School is out and our Mitchell Tech and Lake Area Tech agronomy interns are reporting in. CFC is currently sponsoring 6 students through the Build Dakota scholarship and 2 students through our own scholarship program. We are also sponsoring a couple students that will be graduating from high school this spring.

The Build Dakota scholarship program is available to students attending any of the four South Dakota technical colleges and majoring in either Agronomy or Precision Agronomy. The program covers the cost of tuition, fees, books, equipment, technology, and tools. It does not pay for any housing or living expenses. After graduation, there is a 3-year commitment to work for the industry partner that sponsors the student.

The main duty the interns are tasked with is scouting crops and taking tissue samples for acres enrolled in our CMT program. They will be focusing on stand counts, seed depth, poor emergence, nutrient deficiency, and weed pressure.

A couple of the interns will also be piloting drones for aerial application of herbicide on pastures and fungicide on corn/soybeans.

If you know of any future Agronomy or Precision Agronomy students that would like a sponsorship, do not hesitate to reach out to Central Farmers Coop.

Here we are in the heart of calving season- I say the heart because most customers with cows are in all stages of “been done”, “in the middle of”, or “about to start”. I apologize if I’m late with this article for your particular case, but hopefully you still get something out of it, or it prompts some other cow thoughts. I hear it all the time, “she’s got to work for me”, and that is 100%, but we need to set her up for success.

Calves are born immune deficient and therefore NEED to get colostrum in a timely fashion, we know this. What we might not think much about though is that all colostrum is not created equal, and why? The antibodies she puts in the colostrum are developed from the exposures she has had throughout her life or been vaccinated for, so because of age, environment, and vaccination program, cow to cow, or herd to herd, colostrum could be different. Biomos® from Hubbard also helps transfer nutrients to colostrum, especially in more naive, younger cows. A University of Kentucky study showed that calves nursing mothers fed Biomos® had higher levels of immunoglobulins and a drop in mortality and morbidity.

Good colostrum plus the right vaccination program to ensure good development of the calves own immune system will get you more calves to market. As with everything in the beef industry, there are multiple factors always at play. Contact myself, Shannon, or your local coop manager for questions or a good conversation.

Spring has started with a few days of wintery mix showing up here and there.   Farmers and agronomy crews are starting to travel the roadways when the weather cooperates.  This means all of us need to pay extra attention to our surroundings as we travel.  For the combination of slow-moving vehicles and fast-moving vehicles can quickly become a bad situation.

Back in the early 1960’s a reflective orange triangular sign with a red border was developed and became known as the SMV- Slow Moving Vehicle Sign.  Mounted on the back of a tractor, combine, wagon and any other slow-moving vehicle, this sign alerts other vehicles that they are approaching a slow-moving vehicle and that they should be slowing down to decrease the number of rear end accidents from occurring.  By law it is required that all vehicles traveling 25 MPH or less need to have a SMV sign attached to the rear of there equipment.  This also applies to horses and buggies that travel the roadways.

Besides the SMV sign motorists should pay close attention to equipment that starts to slow down near an approach, farmyard or a driveway especially if these entrances are to your left for if you would try to pass them while they are tempting to turn a life-threatening accident could occur. Equipment also may be wide and extend into the oncoming traffics lane.  Farm equipment is not required to drive on the shoulder of the road, so pay attention to obstacles such as mailboxes and other things on the side of the road that may cause wide equipment to veer even farther into the opposite lane.

The operator of the SMV has obligations as well to help prevent an accident such as knowing how wide the equipment is, checking lights, hazard flashers and turn signals to make sure they are working properly and that they are visible to vehicles approaching from the rear.

Wishing all a safe spring.