Farmers and Ranchers College

      The Farmers & Ranchers College was formed in January, 2000 with the purpose of providing high quality, dynamic, up to date educational workshops for area agricultural producers in south central Nebraska through a collaborative effort between business, industry and higher education leaders. Furthermore, the Farmers & Ranchers College will provide the tools necessary so that agricultural producers will be able to respond positively to these changes using a profitable decision making process.
       The Farmers and Ranchers College is a unique opportunity to educate agricultural producers in south central Nebraska. During the 2008-09 programs, around 95% of participants said they probably or definitely will make changes based on what they learned from the programs. 
       Producers attending last year’s workshops managed over 55,000 acres. Survey results indicate that on average producers estimated the value of the workshops at $19.00/acre, for a potential impact of over $1 million. Cow/Calf College participants managed over 102,000 head of cattle indicating an average value of $20/head from attending the program for a potential impact of over $2 million.
      The Farmers and Ranchers College Committee consists of Fred Bruning of Bruning, Bryan Dohrman of Grafton, Sarah Miller of Carleton, Eric Milton of Milligan, Philip Janda of Clay Center, Alice Tatro of Geneva, Jake Voss of Davenport, Gordy Nuss of Sutton, and Brandy VanDeWalle of Ohiowa.
      A bulk of the funding for these programs is possible from generous contributions of area businesses, organizations, and commodity boards. In-kind support is provided by UNL Extension. A summary sheet of the Farmers and Ranchers College helps explain the levels of sponsorship and a brief glimpse of participant evaluation results.

This year's 2009-10 Farmers & Ranchers College Workshop Dates have been set!

December 2, 2009 – “The Pulse of the Ag & General Economy” Featuring Dr. David Kohl at the Bruning Opera House in Bruning, NE from 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

January 19, 2010 – “Partners In Progress - Beef Seminar” at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center near Clay Center, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., registration at 9:30 a.m.

March 9, 2010 – “Managing Crop Revenue Risk” Featuring Steve Johnson (ISU) and others at the Fillmore County Fairgrounds in Geneva, NE from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., registration at 8:45 a.m.

Nebraska Agricultural Water Management Demonstration Network

Growers are challenged today to use conservation practices, reduce runoff and other losses from irrigation, and to increase crop water use efficiency while meeting the crop water requirements for maximum net return. Great challenges like these often can be met by coming at them from a team perspective. The Nebraska Agricultural Water Management Demonstration Network (NAWMDN) project is designed for encouraging the adoption of newer technologies that will enable farmers to use water and energy resources associated with irrigated crop production efficiently.

Growers, crop consultants, state and federal water regulatory agencies and other interested partners can contact one of the members of the Network if they would like to sign up and be a part of the demonstration and education efforts. To learn more about the NAWMDN or to join contact the Fillmore County Extension office at 402-759-3712 or go to UNL's Water Website -NAWMDN.
 

Greater Quad County On-Farm Research

Producers in the Clay, Fillmore, Hamilton, York and surrounding counties conduct on-farm research on an annual basis. To see the results from past years, go to UNL On-Farm Research website. This year, area producers are planning to conduct projects such as: soybean planing date study, corn population study, product testing, corn isoline, fungicide, etc.

UNL Extension hosts Chinese Scientists

Nebraska agriculture has some of the best producers in the world. As we continue to evolve into a more global society, others from across the globe are watching how Nebraska producers produce high yielding crops. On May 4th, two scientists from China visited Fillmore County to learn more about soybean production. Specifically, they were interested in the soybean population studies conducted by UNL Extension’s Quad County On-Farm Research group and the early soybean planting plots. Dan Aspegren, a local producer has participated in the on-farm research plots for several years and visited with the Chinese scientists. Yuangying Liu is a professor of plant nutrition and her husband, Shengguo Luo is a soil scientist, with the Northeast Agricultural University in Harbin, China. The province in which Harbin is located has the largest soybean production of any province in China.
Richard Ferguson, UNL Soil Scientist is hosting the researchers showing them Nebraska agriculture. Brandy VanDeWalle, Extension Educator also met with the researchers sharing some of the on-farm research results that have been conducted. They were interested in visiting Nebraska to learn how producers here grow soybeans, and about research that the University of Nebraska is conducting on soybean production.