The Daily Yonder
James Fashing
Today's Farmer Tammy Shafer was widowed a year ago. Since last summer, she's learned a lot about the special problems of estates and estate planning where family farms are involved. There's an old saying about farmers: you're land rich and cash poor. You hold most of your assets in land and equipment. And that situation creates complex problems when it comes to passing on the farm to family.
Tammy Shafer will never forget June 27, 2009, the day that her husband, Roger, died in a pickup accident. The couple had no estate plan or will. Tammy agreed to share her story so that others might learn how to prepare for a similar situation. more...
Gardening by the Moon Calendar
The Farmers' Almanac Gardening by the Moon Calendar is determined by our age-old formula and applies generally to regions where the climate is favorable.
October 2010
19th-21st Good Days For Planting Above Ground Crops, Extra Good For Vine Crops, Where Climate Is Suitable.
22nd-23rd A Barren Period.
24th-25th Good Days For Planting Beets, Carrots, Onions, Turnips, And Other Hardy Root Crops Where Climate Is Suitable.
26th-27th Poor Days For Planting, Seeds Tend To Rot In Ground.
28th-29th Best Planting Days For Fall Potatoes, Turnips, Onions, Carrots, Beets, And Other Root Crops Where Climate Is Suitable. Also Plant Seedbeds, Flower Gardens.
30th-31st Grub Out Weeds, Briars, And Other Plant Pests.
Big, bad rooster
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I saw this online today and laughed so hard. Who hasn't been chased by a rooster? Last year, we bought a beautiful Australorp rooster and found him to be quite aggressive. He tried to chase Sydney over and over again. He was even brave enough to try to spur me one day. He learned that lesson the hard way. He went on "vacation" to Grandpa's house.
When I was really young, probably about four, my 90-something great-grandmother went out to feed the chickens and was spurred by her rooster. She was so afraid the rooster would attack me that she gave me a big stick and told me if any of the chickens got too close, whack 'em! Well, she didn't count on my tossing out corn to the chickens and hitting them when the came to eat. Momma said she walked in the door at our house, distraught and holding my hand tightly.
"The 'Little Thing' has killed all my chickens," she said. From that day on, I knew how to protect myself when it came to ornery roosters.
Russia Wheat Production May Drop 33%, USDA Says
By Whitney McFerron
(Updates with barley and corn forecasts in fifth paragraph.)Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s wheat production may plunge by 33 percent this year after the most-severe drought in 50 years harmed crops, a U.S. Department of Agriculture unit said.
Perennial peanut provides quality pasture, hay
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| Perennial peanut blossom |
This winter, in place of our usual oats, we will be feeding our goats perennial peanut hay. Due to the spike in oat prices directly related to the Russian drought, we began search for alternative supplemental feed. We settled on perennial peanut hay and bought several bales from a friend who sells hay at the sale barn in Brewton. The goats love it and clean it up much better than they do with grass hay.
Here's some additional information on perennial hay from the U.S. Department of Agriculture...
No other perennial warm-weather legume adapted to the Gulf Coast comes close to the rhizoma perennial peanut (Arachis glabrata). It’s often called “the alfalfa of the South” because its protein and mineral content are very similar to alfalfa’s. But as a long-lived perennial in the region, A. glabrata is less costly to grow than alfalfa. Its recognized quality, persistence, and broad uses are making it a good forage crop in the lower South.
Rhizoma perennial peanut has become the premium forage for the Gulf Coast due to more than 50 years of collaborative work among several state and federal cooperators, says Mimi Williams, former forage agronomist at the USDA-ARS Subtropical Agricultural Research Station (STARS) in Brooksville, Florida, and now with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Gainesville, Florida. In addition to STARS, the NRCS Brooksville Plant Materials Center and the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences (IFAS) worked on this long-term effort.
Williams says that interest in A. glabrata began when a collection of accessions from South America was introduced to Florida in the 1930s. This initial work resulted in the informal release of selections Arb and Arblick in the 1960s, but both had very limited use because of slow establishment and low productivity. That changed in the 1980s, with formal release of the cultivars Florigraze and Arbrook, which produce much higher amounts of forage than the earlier releases.
Extensive research conducted by Williams and coworkers at Brooksville in the 1980s and 1990s demonstrated the nutritional value of A. glabrata to livestock and is widely responsible for its current popularity as a hay crop.
Horse, goat, and dairy producers in the region imported more than $100 million worth of hay per year before the perennial peanut became available. Adapted to upland soils of the lower Coastal Plain, it’s being used throughout much of the eastern Gulf Coast region, with an estimated 25,000 acres planted in Florida and southern Georgia. Much of it is being grown on row-crop ground that previously had very marginal returns. Now, A. glabrata’s net profit exceeds $1,000 annually per hectare, with current demand for hay exceeding production. Current sales—mainly as hay, but also as planting material and ornamentals—exceed $7 million.
“It’s a win-win situation for everyone,” says Sam Coleman, research leader at STARS. “Financially, it makes sense for hay producers to grow perennial peanut, and as long as there are cattle and horses in Florida, there’ll always be a demand,” adds Coleman.
Researchers are now seeking ways to make the perennial peanut more economical to grow for hay or forage in wetter soils or in more northern areas of the region. Traditional breeding methods aren’t practical because the plant produces very little seed, so new plant material has been sought from its native range in South America.
While at STARS in the early 2000s, Williams—working with others at ARS’s Plant Introduction Station in Griffin, Georgia—led two expeditions to Paraguay to find germplasm for expanding the range of perennial peanut. They brought back 85 accessions of wild and domesticated plants for testing. Those plants serve as the basis for the current A. glabrata research by Coleman at STARS; Andrea Maas, a plant geneticist at ARS’s Crop Genetics and Breeding Research Unit in Tifton, Georgia; and researchers from NRCS and IFAS.—By Alfredo Flores, Agricultural Research Service Information Staff.
This research is part of Pasture, Forage, Turf, and Rangeland Systems, an ARS national program (#215) described on the World Wide Web at www.nps.ars.usda.gov.
Samuel W. Coleman is at the USDA-ARS Subtropical Agricultural Research Station, 22271 Chinsegut Hill Rd., Brooksville, FL 34601; phone (352) 796-3385, fax (352) 796-2930.
"Perennial Peanut for Quality Pasturage and Hay" was published in the March 2008 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
Rhizoma perennial peanut has become the premium forage for the Gulf Coast due to more than 50 years of collaborative work among several state and federal cooperators, says Mimi Williams, former forage agronomist at the USDA-ARS Subtropical Agricultural Research Station (STARS) in Brooksville, Florida, and now with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Gainesville, Florida. In addition to STARS, the NRCS Brooksville Plant Materials Center and the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences (IFAS) worked on this long-term effort.
Williams says that interest in A. glabrata began when a collection of accessions from South America was introduced to Florida in the 1930s. This initial work resulted in the informal release of selections Arb and Arblick in the 1960s, but both had very limited use because of slow establishment and low productivity. That changed in the 1980s, with formal release of the cultivars Florigraze and Arbrook, which produce much higher amounts of forage than the earlier releases.
Extensive research conducted by Williams and coworkers at Brooksville in the 1980s and 1990s demonstrated the nutritional value of A. glabrata to livestock and is widely responsible for its current popularity as a hay crop.
Horse, goat, and dairy producers in the region imported more than $100 million worth of hay per year before the perennial peanut became available. Adapted to upland soils of the lower Coastal Plain, it’s being used throughout much of the eastern Gulf Coast region, with an estimated 25,000 acres planted in Florida and southern Georgia. Much of it is being grown on row-crop ground that previously had very marginal returns. Now, A. glabrata’s net profit exceeds $1,000 annually per hectare, with current demand for hay exceeding production. Current sales—mainly as hay, but also as planting material and ornamentals—exceed $7 million.
“It’s a win-win situation for everyone,” says Sam Coleman, research leader at STARS. “Financially, it makes sense for hay producers to grow perennial peanut, and as long as there are cattle and horses in Florida, there’ll always be a demand,” adds Coleman.
Researchers are now seeking ways to make the perennial peanut more economical to grow for hay or forage in wetter soils or in more northern areas of the region. Traditional breeding methods aren’t practical because the plant produces very little seed, so new plant material has been sought from its native range in South America.
While at STARS in the early 2000s, Williams—working with others at ARS’s Plant Introduction Station in Griffin, Georgia—led two expeditions to Paraguay to find germplasm for expanding the range of perennial peanut. They brought back 85 accessions of wild and domesticated plants for testing. Those plants serve as the basis for the current A. glabrata research by Coleman at STARS; Andrea Maas, a plant geneticist at ARS’s Crop Genetics and Breeding Research Unit in Tifton, Georgia; and researchers from NRCS and IFAS.—By Alfredo Flores, Agricultural Research Service Information Staff.
This research is part of Pasture, Forage, Turf, and Rangeland Systems, an ARS national program (#215) described on the World Wide Web at www.nps.ars.usda.gov.
Samuel W. Coleman is at the USDA-ARS Subtropical Agricultural Research Station, 22271 Chinsegut Hill Rd., Brooksville, FL 34601; phone (352) 796-3385, fax (352) 796-2930.
"Perennial Peanut for Quality Pasturage and Hay" was published in the March 2008 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
An egg or two or three or four a day?
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| Sydney, feeding chickens bread crumbs. |
Have you ever thought about how many eggs a chicken lays each day? The thought never crossed my mind until a couple of years ago.
We started our original laying flock back in 2007. My grandfather reestablished his flock at about the same time. Grandpa asked Craig to take care of his chickens for a few days while he was a little under the weather. Craig fed the chickens and gathered the eggs. My dad asked him later how many eggs he had in the basket. Craig, noticeably disappointed, said, "Only seven."
Daddy asked, "Well, how many hens are there?"
"Seven," answered Craig.
Going to the Fair!!!
Craig and I are taking Sydney to the Alabama National Fair in Montgomery next weekend. So excited because this will be our first time at a real fair. Not just the Pensacola Fair. Craig and Sydney can hardly wait for the games and rides. Me? I'm so excited to be able to attend the dairy goat show.
For more information, visit Alabama National Fair.
Also, find the fair on Facebook.
Getting ready for winter
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