A final reminder that we still have a few seats left for the upcoming Soybean Management Workshop. This will be an excellent workshop to consider attending if you are looking for ways to maximize soybean yield and profit. This a tremendous workshop to sharpen your production skills with lots of hands-on sessions looking at pests and disease. It is open to producers and agricultural professionals. Our workshop is scheduled for Tuesday, February 9, 2016 at Clinton County Extension Community Room, 111 S. Nelson Ave., Wilmington.
The workshop goes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Topics and speakers include:
1. Soybean Management – Row Width, Seeding Rates, and Yield Components by Dr. Laura Lindsey
2. Soybean Fertility – Updating the Tri-State Fertility Recommendations by Dr. Steve Culman
3. Soybean Insect Management – Late Season Pests and Seed Treatments by Dr. Andy Michel
4. Soybean Disease – Seed Treatments and Soybean Cyst Nematode – Managing the Unseen by Dr. Anne Dorrance
5. Local Update
The cost of the workshop is $70 per person. Lunch will be provided. The following publications will be provided to all participants:
1. Ohio Agronomy Guide
2. 2016 Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois Weed Control Guide
3. Corn, Soybean, Wheat, and Alfalfa Field Guide
4. Profitable Soybean Disease Management Guide
5. Control of Insect Pests of Field Crops
Space is limited for the workshop. Advanced registration is due by February 4th for this workshop. To register for Clinton County workshop contact Tony Nye at [email protected] or 937-382-0901. Commercial and private Pesticide Credits and CCA and CEU credits will be available for the workshop.
Weather has been a topic of discussion in many of the meetings I have been in recent weeks. We should feel pretty good considering we dodged a snowstorm “bullet” over a week ago.
So what do the experts think as we move forward? According to Jim Noel, NOAA/NWS/Ohio River Forecast Center, after our record warm December, colder weather as we all know returned to Ohio and surrounding areas for January with temperatures in January running just below normal.
The headlines surround a strong El Nino in the Pacific Ocean. This looks to be the strongest on near-term record. Most of the data suggests this El Nino is similar to the winters of 1957-58, 1982-83 and 1991-92 and like, but with some differences, the 1997-98 winter. El Nino is only one of many things affecting the weather pattern but it has its strongest influence on our weather from January into March.
The big challenge for the upcoming planting and growing season is the rapid decline in El Nino (warming of the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean) toward a possible La Nina (cooling). This rapid change could result in reduced forecast skill once it gets going this spring and summer.
Short-term into first half of February, Noel and others expect a pattern change toward warmer and slightly wetter conditions into the first half of February. This will likely result in rain events versus snow events though some minor snows are possible.
Second half of February into March, they expect a warmer and drier than normal pattern across the area. There is some risk of normal precipitation though.
Here is the catch for our spring weather; the experts suggest there is uncertainty for spring with transition away from El Nino. Most indications are for a bit warmer and drier than normal. If that transition does not happen as fast away from El Nino it could turn to a slightly wetter and cooler pattern so weather forecasting confidence is low past March.
Stay tuned because they are hopeful we should know more about this in the next 2-4 weeks.
You can keep up on all of this at the NOAA/NWS/Ohio River Forecast Center Seasonal Briefing Page at: http://w2.weather.gov/ohrfc/SeasonalBriefing
Tony Nye is the state coordinator for the Ohio State University Extension Small Farm Program and has been an OSU Extension Educator for agriculture and natural resources for 28 years, currently serving Clinton County and the Miami Valley EERA.
