Oak Point Agronomics

This has nothing directly to do with agriculture  but is related to my first job in Cooperative Extension, as a Summer Assistant agricultural agent in Connecticut. The head agent, Ray, was in his 60s at the time, a former banker who got tired of this career and became a county agent. But his former profession resulted in his meeting some interesting people, including Babe Ruth. Ray told me about shooting skeet one day with “The Babe”. The others in the group were shooting clay pigeons the normal way, which is by carefully leading the clay disc before pulling the trigger. But Babe Ruth was only peripherally involved in the process–at least seemingly. Always a garrulous sort, Babe was telling one story after another, talking around a big cigar with his shotgun held only vaguely in the direction of where the clay pigeon would appear. In the middle of a story when it was his turn he’d say “Pull!” and then snap shoot–forget about leading anything. But he hit more than his share. Ray said that Ruth’s hand-to-eye coordination was almost super-human, which is almost certainly why he was such a terrific hitter.

Another reason for Ruth’s prowess was probably his eyesight. He never had his eyes tested, but could see road and other signs much further away than any of his teammates. He could quickly pick up the seams on a pitched ball and tell whether it was a fastball or a curve, then adjust his swing accordingly. But in the end he was just a terrific athlete, though he sure didn’t look like one. He held a World Series record for 43 years. For hitting? Nah, for scoreless innings pitched! For not only was he perhaps the best home run hitter of all time when you compare his totals to others in the same years, but he was a terrific pitcher, one of a kind.

Things got bad and they said to cheer up, things could be worse. So we cheered up and sure enough, things got worse.

The milk price news gets worse and worse, with the direst predictions that in some parts of the U.S. the mailbox price won’t even cover variable costs per hundredweight. Of course that all depends on what you call a “variable cost”. Seed corn that you’ve already bought and paid for is now a fixed cost unless you cancel the order and get your money back. And if you do, what will you feed your cows next year? But there are some things you can do to reduce crop input costs, particularly stuff that you haven’t yet committed scarce dollars for.

For many farmers, first and foremost of these is fertilizer. Because word was out that fertilizer prices would probably come down between fall and spring, a lot more fertilizer orders than normal were delayed. This turned out to be a good decision for at least two reasons: First, fertilizer prices did come  down–in some cases as much as 50% lower between October/November and February. I was telling farmers last fall not to order until later in the winter, well realizing that there were no guarantees and I could wind up with egg on my face. For once, I was right. (Whew!) But another reason is that delaying fertilizer purchases gives you time to shave fertilizer inputs even more than perhaps you already did. I sure wouldn’t put much starter fertilizer on those fields next to the barn–you know, the ones that get buried with manure almost every year they’re in corn production. If you apply manure in the fall, a bit of starter nitrogen is all most of these fields need; and if you spring-apply manure you might not even need that. Apply manure to grasses and you won’t need any P or K since forage grasses make remarkably efficient use of even moderate soil levels of these nutrients. Dairy farmers have been putting manure nutrients into the “soil bank” for many years–this is the time to make a withdrawal of some of these nutrients. Grass needs N in the spring–even if things are really tight you need to find the money to buy urea or UAN to apply to grasses this spring just after the fields green up. Your N fertilizer investment will be doubled or more in only five weeks or so. If you can spring-apply manure, don’t apply N fertilizer.

You should still consider buying silage inoculants, since research has shown that these are an economical investment about 75% of the time. Using a research-proven lactobacillus-based inoculant on alfalfa and alfalfa-grass is particularly beneficial since alfalfa is among the most difficult of forages to ensile.

Hang in there. These are very hard times, and not only for dairy farmers.