In his latest blog entry, Clay Pope resumes "drought watch" and explains why conditions in the Southern Plains could worsen in the coming weeks. 

The seed mixture options for full and late-season grazing could include cool-season cereals (oats, barley, triticale), warm-season grasses (sorghum-sudan, sudangrass, pearl millet), brassicas (turnips, radishes, kale), broadleaf plants (sunflowers, buckwheat) and legumes (forage peas, clovers, vetch).

According to research conducted in South Dakota, soybean yield loss was 8 to 9% when volunteer corn density was about one plant per ten square feet. Yield loss increased to 71% at volunteer corn densities of about one plant per square foot.

Cover crops can offer a number of benefits to a cropping system including increased biodiversity, crop/livestock integration, erosion control, or water management. One of the greatest risks to cover cropping is failure to establish, and in North Dakota that often is the result of insufficient moisture. What can be done to reduce the risk of cover cropping?

Topsoil is geology modified by biology, physical and chemical processes. Without topsoil, our planet would be just rocks and dust with no meaningful life. The thin layer of topsoil covering our earth gives and sustains almost all of the life we know. It is basic knowledge that a handful of soil contains billions of bacteria, protozoa, fungi, nematodes and earthworms to name a few.

Based on an annual dry bean grower survey, farmers growing black and navy beans are using greater plant populations and narrower rows.

>Both daytime high and nighttime low temperatures have been extremely high across parts of Kansas during the four-day period May 9-12 (Figure 1). Extreme heat in early- to mid-May occasionally happens, but usually just for a single day. To have four consecutive days of days with highs in the low- to mid-90s °F at a time when much of the state’s wheat crop is either in the heading or flowering stage is concerning.

Cover crops are typically used by producers in dryland no-till cropping systems to improve soil health, reduce soil compaction, enhance nutrient cycling, improve soil structure, and improve water infiltration. Producers may be able to realize some income from cover crops by grazing or haying them. But is this a good idea or will it cancel out any benefit the cover crops would otherwise have on soil properties and residue cover?