variety of agronomic, management, and market issues that could be of concern to producers in the 2016 growing season.

The meetings will begin with a welcome and Karla Ryan, McKenzie County Extension Agent will hold the North Dakota Oilseed Council sunflower election for McKenzie County.

Shana Forster, NDSU Area Extension Specialist in Cropping Systems, will present “Outfoxing Foxtail” which will include discussion on the management of foxtail barley plus green and yellow foxtail. Foxtail barley is one of the fastest growing weed problems in the area. In regard to green and yellow foxtail, yellow foxtail is becoming more predominate in some areas and is often more difficult to control than green foxtail. Knowing the difference between the two is important for effective weed control.

With the decline in commodity prices, a common cost-cutting strategy for producers has been to reduce inputs. However, at what point does input reduction go from a cost-cutting measure to a decision that negatively affects the farm operation? Dwight Aakre, NDSU Extension Farm Management Specialist, will address this issue in a presentation on “Prioritizing Limited Operating Dollars”.

Along the same line, a major cost in the production of many crops is fertilizer. Chris Augustin, NDSU Extension Area Soil Health Specialist, will talk about managing the fertilizer budget in 2016.

Frayne Olson, NDSU Extension Crop Marketing Economist, will provide a crop market outlook with the sub-title of “Don’t Shoot the Messenger”. Frayne has the difficult task of talking about markets in view of the low commodity prices and providing his outlook in response to the question on many people’s minds, which is “Are low crop prices here to stay?”

Cropping Decisions meetings will also be held at the following locations (all times are Central Time):

Dec. 10 – 9 am Cartwright – Cartwright Hall

Dec. 10 – 1 pm Williston – Williston Research Extension Center

The “Cropping Decisions: Putting the Profit Back in Your Crop” meetings are open to the public at no charge. Producers and other interested individuals can attend whichever location is most convenient for them. For more information or details on these meetings, contact the McKenzie County Extension office at (701) 444-3451 or e-mail [email protected].