Farm Help

It is important for growers to remember a few tips when it comes to facility maintenance and their bottom line.

When siting a new barn or other farm building, according to Karl Vandevender, the first critical point is:  No site’s perfect.

Farmers in the Ozarks continue to wrestle with pressures to increase production and remain profitable, while at the same time try to minimize nutrient export to surface and ground waters. Added to these pressures, areas like Arkansas and Oklahoma face impacts of the lawsuit governing the land application of phosphorus in the Eucha-Spavinaw Watershed (ESW), which supplies water to the metropolitan area of Tulsa, Okla. 

Scott Brown, from the Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute, spoke at the 41st Annual Dairy Day in Monett, Mo., March 2. Brown, who also works with the University of Missouri and Texas A&M, began by saying that demand is the driving force for products. If demand in 1980 was 100 percent, 1996 went down to 80 percent and 2003 fell to 77 percent. The years 2007 and 2008 saw record high milk prices due primarily to exports. When the world economies crashed in 2009, there went the exports. High feed prices added to the financial hardship dairy farmers face.

The partners of the Ozarks' poultry industry do everything they can to prevent a foreign animal disease outbreak – because if such a disease does appear in one of the state’s flocks, the results could be catastrophic.

Weeds never die, but the farmer who neglects to weed, surely comes to need.

Solid State lighting (SSL), which includes LEDs, is fast becoming the lighting choice in many applications. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that SSL will displace all other lighting types within the next 20 years. The chief reasons for the shift to SSL are largely attributable to its ultra-energy efficient operation and its unmatched longevity, although there are other compelling benefits. With concerns over energy usage throughout the U.S. and the rest of the globe, SSL is becoming a good choice for the world’s lighting needs.

Broiler litter is normally applied to pastures in Arkansas to benefit from its fertilizer value. In an effort to slow down or cease the build-up of phosphorus on soils prone to runoff, reduction or termination of litter application is sometimes recommended. This often causes concern among cattle producers because broiler litter is a low-cost fertilizer that promotes grass growth and therefore maintains high pasture carrying capacity. Replacing litter with higher-cost, commercial nitrogen fertilizer is a financial burden on cattle producers.

Farmers in the Ozarks continue to wrestle with pressures to increase production and remain profitable, while at the same time try to minimize nutrient export to surface and ground waters. Added to these pressures in northwest Arkansas and northeast Oklahoma are the impacts of the lawsuit governing the land application of phosphorus in the Eucha-Spavinaw Watershed (ESW), which supplies water to the metropolitan area of Tulsa, Okla. 

The partners of Arkansas’ poultry industry do everything they can to prevent a foreign animal disease outbreak – because if such a disease does appear in one of the state’s flocks, the results could be catastrophic.