There's not a lot going on in the field these days. The Lexington area had a record snow fall of about 10" on February 16 so things are still mostly covered. It's raining a lot today, but we might get another few inches of snow later this week. February 2015 was Lexington's fourth coldest month on record! This cold and wet weather will keep soils wetter going into the spring and might delay planting. Coming from Michigan, it's hard for me to believe that some farmers in western KY can plant corn in early April... Things may not be busy out in the field, but there are plenty of other things going on! I'm teaching a class on Integrated Weed Management (PLS 404) to 17 very interesting undergraduate and graduate students. Preparing for this course is taking up a lot of my time! December, January, and February are also full of meetings. The Weed Science Society of America had our annual meeting in Lexington in early February. I also had the opportunity to attend a grower-focused soil health meeting in Princeton, KY, in December. This meeting was sponsored by the Bluegrass Chapter of the Soil & Water Conservation Society (SWCS), University of Kentucky's Cooperative Extension Service, and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). This meeting was extremely well-attended--well over 100 growers attended. What did I really enjoy about it? The speakers were KY farmers who have successfully integrated cover cropping into their production systems. They spoke honestly about the benefits they feel they get from cover crops, AND the challenges they had when they started cover cropping. They were also eager to share tips and tools they use with other farmers who are interested in starting to use cover crops.
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AuthorErin Haramoto, University of Kentucky weed science Archives
May 2018
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