Agronomic Crop and Improved Pasture System Development

Soil Temperatures

For years, the Chaves County Extension Office has performed a public service for the area by monitoring and publicizing soil temperatures in the spring to advise farmers on temperatures for planting. Gardeners and other home owners are now interested in this information. Six area farmers take soils temperatures each morning, Monday through Friday, for about 4 weeks beginning in late March or early April and call those temperatures into the office so that the numbers can be averaged and sent to the local media. The information is sent to 4 radio companies, 2 TV stations, and 1 newspaper.

Pesticide CEU Workshop

The agent conducted a Pesticide Applicator License Continuing Education Workshop to assist New Mexico pesticide license holders in securing continuing education for their pesticide licenses. Topics included “Brush and Weed Control Basics”, “Reacting to our Soil”, “Developing Pest Management Tools for Insect Pests in New Mexico”, “Economic Do-It-Yourself Brush and Weed Control”, and “Chemical and Biocontrol of Field Bindweed”. Forty attendees received five CEU’s, making it possible to renew their pesticide license for the licensing period whiling gaining knowledge of pesticide laws and regulations, weed and insect management, safety, and application. License holders can significantly reduce pesticide application costs by applying pesticides themselves.

Pesticide Licensing Workshops

One workshop was held by the agent during the reporting year to train and license agricultural commodity producers to be able to purchase and apply restricted use pesticides. A total of 8 persons attended the workshop and gained information on the federal and state pesticide laws and regulations, labels and labeling, storage, application, personal protective equipment, pesticide formulations, and recordkeeping. Agricultural producers gained information about these subjects to enable them to be safe and knowledgeable pesticide applicators. All persons took the NMDA private pesticide applicator test and became a certified pesticide applicator.

The Chaves County Extension Office served as host to a pesticide training that was broadcast via polycom from the New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs. The agent coordinated with the Extension Pesticide Training and Certification Specialist to assure that logistics of the program were completed. Three individuals attended the day-long training at the Chaves County Extension Office and obtained continuing education for their pesticide license.

The Agent developed a brush control demonstration plot on irrigated pasture in cooperation with a farmer who is trying to irradicate siberian elms from his pastures. The herbicidal materials that the Agent used included Garlon 4 and Pronone Power pellets. The cooperating farmer was grateful for the demonstration and felt confident not only in learning about how to use the materials,but that the materials are effective. After evaluating the results the farmer said, there’s a proverb that says, “ Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime. You have just taught me how to fish. I can handle the rest of my brush problem on my own.”

The Agent provided assitance to another livestock producer in controling the Buckhorn Plaintain in her irrigated pasture by guiding her in the mixing and application of the herbicide based on the demonstration plots that were set out in 2008 in the community of Nambe. This farmer in particular decided to control this invasive weed which was only along the east side of her pasture rather than before it spread out throughout the entire pasture. The mid summer application seemed to have yielded good results.

This agent has fielded and referred numerous questions throughout the year regarding an array of field crops. Part of this job is to provide resources and access to information not readily available to producers. 100% of the producers serviced this year found answers to their production questions which allowed them to make better management decisions. Questions were answered on wheat marketing and production, canola production and harvesting issues, and high moisture corn production. An effective agent doesn’t have to know everything but they have to be able to access a wide array of information from multiple sources.

Pesticides are an important piece of the management tools available to row crop producers, but in order to use them they must have a private applicator’s license. One component of keeping that license is to further their education of proper pesticide use and management. This agent in conjunction with the Curry County Agent and the Bailey County IPM agent hosted a class for those producers that had not received enough credits to renew their license. Fifty-seven producers from two states attended the training meeting and completed their continuing education units and renewed their licenses. Because of their attendance at this class, those who completed their training were better prepared to manage their farming practices and gained knowledge that would improve their business.

Now in its third year this agent has collected rainfall amounts and forage production data for the entire county. This agent was asked in 2008 by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) County Committee to assist the Natural Resource Conservation Service in developing a better means of assessing the health of Roosevelt County grazing lands. Eight rainfall and forage production sites were set out across the county to measure precipitation and forage yield. These samples are also analyzed to determine nutrient content and that data passed along to producers in order to make better management decisions. This data will be used by the FSA County Committee to assist producers with grazing losses occurred during a given year. This agent feels this opportunity will greatly benefit county clientele by establishing production data that can be measured and compared from year to year and location to location and establish a useful database for future use. Loss of production can then be evaluated by the County Committee to determine if compensation is justifiable for producers.