Jim Gerrish to Speak on Grazing in Five Kansas Communities during August

Jim Gerrish, well known Idaho rancher, researcher, grazing educator and co-founder of the Missouri Grazing School will deliver five workshops across Kansas in August.   Each presentation will be tailor made for the grasses, forages, rainfall, growing conditions and grazing potential in that area of the state.  

Jim is author of two books Management-intensive Grazing: The Grassroots of Grass Farming published in 2004 and Kick the Hay Habit: A Practical Guide to Year-Around Grazing published in 2010. Jim writes for The Stockman Grass-Farmer magazine.

Topics to be covered: Getting the Most from Your Pastures and Building a Better Solar Panel, Kick the Hay Habit, and Grazing System Design.

 The itinerary for August 16-20, 2011 is as follows:

Tuesday, August 16 – Atwood, Aberdeen Steakhouse (note change from Colby)
Wednesday, August 17 – Hays, Whiskey Creek Restaurant Meeting Rooms.
Thursday, August 18 – Garden City, Lee Richardson Zoo, Finnup Center  

Friday, August 19 – Emporia, in conjunction with Beef Fest, Lyon County Fairgrounds.*
Saturday, August 20 – Holton, Evangel United Methodist Family Life Center 

Registration and networking among ranchers will start at 9:00 a.m. with the workshop running 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

*The August 19th Emporia workshop, held in conjunction with Flint Hills Beef Fest, will start at 7:15 a.m. with a free breakfast and additional speakers; Jim will start 10:30 or so.

Ranch managers will learn grazing information and management skills that will improve production and profitability. Bring any questions and Jim will answer them. 

This workshop is made available due to a grant award to the Kansas Rural Center from the USDA Risk Management Agency.  Kansas Farmers Union along with Kansas Grazing Lands Coalition and Kansas SARE are joining KRC as co-sponsors. 

Registration Fees:

    First Registrant $35
    Additional Registrant: $25/person
    Student: $15
    Special pricing for Emporia: $10

To register online,  click on your preferred workshop date by the August 12 deadline:

• Atwood: August 16 
• Hays: August 17
• Garden City: August 18
• Emporia: August 19
• Holton: August 20

Questions?

Contact Mary Howell, email, 785-562-8726

About our speaker

Jim has over 20 years of beef-forage systems research and outreach while he was on the faculty of the University of Missouri and 20 years of commercial cattle and sheep production on his family farm in northern Missouri.  Besides workshops and seminars, he provides an on-ranch consulting service which helps farmers and ranchers more effectively manage their grazing lands for economic and environmental sustainability.  From his present location at May, Idaho, Jim writes a monthly column Grassroots of Grazing for the Stockman Grass Farmer Magazine and is a contributing editor to Beef Magazine.

Cover Crop Workshop Draws Lively Discussion

by Jason Schmidt

Emporia, KS – Lively discussion interspersed with presentations dominated the cover crops workshopheld in Emporia, Kansas on December 6. Thirty farmers gathered to listen, learn and discuss “Cover Crops 101: Why, What, When, and How” as a follow-up to the No-Till on the Plains conference held in Emporia in September. Gail Fuller (Emporia no-till farmer), Paul Ingle (Flint Hills RC&D), and Brian Rees (KSRE Lyon County) organized the December workshop.

Paul Ingle kicked off the day giving a “Top 12” reasons why to use cover crop. Ingle had initially planned on giving a “Top 10” but after considering the numerous benefits, decided to make the list a “Top 12.”

Gail Fuller and Ed Reznicek (Kansas Rural Center) presented personal experiences of using cover crops. Reznicek, an organic crop farmer in Nemaha county, emphasized the importance of using legume cover crops for fixing nitrogen.

“We live in a vast pool of nitrogen,”Reznicek states regarding the atmospheric content of 78% nitrogen.“Organic farmers rely on nitrogen fixation. Buying nitrogen is like buying water at the river.” Reznicek stressed the importance of planning crop rotations to effectively incorporate cover crops into current cropping systems.

Gail Fuller complemented Reznicek’s experience with cover crops. Fuller’s farm motto is “Where we feed billions,” referring to the vast complex of soil life that he is feeding through his no-till cover crop system.

Fuller stated that 1 tablespoon of soil holds more life than all of the human population of China. Cover crops and no-till farming is giving Fuller superior crop yields while also reducing erosion, enhancing soil biologic life and organic matter,suppressing weeds, and increasing nutrient cycling.

Brian Rees, Lyon County Extension, gave an overview of the numerous aspects of cover crops including warm and cool season options for grasses, brassicas and legumes, along with giving agronomic advice on when and how to establish cover crops.

Joan Phillips-Fowler from Lyon County FSA explained some of the challenges and opportunities for integrating cover crops into current USDA farm programs. Phillips-Fowler recommended farmers discuss any plans to incorporate cover crops into current cropping systems with an individual’s FSA and crop insurance agents. Cover crops that are harvested, hayed, or grazed must be reported and may pose certain challenges for existing farm programs.

Jason Schmidt and Dale Kirkham with the Kansas Rural Center led the discussion about the opportunities arising with grazing cover crops. Most cover crops have the potential of providing high quality, inexpensive forage for livestock.Schmidt discussed emerging research that is disproving perceptions that grazing livestock on crop land negatively impacts soil structure.

The grazing discussion centered on the economic opportunities of integrating grazing animals into cover crops. One young farmer commented how he cannot begin to afford to buy crop land; however, as a beginning farmer he can imagine the economic opportunity of leasing cover crops to graze. The challenges of leasing cover crops include a lack of information for establishing rental rates for grazing cover crops, and overcoming the negative perceptions of grazing cropland.

Jeff Davidson, Greenwood County Extension, offered to take the challenges and questions participants raised back to Kansas State University to encourage more research and support for cover crop adoption and management. A second cover crop workshop is planned for early spring 2011.