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Rachael Brooke, Phillips-Rooks District Extension Agent Agriculture and Natural Resources

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Water Landscape Plants Before Winter Trees and shrubs need moist soil even during the colder months. Though plants may appear fine above ground throughout the winter, damage caused by winter drought can be evident in late spring and summer when the weather warms and the weakened root system cannot support the growth. Affected plants are more susceptible to damage from disease and insects.
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Insight from Kansas Farm Bureau

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Rural America has always been inhabited by optimists. People who accepted living in remote corners of the country came with challenges and even a little loneliness. Maybe they didn’t have any better options, like the homesteaders who populated Kansas. Or maybe they understood they were trading one set of challenges for another and, like a weed, loneliness can take root about anywhere.
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Rachael Brooke, Phillips-Rooks District Extension Agent Agriculture and Natural Resources

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Planning for the Third Trimester in Beef Cattle Pregnancy The third trimester of pregnancy is a crucial period because of the rapid growth the fetus undergoes and because it is our opportunity to improve cow body condition prior to calving if needed. It is easy to forget those things when we cannot see the growing fetus and a growing winter coat may be deceptive when it comes to body condition.
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Rachael Brooke, Phillips-Rooks District Extension Agent Agriculture and Natural Resources

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Beef Cattle Management Considerations for November For spring-calving cowherds— If you still need to do so, make plans for weaning calves. Test your forages and have feedstuffs on hand before weaning. Check and clean waterers and prepare weaning/receiving pens. Evaluate cow body condition score (BCS) at weaning. Record scores with the BCS Record Book (https://bookstore. ksre.ksu.edu/Item.aspx?catId=562&pubId=19320) from K-State Research and Extension. Use BCS to supplement cows during fall, if needed strategically. Female requirements are lowest at weaning, so weight and BCS can be added more easily in early fall rather than waiting until closer to calving. Schedule pregnancy checking and fall health work if not already done. How were pregnancy rates last year? Do we need to rethink our fall/winter nutrition program? Evaluate the cost of gain relative to the value of gain when making feeding and marketing decisions for cull cows.
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Rachael Brooke, Phillips-Rooks District Extension Agent Agriculture and Natural Resources

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At that time of year, Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payments will be hitting farmer’s

accounts. It might surprise many farmers that some counties will get the maximum ARC-CO paymentrates this year in

commodities that experienced significant yield loss due to drought. This payment is for the crop harvested in 2022,  here

the marketing year concluded on May 31, 2023, for wheat and August 31, 2023, for corn, grain sorghum, and soybeans.

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October Garden Calendar

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October Garden Calendar Vegetables and Fruits: Plant garlic cloves for next summer’s harvest. Fall planting gets a jump on spring conditions. After a light frost, dig sweet potatoes and cure them for two weeks in a warm location. Then store in a cool, dry location for longer keeping. Harvest peanuts and roast for a homegrown snack. Pick pumpkins and winter squash. Keep in a warm area for a couple of weeks, and then store in a cool, dry location. Till the garden at the end of the season and add organic matter such as manure or compost to improve soil structure. Make notes of successes and failures in the garden for next year. Remove hulls from black walnuts to retain the good color of the kernels. Continue to harvest apples. Pick up and discard fallen fruit to reduce disease next year.
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Neighbors helping neighbors

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Neighbors helping neighbors Kim Baldwin McPherson County farmer and rancher Fall harvest is in full swing on our central Kansas farm. Our dryland and irrigated field corn has all been picked and all that’s left in those fields are corn stalks and a lot of dry organic material that was kicked out the back end of a combine.