The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/751731
The Press-Dispatch Pike County Planter SWCD Newsletter November and December 2016 C- 11 The Pike County Planter is a great place to advertise your agri- business! The Dispatch Press PIKE COUNTY'S NEWS NETWORK be SEEN IN THE pd CALL JOHN, CINDY, PAM OF FRAN TODAY at 812-354-8500 to see how your business can be seen in 5,000 households. Plus, your ad is available online for no additional charge on NetEdition. CALL NOW! Offers end 6/30/16. Ready. Set. Save on Kubota's Standard L Series Compact Tractors. © Kubota Tractor Corporation, 2016 kubota.com Valuable Customer Instant Rebates of up to $ 3,500 * / ** on the purchase of a new Kubota L3301 compact tractor equipped with two new qualifying implements. Offers end 12/31/16. *Customer instant rebates of $2,000 are available on cash or standard rate finance purchases of new Kubota L3301 Series equipment from participating dealers' stock. Rebate not available with 0% A.P.R. or low-rate financing offers or after completed sale. Dealer subtracts rebate from dealer's pre-rebate selling price on qualifying purchases. Some exceptions apply. Offer expires 12/31/2016. **Customer instant rebates of $1,500 are available on purchases of new Kubota L2501/L3301/L3901/ L4701 with two qualifying new implements from participating dealers' stock. Dealer subtracts rebate from dealer's pre-rebate selling price on qualifying purchases. Rebate not available after completed sale. Some exceptions apply. Offer expires 12/31/2016. Optional equipment may be shown. TURF & COMPACT TRACTOR FULL LINE KUBOTA DEALER JASPER 83 Hwy. 231 • 812-482-9696 • www.hopfoutdoor.com EVANSVILLE 6000 E. Morgan Ave. • 812-477-2468 • hopfequipment.com/kubota USDA: With the conservation client gateway, conservation is just a click away Ray McCormick is no stranger to conser va- tion. Like his father and grandfather before him, McCormick is a steward of the land and sets a high standard of conser vation excellence. Last week I had the pleasure of meeting him and discussing his experi- ence with our latest online tool – the Conser vation Client Gateway. During his 30 years of working with USDA's Natu- ral Resources Conser vation Ser vice (NRCS), he has made many trips to his local field office. However, now that he has a Conser vation Client Gateway account, McCormick can replace most of those trips with a few clicks of the mouse. He can log in to request con- ser vation assistance, review and sign documents, track payments and much more – all at his convenience. Managing livestock and thousands of acres of farmland keeps him pretty busy. He appreciates not being pulled away from his work on the farm in order to sign a form or review papers. With Conser vation Client Gateway, McCormick can work with NRCS on his schedule: Gateway is avail- able 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He can also send questions to his district conser vationist through Conser vation Client Gate- way. For example, he can ask a question and attach a geotagged photo; then his district conser vationist can pull up a map of his farm, along with the photo, and provide a detailed answer. At NRCS, we're commit- ted to providing producers the best possible experi- ence. Farmers and ranchers will always be welcome in our field offices, but if it is more convenient to work with us online, now they can. It is a matter of provid- ing the assistance that works best for that particu- lar producer, their schedule, their operation and their natural resource goals. Conser vation Client Gateway will help NRCS to be more responsive to pro- ducers' needs. It will reduce the paper work burden for our field staff, freeing them to focus on conser vation instead of paper forms. Though enrollment in Conser vation Client Gate- way is voluntar y, we hope producers will sign up and give it a tr y. As always, we welcome feedback and al- ways want to know how we can improve our assistance. Source: USDA NRCS Blog Grid Sampling and Nutrient Management Programs Fall is a traditional time for soil testing across Indiana. Depending on crop rota- tion, fertility program, and soil types, those soil tests might be pulled ever y 2 years or on a 3-4 year rotation. With increasing media cover- age of 4Rs of Nutrient Stewardship (Right Source, Right Rate, Right Time, and Right Place) it is an appropriate time to look at how sampling strategies and technology can help with fertilizer application efficiencies. Farmers can tell you – different areas of any given field perform differently. Those differences may be due a host of factors, including soil types, topography, and field histor y. Traditional whole field soil test recommendations determine a flat rate of fertilizer across the field, potentially ignoring meaning- ful spatial variability for nutrients or pH. This practice can leave some areas of the field under-fertilized, potentially leaving yield on the table. It can leave other areas of the field over-fertilized and less profitable, as well as potentially more susceptible to off-site movement of nutrients. Grid sampling is a way to more accurately identify spatial variability for soil nutrient or pH levels within fields. Over the past 15-20 years, commercial applicators and farmers have increasingly adopted GPS and variable-rate application (VRA) tech- nologies to identify spatial nutrient or pH variability and develop variable rate fertilizer or lime application patterns. Grid sampling is typically based on 2.5-acre grids, but the results are more spatially accurate if based on 1-acre grid sizes or smaller. Instead of averaging soil tests into a single result for a whole field, the soil test results are interpolated into variable nutrient or pH level con- tours that are then used to develop variable rate fertilizer prescriptions. The final step is in the field – using GPS and VRA-enabled equipment to apply the right rate of nutrients in the right place. For fields with extensive spatial variability and multiple years of yield data, topography, and field histor y, an alternative to grid sampling might be management zone or directed soil sampling. Similar performing zones are defined by geospatial analyses and sampled separately. The same num- bers of samples are generally taken as with grid sampling, however directed sampling may better "capture" signifi- cant spatial variability with fields. For farmers, the potential for payback is higher on fields with high variability. The total amount of fertilizer applied to a field might be the same as a flat rate wholefield rec- ommendation, but the var ying rates potentially shift applications from nutrient-sufficient areas to nutrient- deficient areas, placing nutrients where they are needed – again, right rate in the right place. For the environment, the pay- back is in the potential reduction of off-site movement of nutrients, and when combined with other practices like cover crops and/or no-till, the reductions can be further amplified. The voluntar y adoption of practices as part of a soil health system is critical to protect surface waters and avoid regulator y actions such as those adopted in Ohio and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed or legal suits such as that filed by the Des Moines Water works. Indiana leads the nation in Soil Health because we look for win- win conser vation, like prescriptive nutrient management and because conser vation partners continue to work together to leverage programs, agencies, and individual strengths to "put more conser vation on the ground". A few examples of partner- ships and programs related to nutri- ent management include: INDIANA NUTRIENT REDUCTION STRATEGY The State Nutrient Reduction Strategy is the product of an inclu- sive effort of the Indiana Conser va- tion Partnership (ICP) under the leadership of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) and the Indiana Department of Envi- ronmental Management (IDEM) to capture statewide, present and future endeavors in Indiana which positive- ly impact the State's waters as well as gauge the progress of conser vation, water quality improvement and soil health practice adoption in Indiana. The full strategy and conser vation accomplishments can be found at http://www.in.gov/isda/2991.htm INDIANA NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT/ SOIL HEALTH This wide-ranging partnership of ag groups, government agencies, and ag professional groups is active in putting the Indiana Nutrient Re- duction Strategy into practice. Their website provides a wealth of practical information on nutrient manage- ment, soil sampling other practices that can reduce nutrient loads in sur- face waters. www.inagnutrients.org 4R NUTRIENT STEWARDSHIP The 4R philosophy is an innova- tive and science-based approach that offers enhanced environmental protection, increased production, increased farmer profitability, and improved sustainability. The concept is to use the right fertilizer source, at the right rate at the right time, with the right placement. To help address this challenge, The Fertilizer Insti- tute has been working collaborative- This field has been set up for field sampling. Each point represents a sample location. See GRID on page 12