Nitrogen

Kentucky is noted for its grass pastures and horses. Both are important to our commonwealth. Pastures supply nutrients, provide hoof support for exercise, control erosion, and make our commonwealth even more picturesque. Horses provide a lot of pleasure, whether to someone riding for pleasure or as a winner in the show ring or at a racetrack, or grazing in your pasture. Well-managed pastures can supply a significant percentage of a horse's daily nutrient needs. Pasture forage plants can easily be reduced or destroyed because horses graze closer than cattle and tend to repeatedly graze the same areas.

Nothing can ruin a mouth watering tomato more than reaching for one on the vine only to find an ugly, flattened spot on it. If the ugly spot is located on the fruit opposite the stem end, it is likely blossom end rot, a disease caused by a lack of calcium that commonly occurs in tomatoes but can also affect eggplant, peppers and many cucurbits. Blossom end rot spots develop into dark brown, leathery decays that may affect half of the tomato. Calcium is an essential part of the chemical "glue" that binds cells together within the fruit.

Don't put the lawn mower up just because summer time is over; lawns still need to be mowed in the fall. Continue mowing until the grass quits growing. Excessive fall growth increases winter lodging, causes excessive browning, and encourages winter and early spring diseases. You don't want grass to enter winter any taller than three inches. Depending upon fall moisture and temperatures, the last moving may be needed as late as Thanksgiving or into early December. In most instances, grass clippings should not be removed.

Taking care of your lawn during the fall is as important as it is during spring and summer, even more so for lawns with cool-season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue. Nearly all fertilizers and broadleaf herbicides should be applied in the fall, and it is by far the best time to renovate (seed) lawns. Here are some tips for cool-season grasses: Fertilize: Fertilizing your lawn in the fall will help it grow stronger, thicker and greener. Cool-season grasses should be fertilized with nitrogen in late October and again in four to six weeks.

Following established management practices is a critical factor in beef cow-calf producers' successful legume renovation of grass pastures and hayfields. Renovation is a solid management practice for the more than seven million acres of pastures and hayfields for Kentucky's animal-based agriculture. To be sure you use legume varieties that will perform well in your area, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service office to obtain the results of forage variety trials from the University of Kentucky's College of Agriculture.

Early spring is usually the peak period for the occurrence of grass tetany in lactating beef cows in Kentucky. Grass tetany is caused by low blood levels of magnesium and is worsened by high levels of nitrogen and potassium and low levels of calcium and magnesium intake. The lush new growth of cool season perennials and annuals consumed by spring calving cows is a recipe for trouble. Heavy nitrogen and potassium fertilization intensify the problem. Grass tetany can be prevented by supplementing lactating cows with .5 - 1.0 ounces of supplemental magnesium per day during the high risk period.

Farmers need to be in gear now to get their pasture and hay fields improved. Adding clover to our grass fields has a lot of economic benefits. I have producers tell me it is too expensive to sow clover. Well these folks forget to look past the purchase price. You need to look at the bottom line which is net returns for the dollars and labor you spend. Clover in your pasture increases the productivity to where cattle gain better, more pasture is available to take hay from and more cattle can be run per acre.

STANFORD - The annual Farmer-Lender-Extension Field Day is scheduled for Thursday at the Elsie Butcher farm on Ky. 78 three miles west of Stanford. The hosts will be Butcher and her tenants, Don and Dwayne Cooper. The program is conducted by the Lincoln County Cooperative Extension Service. Registration will begin at 4:30 p.m., and tours and educational programs begin at 5 p.m. Demonstration and test plots will be viewed, and UK extension specialists will discuss recommended practices for greater income.

Trivia question: What does a cattle farmer do on a cold, February day besides feed his cattle. Try this for an answer. Renovate those fescue pastures. Pasture renovation season runs from early February through March, and I think the earlier, the better. Why are the colder days better? Basically, in Kentucky pasture renovation means adding legumes such as red clover to fescue fields. If the legumes are planted early before the first warm spell causes the latent fescue to burst out in new growth, the young clover seeds will have less competition from the more established plants.