Speaker 2: Karl Hoppe, NDSU Extension Livestock Systems Specialist

Kelli: This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson and I'm joined this week by Karl Hoppe, NDSU Extension livestock specialist. Now there's a lot of different ways to feed cattle and rations don't always change, but feed prices, as we know can change. So we're going to talk today about utilizing some different rations to target gain in cattle. But first things first, Karl, what are some of the differences between stocker calves and backgrounding calves?

Karl: Well, let me first say there's a similarity between the two because they all deal with the time period after weaning, before they go into a finishing feed yard. So, it can be a weight difference between 400, 800, 900, maybe 1000 pounds before the cattle go into a feed yard. Backgrounding cattle refers to feeding cattle. Stocker tends to refer more to grazing cattle. For example, we have winter wheat grass in Oklahoma. And if we wean off calves in North Dakota and ship to Oklahoma, they would be called stocker cattle because they're out being stocked on these fields and grazing off the winter wheat and taken off before they effect the winter wheat yield later on. But in North Dakota, we don't have grazeable fields during the wintertime for the most part. But in reality, most of the time we have a lot of snow on the ground. It's covered. There's no grazing resources available, what is out there is pretty brown and dead. So we look towards feeding our calves which gives us an opportunity to target the amount of gain we want on calves. So backgrounding refers to just feeding calves past weaning, before they're sold into the finishing yards.

Kelli: Karl, so once a North Dakota producer weans their calves and they want to put them into a backgrounding operation. What are some tips you might have to get those cattle started off right?

Karl: Well, the biggest tip I find in helping calves work on to a new ration for backgrounding is to feed the cows and the cows and the calves together to be feed the cows the type of feeds you're going to be feeding the calves after weaning. It makes that transition from one feed source to another one. If calves have only grazed grass their whole life, they don't know what to feed bunks about, but it only takes a few days with a cow to eat out of a feed bunk to teach a calf, where the feed is at, kind of like an automatic water versus a spring, the cow can show the calf a lot of things. But if you wean the calf off of a pasture and bring it home, they got to learn a lot of new things. And if the cows not there to teach them, then it becomes your responsibility to teach them. 

Now, in order to keep calves healthy, the first thing you need to have is feed. You got to have food in your belly to keep you going. And if you've just been weaned away from cows and you're into a backgrounding yard, if all the smells of ground feed and silage are just different when you've ever seen these cattle are not going to consume this feed right away and it will take them several days to figure out and realize this is what I eat, just those few days of starvation. Think about you and I, if we go ahead and not eat for a few days, that affects how we are and so if you're not as healthy you may not be as resilient, especially if you put weaning stress on top of that. Some people have gone the other direction they'll put creep feeders out on pasture for cattle and then they'll drag the creep feeders into the pens where the calves are now into, and the calves now know what the creep feed it is. That works quite well. 

If they've been on creep feed all summer long up until weaning, and then in the wintertime they can now consume creep feed, just realize that they'll consume quite a bit. Also, one tip there is, never let your creep feeder go empty. That will happen, it can happen. Please avoid it from happening because creep feeders that go empty, just lead to a real opportunity for overconsumption which leads to acidosis and death in calves. So that's the biggest tip that I say, manage your feed bunks accordingly.

Kelli: So here in North Dakota we grow a lot of specialty crops. Are there some alternative crops that producers can utilize to feed their backgrounded calves?

Karl: We have a lot of co-product feeds available in North Dakota. They're produced out of our ethanol distilleries or wheat-mid milling plants, or even our beet sugar factories. So we have lots of feeds available to us. Everything's got a little nuance to it when it comes to feeding it. If you need protein, distillers grains has always been priced the lowest price per pound of protein out there, plus it contains quite a bit of energy and works quite well other than the fact that you have to buy it. And if you're raising protein on farm, alfalfa hay is a nice protein source. Of course, other protein sources raised on farm could include field peas. Usually, they go into the human food market, but they can be used in the cattle industry. They usually priced so that they're kind of out of our price range, but if there's any offs or rejects or things can't be sold, it certainly works. Other feeds, like corn and corn silage, is it all revolves around availability and freight costs. We can spend a lot of money on feeding cattle, but we need to be careful on how much we do spend to keep our cost-to-gain competitive.

Kelli: Alright, great information from Karl Hoppe, our livestock specialist here at NDSU Extension. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension.

Speaker 2: Ken Hellevang, NDSU Extension Agricultural Engineer

Kelli: This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson, and I'm joined this week by Ken Hellevang, NDSU Extension agricultural engineer. Now an emergency source of power is really important during a winter storm for farms with critical equipment, and for homes for sump pumps. And for heating, particularly in areas that may experience a power outage. So Ken, why is a standby or backup generator so important? 

Ken: Well, so much of our comfort and almost survival today is dependent on that electrical power. Particularly when we're looking at our heating systems, we need to have an electrical power supply in order to run the fan and on the furnace. It's important just to keep the house from freezing. It may be important if we're looking at sump pumps, or any kind of pumps that would be related to the home food safety, keeping the food refrigerated. And then if we're on a farm setting, we're looking at livestock ventilation systems. So there's a whole multitude of things that require electricity that we rely on, on a day to day basis that we need to think about. 

Kelli: So if someone was wanting to go buy a backup generator, what are some things they might be looking for in a good generator, or some things to take into consideration when buying a generator? 

Ken: Well, first and foremost, they need to decide what it is that they need to operate, we may need to cycle lights in different parts of, let's say, a farmstead, or pumps and part of our heating system, just because of the size of generator that would be required to run everything, what we encourage people to do is to look at the electrical requirement, the voltage, the amps or watts that the various pieces of equipment are going to be using, decide what needs to operate at that time. And then size the generator based on the electrical loading, that we expect that generator to power. 

Kelli: What are some safety measures that people should take into account when running a backup generator? 

Ken: Well, there's two critical points that we talked about. One is carbon monoxide, any engine that we're running is going to be producing carbon monoxide as well as carbon dioxide. That is a health risk. And sometimes people think, well, we'll run the generator in the garage. But even with the generator in the garage, that carbon monoxide may come into the home or into the barn and cause problems both for people and for animals. So the standby generator needs to be outdoors so that we're not getting an accumulation of the carbon monoxide. The other one is from an electrical safety standpoint, if we're running parts of the system, we want to disconnect from the rural electric or power utility may be providing to the home so that we're not what we call back feeding electricity from the generator onto the power line, and then also selecting which circuits were going to energize. And that typically needs to be done by an electrician in advance so that when we hook up that standby generator, we know what is being powered and where that electricity is going to go.

Kelli: If people would like to learn more about standby generators, where can they go for more information? 

Ken: Well, I encourage people to go to our website, do a search for NDSU Extension Service, standby generators. We have written material, but we also have a video on our YouTube video that goes through all of the different steps that a person needs to consider related to voltage, sizing, power quality, those would be the first options for people to look for additional information. 

Kelli: Our guest today has been Ken Hellevang, NDSU Extension agricultural engineer. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension.

Kelli: This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson and I'm joined this week by Lisa Pederson, NDSU Extension Beef Quality Assurance specialist. Now for many North Dakota beef producers, they're probably gearing up for calving season. And they're thinking about keeping their cows in good shape. But we're here to talk about bulls today, specifically, about not forgetting the bulls over the winter time. So Lisa, first let's talk about how cold weather might affect both semen quality and body condition score, specifically. If a bulls in thin shape, how might that affect his semen quality over the winter?

Lisa: Yes, Kelli. And you're right, we do tend to forget about the bulls over the wintertime. We throw them in a corral and thrown some hay and we don't always tend to think about how winter management of bulls impacts their fertility long term. And so you asked about body condition score we know that bulls that are in a body condition score three to four and even a lower five, at breeding soundness exam time, bulls have a lower fertility rate than bulls that are in a body condition score of  upper five, six or seven. And so, we really need to think about the nutritional level of our bulls, especially our younger bulls, they're still growing, they're losing some teeth. And so just throwing them some poor-quality hay may not be meeting their nutritional needs.

Kelli: So now let's talk about cold weather injury. So, when the weather's really cold, should we be thinking about frostbite or other injuries to bulls? 

Lisa: Yes, so one of the things we saw last winter in particular was frostbite injuries on the scrotums or the scrollable area visible, and some work done up in Canada shows that bulls that have frostbite injury that is larger than a penny, one or more of those, have significantly lower semen quality at breeding soundness time. And it doesn't matter when those breeding soundness exams are taken, after they've had that injury, their breeding quality, their semen quality goes down time that we know at least three months. And so one way that we can mitigate that is to bed bulls, give them some straw, hay to lay in something like that. And then give them some windbreak to get away from that wind. And again, body condition is going to help that as well. It'll provide some insulation to injury to the testes, if those scrotums do happen to get frostbitten.

Kelli: Lisa, any final thoughts on management of bulls over the winter?

Lisa: Kelli, I think we need to remember that our bulls should be in a body condition score four to seven, ideally a five to seven over the winter and moving into breeding season. And then when they are turned out with cows that will make a big difference in their fertility. Secondly, I'd encourage producers to maintain young, recently purchased bulls on a similar plane of nutrition as when they were purchased. And I know that I guess the urge is to go home and dump them out. But really give them some high-quality nutrition, and then step them down in that nutritional plane over a longer period of time. Check out the body condition score of your herd sires, not just your cows. I think it's a good time to take an overall look at the nutritional status and the body condition of your herd and then develop a ration to meet that, again provide windbreak and bed those bulls. And remember within about a month of turnout, when you're going to turn those bulls out to breed to get breeding soundness exams. That will be very important to the long-term fertility of your herds. 

Kelli, now is also a good time to evaluate your bull battery. If there's some bulls in your herd that you would like to cull or move on to market, now's a good time to do that. And so, look at their feet and legs for soundness look at their penis and their scrotums for injury, see if they're still sound. Look at their dispositions, if they haven't been wanting to stay home and go visit the neighborhood, maybe now's a good time to get rid of them as well. That way we don't have to feed them over the winter and that'll save you on some hay and some feed as well.

Kelli: Great advice from Lisa Pederson, our NDSU Extension Beef Quality Assurance specialist. We thank her for her time. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension.

Speaker 2: Daryl Ritchison, North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network Director

Kelli: This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson and I'm joined this week by Daryl Ritchison, North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network director. So Daryl, we've heard about drought all summer long, but we are finally starting to see some precipitation. Can you give us a snapshot of what's going on in the state moisture-wise right now?

Daryl: There's an old English proverb that goes like this, there is no debt so surely met as wet to dry and dry to wet. Even though it's an old English proverb, I always teasingly say it could be the state model of North Dakota. In many ways, that's exactly what has now happened. We have had some areas, just in the month of October, I've had between five and eight inches plus of rain just in the last three weeks, plus September. So really, once we got into late August, it was gradual at different times in different parts of the state. But I would say about 80% of the state now has really reset, especially if you're going to talk about soil water conditions. So we’ve really reset the system, the northwest corner of the state, is still seeing some deficits, but we've really flipped things around dramatically. And we're really in a really good position. Now for 2022, at least in the spring, matter of fact, this isn't like crying wolf, in any sense of the word. I'm not saying we're going to have one, but we've so saturated our soils now that if we had a bad winter, you know, we would have at least some flooding next year. That's how quickly in many parts of the state and a region that we flipped from dry to wet. 

Kelli: That was going to be my next question, parts of our state that have had very dry soils, they've been able to recover and see some saturation because of this current moisture? Is that what you're saying?

Daryl: The thing is, a lot of times people will tell me, “Well, you know, we're still three inches below average.” And I go, “Yes, you are. But do you really want three inches this time a year, because we're already saturated.” Once you're saturated, you get runoff, you fill the ponds, you know, you've really reloaded the system, I always tell people, you really have to think of it as no, you can never make up the past. But we really have reset the system, the soil has plenty of moisture, most of the state has far more moisture in the soil water right now than we would in a typical year, actually, even if we had like average precipitation all year. But you always really have to think of it that way. Because again, you can't go back in time. If I go back for the last 50 years, this area's okay, you're 50 inches below average, do you want that, you know, you can't catch up the past. Again, not everywhere, but a high percentage has reset, and are really sitting in a good position right now to start off 2022.

Kelli: For our producers who are trying to get corn out of the field, what's going to be happening in the next few weeks, so that they can continue to harvest?

Daryl: It looks really cold in the short term, and you don't get a lot of evaporation from that, but it will dry off, I have no worries that we'll get the corn levels to dry off again, to be harvestable. The problem is when you get really wet this time of year, you can't dry off the soils. And in turn if you're in a cornfield that say doesn't practice soil health practices or no till, you know, then there's just really mud sitting there. And it's really hard maybe to get out. I think because it looks reasonably dry for the next couple of weeks that most folks will be able to get it out there. Most years, you'll always have some areas that for any number of reasons, you know, have to leave the corn, but I know I've had conversations this morning, as this was being recorded, with someone who said, “Daryl, I've now had over six inches of rain this month, I'm really going to struggle getting that corn out, that there might be a little bit left behind.” But if there is, there would be nothing close to of course what happened to us just two years ago in the fall of 2019.

Kelli: Daryl, let's talk about a long-term forecast. What are you thinking in terms of precipitation and possibly even a first snowfall for North Dakota this year?

Daryl: Well, the first snow fall will be easy because the western part of the state already had one. I could name that date. But if you're talking most areas, at least in the short term, I don't see one it might be some flurries around, which a lot of people Ooh, the first snow of the season. Well in my world that's just flurries you know, I'd say the first inch or two probably will occur sometime in November when most years that it actually does, of course we know the past few October's that was not the case. But really, we had a reset in the pattern in many ways. Since late August, we did have a very dry, warm stretch in late September and early October. 

My fall forecast was to be wetter than average, which has come true. I think this change will last through the winter. And so, my current forecast for the winter is above average precipitation. And that usually equates to colder than average temperatures, which would be a huge change from last year. Doesn't necessarily mean it'd be a horrible, horrible winter. But even average, or slightly above, would be a big reset. But again, that's only more moisture and why I have a good feeling the moisture problem we had this year in the spring of 2021, just does not look to be very likely to reoccur in 2022.

Kelli: Thank you for the information today, Daryl. It's always a pleasure to chat with you. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension.

Speaker 2: Sean Brotherson, NDSU Extension Family Life Specialist

Kelli: This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by the NDSU Extension Service. I'm Kelli Anderson, and I'm joined this week by Sean Brotherson, NDSU extension family life specialist. Now last week, we talked about stress management for individuals, how an individual can control some of the events in their life to manage their stress. This week, we're going to be talking about stress management for couples. And one of the unique aspects of farming and ranching is that husbands and wives often work closely together. Farm and ranch decisions are also more likely to affect the whole family. So stress management really comes into play for that. Sean, tell us a little bit about how a couple can manage stress together?

Sean: Well, one of the really important things is just to recognize that this is a partnership, a farm and ranch operation is a family business, and you are working with people closely and if you are a married couple in the business of farming or ranching, then the decisions that you make are not only going to affect the farm or ranch operation, they're going to affect the experience of the family. So, if you're trying to make a decision about can we afford to buy a piece of farm equipment right now? That's going to affect other things, like can we take a vacation together? Or can we get a new refrigerator? Staying connected and communicating with each other in that couple partnership is really important when you're in farming and ranching.

Kelli: Are there some specific things that a couple could do to relieve stress and strain?

Sean: Yeah, I was just mentioning communication. And I think having a structured mechanism to communicate on a regular basis about your decisions about your feelings about directions that you need to go is really important. Many couples find it useful to set up a weekly formal meeting where they sit down and talk about what's going on in the operation, how it's affecting things in family life, and what kind of goals they have, and what direction they want to proceed. But it's also helpful to have a daily check in sometimes. We call this a temperature check, just to say, where are we in terms of our stress level as a couple? And then what are some strategies we can do to manage that if we feel like our stress levels are getting higher than is comfortable for us?

Kelli: You mentioned strategies, I know that you've developed a farm and ranch stress management plan that really would work for couples…tell us a little bit more about that.

Sean: We've developed a variety of resources. The farm and ranch stress management plan is one tool that we use among our set of farm stress spec sheets, to help any individuals who are in the farming and ranching industry be able to be strategic and proactive, about how they're managing the different decisions in their operation. And so that takes you through a specific process where you're identifying what are maybe some specific problems that we need to deal with, what are some concerns that may come up and then making plans about resources, we can access techniques or methods that we can use to relieve stress, it may be as simple as, hey, we haven't had time together to really connect recently. So we're going to plan and have a weekly date, even if it's just going for a walk. My wife and I find that we plan a walk three or four times a week, we take half an hour and it was interesting. She said to me the other day, that makes all the difference. You don't know what a difference it makes just to have that concentrated planned time to be able to relax a little bit. So simple things, but really important for couples and managing stress.

Kelli: In addition to the fact sheets that you mentioned, where can people go for more information about managing farm stress.

Sean: There's a lot of resources that are available through the NDSU Extension Service, google NDSU Extension and farm stress or NDSU Extension and drought, and we have dedicated web pages online with a lot of resources that people can access, and those pages will also connect them to other resources. The other thing that they should do is contact their local county Extension agent who is an excellent source of information and connection with resources in their community.

Kelli: Great advice from our NDSU Extension Service family life specialist Sean Brotherson, we thank him for his time today. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by the NDSU Extension Service.

Speaker 2: Sean Brotherson, NDSU Extension Family Life Specialist

Kelli: This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson and I'm joined this week by Sean Brotherson, NDSU Extension family life specialist. Today we're going to be talking about farm stress. Now we know that farmers and ranchers learn early on how to troubleshoot almost any problem. But sometimes you just can't troubleshoot the weather or low commodity prices. And it's common for people from a rural background to want to rely on themselves to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, so to say, when times get tough. So Sean, what should farmers do, if the times are tough, and their feelings of sadness or stress become overwhelming?

Sean:  The first thing they need to realize is that this is part of the human experience. And this is a really common thing. If you're feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, frustrated, depressed as a result of difficult conditions that are going on in agriculture, you need to realize that it's not a reflection on you, personally, you're not broken, there's not something wrong with you, you're not weak, you're not a failure. What we want to do is be resilient in the face of those kinds of stresses and think about what are the things that may be overwhelming me? What are signs that I'm experiencing difficulty? And what can I do about some of those things? 

Kelli: You mentioned signs. So what are some of the signs of stress that people should be aware of, about how they're feeling?

Sean: Stress tends to affect us by piling up and putting pressure on us. So it's really difficult to function. And yet, it's during times of difficulty that we really need to function better. So it's like you have a piece of farm equipment that when you need it in the field during harvest or planting, you really want it to function well. Your health is what allows you have the ability to function well in times of stress. So you want to pay attention to physical signs. If you have a hard time getting going in the morning, you just feel a lot of fatigue. If you feel headache, strain, backache, things like that, these are things to pay attention to, if you're not getting very good sleep, mentally, you'll see it in the way you think. And if you have a hard time, looking at the positive side of things, or if you have a hard time concentrating or focusing or making decisions, if we keep sending negative messages to ourselves, like hey, you're a failure, you're a burden to everybody around you. Those are negative things that are a sign of depressive thinking. 

We see it also in our emotions, in terms of just a feeling of hopelessness, a feeling of inability to get motivated and do the day, a sense of anxiety, just really low mood that is persistent, beyond what is normal for you. Those are all signs to pay attention to. 

Kelli: So where can farmers and ranchers go to access some support on these issues?

Sean: It's really important to understand that depression, for example, is a medical condition, just like diabetes is a medical condition and it's best handled with the support of health care professionals. The first thing to do is to make an appointment with your local health care professional. Like your typical primary caregiver or nurse practitioner. And these are individuals who are trained to deal with a wide range of health issues, not just physical health concerns, but mental and behavioral health as well. And they can help you assess the state of both your physical and mental well-being and then make some plans to take action, get support, and do some treatment that may be necessary. 

There's a wide variety of organizations across the region that have really geared up to be available in this particular area. First Link incorporates the 211 helpline that you can call at any time. They do Crisis Counseling as well as referrals to a wide variety of services. And Lutheran Social Services has geared up thier counseling program, so you can have a conversation with someone about some of the stresses that you're feeling from your kitchen table or from the cab of your pickup truck because they do telehealth, right. So there's a lot of resources like that that are available. 

The State Department of Human Services has regional human service centers that are very attentive to these issues. Each of them is available in regions across the state. So all of those are good resources, you can go to our NDSU Farm Stress web page, just search NDSU farm stress. All of those resources are listed and you can get easy access to them online. 

Kelli: Our guest today has been Sean Brotherson NDSU Extension family life specialist, we thank him for his time and important information. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension.

Speaker 2: Lisa Pederson, NDSU Extension Beef Quality Assurance Specialist

Kelli: This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson and I'm joined this week by Lisa Pederson, NDSU Extension beef quality assurance specialist. Now this is the time of year that North Dakota beef producers might be taking some of their older cows or bulls to their local livestock auction. So Lisa, can you tell us what are some things to remember as we talk about taking these animals to market?

Lisa: Yes, Kelli we are in the time of year where many spring calving herds across the United States are marketing cows that are leaving their herd and you know, often leaving because they're, as we say, the three O's: old, open and ornery or for other reasons. And so, as you are preparing to market your cows and bulls into the food chain, I'd like you to remember to follow their withdrawal times. And so perhaps you poured those cows with some type of a lice preventative product and maybe you've injected them with an antibiotic to treat them for something, be sure that you have met their withdrawal times for those products. 

Next, I'd like you to remember that we would like to have our market cows and bulls in a beef body condition score of three or better, we want to make sure that those cows and bulls are in a condition in which they can make a trip to one of our packing plants. And typically, these packing plants are a lot further than you think in the country, well over 100 miles oftentimes, and then make sure that those cows and bulls can stand soundly on all four legs to make that trip. We know that when lame cattle oftentimes have troubles making those trips and they become non-ambulatory cattle and trucks and impacting plants along within auction markets as well.

Kelli: When you talk about producers taking their animals to market, what is the difference in the marketing chain in young calves versus older cows and bulls?

Lisa: That's a very good question, Kelli. And oftentimes, this time of year, our producers are also marketing their calves at the same auction markets. And so you know, you think about that the calf leaves your farm or ranch goes to the auction market, and may move into a background feed yard, into a stocker operation for grass or perhaps wheat pasture, and then into a feed yard to be finished and then into the packing plant. Whereas our market cows and bulls will leave your farm or ranch and oftentimes go to an auction market. And then generally probably 90 plus % of the time, they will be at the packing plant within two or three days, and then onto somebody's plate for a meal time, shortly after that. And so it is a much shorter marketing chain for our market cows and bulls. Again, I'd like to remind producers this is one of the reasons why we need to adhere to following withdrawal times for the safety and quality of our food supply. But also market those cows and bulls in a body condition score greater than three, and be sure that they can soundly put weight on all four legs.

Kelli: Any final thoughts for our North Dakota beef producers?

Lisa: You know, I would really encourage producers to think about these cows as being a food product. Yeah, I think oftentimes, we think they're either hamburger or dog food, and then all reality, a vast majority of the time, meat from cows and bulls goes into our whole muscle chain. And so they're being served as roast at quick service establishments, oftentimes steaks and casinos and cruise ships and, you know, even sometimes exported into the export market. I encourage producers to think about cleaning them up a little bit. And think of them as you're trading them in for a new model. And so our producers would always clean up a pickup or a tractor and make it look it's very shiny best so that they can get more value for that pickup or tractor before they would sell it or trade it in. And I'd encourage you to think about that with your market cows and bulls. Think of them as something that truly has value and represents your operation. I always tell them if you wouldn't want to eat it, then why should you expect somebody else to do so. And so again, clean those cows and bulls up and make sure that they provide a good wholesome, high-quality product for our consumers.

Kelli: Great things to think about for our beef producers from Lisa Pederson, our NDSU Extension beef quality assurance specialist. We thank her for her time today. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension.

Speaker 2: Tom Kalb, NDSU Extension Horticulturist

Kelli: This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson, and I'm joined this week by Tom Kalb, the NDSU Extension Horticulturist. Today we're going to be talking about strategies to maintain your lawn, specifically weed control. In a recent Dakota Gardner column, Tom, you talked about balancing the benefits and risks of using herbicides to control weeds. So can you tell us a little bit more about what you mean by balancing the benefits and risks? 

Tom: Sure, Kelli. Yeah, everybody wants an attractive weed-free lawn. But on the other hand, nobody wants to be exposed to poisonous chemicals or poisonous herbicides. So, it requires a balanced approach. Now, let's see, the first thing is, we need to have a realistic expectation for our lawn. You know, it's not natural to have a lawn that has no weeds, and it's almost impossible to achieve. And on the other hand, as far as exposing ourselves to poisonous herbicides, we can address this by using herbicides, only when necessary, and when they're most effective. And that gets us to the key point, that is that now right now is the most effective time to kill weeds in your lawns. And the reason why that is, is, as you notice, like, outside, everything's changing the nights are again, longer and cooler. And you know, the dandelions and the thistles they sense that too. 

So, you don't see a lot of things growing more leaves now. Instead, they're putting their sugars down into their roots to prepare for winter. And so that's perfect for us. Because how do you kill a dandelion? You’ve got to get the herbicide down into the roots. And so, if you spray a dandelion now, the dandelion itself will channel the herbicide along with its sugars down into the roots. And so that's how we get our most effective kill. Well, now is the most effective time and you can have a very good quality lawn if you spray only one time a year, but you do it at the most effective time, which is right now. 

Kelli: So Tom, if a homeowner does decide to use herbicides right now, what are some of the strategies they might use for applying those?

Tom: Choose the right herbicide to begin with. And in most cases, we're going after broadleaf weeds and chemicals that most people use know are what we call a trimec formulation. Try means three, it's got three ingredients. And it's like 2:4-D, MCPP and dicamba, so look for an effective chemical, and then follow the label carefully. Mix it at the proper rate. Don't overdo it. Otherwise, you can harm your landscape plants with the excessive rate. Also, spray in a way that's safe for you, wear protective clothing. Don't go outside with sandals and shorts on. Respect the chemicals. They're poisonous. So, wear like a long sleeve shirt, long trousers. Were some non-absorbent gloves, non-absorbent shoes, and spray when there's a minimal risk of drift. So, you want to spray when the winds are calm. 

You want to use a heavy droplet not a fine mist that can drift easily. And then also avoid a really high temperatures like when it gets into the high 80s. Unfortunately, there's not too many of those days left, so we don't worry so much about that right now. Follow the label instructions. And also, as far as safety, stay off the lawn, at least until the chemical dries. And if you can stay off 24 hours that's even better for you and your pets to limit your exposure. Another thing Kelli, is that you don't have to spray your entire lawn, maybe just do some spot spraying of the worst areas, the most weedy areas. Again, that will minimize the exposure of you and your landscape plants to these harmful pesticides. 

Kelli: And finally, Tom, if you choose not to use a herbicide, what are some other ways that you can maintain a healthy lawn without those chemicals? 

Tom: That's a good question. So like we're talking about a more holistic approach to lawn care. And so there's something to do. One is cut your lawn tall, the taller the better.

Let the grass clippings fall. Also fertilize your lawn. Because all these tests what they will do is you're going to get a thicker turf and a thick turf. A thick, tall turf can smother out those weed seedlings before they get established. 

Kelli: If people have questions about fall lawn care, where can they go for more information?

Tom: We're very lucky to have a great team of county agents that can provide the information that you need, so just contact your local NDSU county Extension agent. 

Kelli: All right. Thank you for your time today, Tom. Our guest today has been Tom Kalb, NDSU Extension Horticulturist. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension.

Speaker 2: Travis Hoffman, NDSU and University of Minnesota Extension Sheep Specialist

Kelli: This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson and I'm joined this week by Travis Hoffman in NDSU, and University of Minnesota Extension sheep specialist. Thanks for being here, Travis.

Travis: Thank you, Kelli.

Kelli: Today we're going to talk about some general things that people with sheep should be thinking about as we go into the fall and winter months. The first thing we're going to talk about is facilities. Travis, what are some things that people should be thinking about when it comes to facilities?

Travis: So first off, as we have diversified farming and ranching operations, it's been a little bit tough here, and a little frustrating to get in and get some of that harvest accomplished. But I think that there's some things that we can look forward to, if we have sheep on our operations from a facility standpoint, if we look at what is our plan as we move closer to lambing? Do we have enough lambing panels? Will those be four foot by four foot, maybe five foot by five foot? And to have an idea of what you're going to do with potential bottle lambs or bum lambs? Are you making a pen for those? Are you interested in merchandising them? What about lamb milk replacer? How would you be able to approach that and so I think that now as we move into the fall, we're not going to want to be setting up those pens in February or, or even earlier or later. But we can get some of that work done as we prepare for lambing and look at where we're at on shelter, heat for those animals and ventilation for the barns.

Kelli: You mentioned lambing. What type of condition should ewes be in as they get bred and then move through their gestation period?

Travis: Absolutely, we're at an important time that we can evaluate where those ewes are based on their condition. And from a body condition scoring standpoint, here in the fall, we've already potentially had the rams out, we can maybe increase that plane of nutrition prior to breeding. But now we can see if there's certain females or certain ones that maybe need a little bit more supplementation. And so now is our chance here as we move into the fall to get those girls caught up a little bit. Because we can't do that as we near lambing, because so much of the energy is then going to the fetus development and to the lambs themselves. And so now's our opportunity, even if it's at the beginning part of that gestation period, to help work with those use. And you can also be able to evaluate them, are they too fat, too narrow and too skinny at this point? And maybe if you're really feeling the excitement, you can trim the hooves as well.

Kelli: A lot of people have questions about whether they should body condition score before or after shearing? What's the answer on that?

Travis: Well, I think that from a holistic standpoint on a year, you should be able to evaluate where they're at. The difference is, a lot of times we're going to shear those ewes about 30 days, or 45 days before they're going to lamb. And at that point, like I said earlier, it's just a little too late to get the groceries to them, then.

Kelli: Now let's talk about feeding those ewes, what are some of the things we should think about when making feed purchases for the fallen winter?

Travis: I think that's a great topic to talk about here in the fall, because some people raise the hay that they have. And if they do, I would recommend getting that hay, tested to see where we're at on relative feed value on percent proteins. Or if you're purchasing it, it may already have that information or data along with it and try to gather that information for a feed that we are going to use for those use, particularly there. As we get closer to parturition or lambing. We want to make sure that we have a high quality, potentially an alfalfa, or at least a high protein feed that we can be able to use for those sheep and for those ewes.

Kelli: I know you've had some questions about whether farmers can feed soybeans to sheep. What's your recommendation on that?

Travis: As we've seen in a dynamic market right now, people are interested in exploring options. And I totally think that we should be able to, again, question and identify different opportunities that we can get better. Soybeans can be used as a small replacement of the diet. In fact, I wouldn't use it more than 20% of your diet. But those can be used for those ewes, or even the lambs as they get past weaning. Not early, they can't eat the whole soybeans because at least as that animal is developing, it's still kind of a non-ruminant or that rumen system is still developing. So, it's not good for the young lambs to east the whole soybeans, but it can be used for 20% of the diet for your ewes.

Kelli: Our guest today has been Travis Hoffman NDSU and University of Minnesota Extension sheep specialist. We thank him for his time today. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension.

Speaker 2: Gerald Stokka, NDSU Extension Veterinarian and Livestock Stewardship Specialist

Kelli: This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson and I'm joined this week by Dr. Gerald Stokka, NDSU Extension veterinarian and livestock stewardship specialist. Today we're going to talk about some of the things that producers should kind of be thinking about. So, Dr. Stokka, let's first talk about scheduling pregnancy checks for your cows. What do producers need to know about that?

Gerald: You know, a lot of things are going on this fall. In fact, what we're going to talk about is undoubtedly been delayed, whether it's kind of pushed everything back, still soybeans in the field and corn to be harvested and a whole bunch of things that the pressure starts to build, how am I going to get all this stuff done. So, I'm going to schedule with my veterinarian preg check time, for example. And all of a sudden, it gets to be a nice day. And I'm in the field trying to combine soybean. So I understand the pressures that are being dealt with right now. 

But let's talk in a general sense, when we can get these things done. What am I doing when I'm preg checking cows, really, what I'm trying to do first of all, of course, is identify cows that have conceived and are carrying the pregnancy now into the fall time of the year. But I'm also, in addition, to finding those cows that are open or in other words, not pregnant, I have to look at some other things in the cow herd because I don't want to keep some cows over that either have feet and leg issues have other issues, maybe they just didn't raise a good calf, or maybe they've reached a stage in their life where it's unlikely that they'll be able to raise much of a calf again. 

So I need really need to make some objective decisions based on who I'm going to keep over the winner. I don't know if I should use term freeloaders, but we got to have only those cows that we're gonna keep over and hopefully raise a calf for the next year. The other thing too, that to remind people of is that bulls need to be locked out. Maybe some of these bulls, they've been a fabulous source of genetics for my herd, but maybe they're reaching an age where I've got daughters out of this bull, or maybe raised a lot of steer calves out of this bull. And you know, maybe it's time, or maybe the bull has feet or leg issues or maybe he's got some reproductive issues, and we’re not sure about him next spring being able to to breed cows again. And so, a number of decisions that need to be made at that fall time when we're going to bring that herd in and determine pregnancy but there's a whole lot of other decisions.

Kelli: You mentioned to me commingling. Tell me what that term means and how it affects calves that are coming in off a summer pasture?

Gerald: Now this is a really important topic and sometimes even veterinarians and our producers forget about commingling. Commingling is a term that we use when we put groups together that don't know each other. That's in simplest terms. I can think about it even happens with people. We mix groups of young children together in nursery schools. The same thing can happen even on a ranch where all the calves and cows are treated the same. What happens is that those cows and calves don't spend the summer together. There are undoubtedly in many different pastures. When I bring them together, let's say even before weaning, or even at weaning, that's a stress those calves have to adjust to. 

And most of the time, the biggest problems we see with commingling on ranch raised calves on the same ranch is when I do this commingling at weaning. So now what I've done is that I've compounded the stress of removing the calf from the mother, I've changed his diet, I'm going to give him something else to eat, get him used to different feed stuffs. And then I'm going to put them with some strangers, so to speak. And we have to keep in mind that, you know, these calves, they may be 550 to 600 pounds, we think of them as big animals. They're relatively young animals. And so, a little bit like a nursery school. Now they're going to trade bugs with each other. I won't say we necessarily see ear infections, but you could. 

But all those bugs that cause ear infections or upper respiratory disease, or even pneumonias, respiratory disease, now they're going to share those bugs. And I got this stress of commingling compounding the sharing of bugs. And so that's when I start see what we call clinical disease that I might need to treat. My advice is if you've had this problem in the past at weaning, and you commingle that weaning, is there any way you can bring all these groups together while they're still with their mothers? Maybe apply pre-weaning vaccinations, but group them together at that time when that stress doesn't get compounded by removing them from the mother and commingling at the same time.

Kelli: Great things to think about for our North Dakota beef producers. For more items on a fall checklist that you should be thinking about as a cattle producer. Go to NDSU Ag News and Google NDSU Extension fall checklist. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension.

Speaker 1: Kelli Anderson, NDSU Agriculture Communication Specialist

Speaker 2: Sean Brotherson, NDSU Extension Family Life Specialist

Kelli: This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson, and I'm joined today by Sean Brotherson NDSU Extension family life specialist. Today we're going to be talking about how North Dakota farmers and ranchers can have a lot of stress in their lives. Sean, can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Sean: Yeah, stress conditions are not unusual for people working in the field of agriculture, there's research that shows it's one of the more high stress occupations that somebody can work in. But there may be particular times when stress levels increase, and sometimes substantially. Usually, that's because of conditions like weather difficulties, we've seen drought conditions across the state that have been challenging during the past year, contributing to that, and also when prices and agriculture have dropped from higher levels, and that's putting a squeeze on farmers and the value that they're getting for their commodities at the marketplace.

Kelli: Now, Sean, we know that working in agriculture can be stressful. But sometimes stress goes beyond just general symptoms, what are some of the symptoms of stress, when it's unmanageable?

Sean: When they're stressed in agriculture, it doesn't just stop in the field, it tends to travel with the person into the home and into their relationships, and even to how they're feeling physically. 

One of the characteristics of people working in agriculture is that they tend to be self-reliant, proactive individuals who can get something done. But the tendency to kind of go it alone, when you're facing challenges that seem beyond your control, sometimes is not helpful when you're dealing with stress. And so, we see affects in areas like how finances are being managed within the family, we see it in their emotional responses, we see it in their physical health and well being. And we often see it in the quality of their relationships, all of those can be affected by higher stress levels.

Kelli: What are some ways that farmers can control stressful situations in their life, especially around the farm?

Sean: That's a great question. One of the first things that they can do is identify and then access resources that are available to them. And they need to think about the individuals in their lives that they can talk to that they can trust. Simply communicating with somebody is helpful to be able to express your feelings, and also generate ideas about options or strategies that you might take. So that's one of the first things that they can do. 

Avoiding withdrawal, as a mechanism of dealing with stress is really important. Instead, dealing proactively with things by communicating about, you know, where are things what the financial situation or what are important decisions coming up that we need to make, or if someone is experiencing stress, and they're feeling it physically, they're having difficulty sleeping, or having headaches, tension, things like that. They need to talk about that with someone in their family or community they can trust and then access local resources, that may be their physician, it may be a counselor, but it’s really important to communicate about what they're feeling and then what are the resources that can be of support to them.

Kelli: You mentioned local resources, what are some of the resources that we have available through NDSU Extension?

Sean: For individuals who may be in the field of farming and ranching, often they can talk with their local county Extension agent who will have expertise or the ability to connect them with resources in their community or that are available through Extension. They can just Google NDSU Extension and drought stress or NDSU Extension and farm stress. We have a series of educational bulletins and resources they can access which provide detailed information on managing stress.

Kelli: Great information for our North Dakota farmers and ranchers who might be dealing with stress in their lives. Our guest today has been Sean Brotherson, NDSU Extension family life specialist. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension.

Speaker 2: Angie Johnson, NDSU Extension Agent – Steele County

Kelli: This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson, and I'm joined this week by Angie Johnson, Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension agent in Steele County. Today we're going to be talking about farm safety. 

So Angie, why is this time of year really important for farmers to slow down and think about safety on their farms?

Angie: Yeah, so that's a fantastic question. Farm safety is so important, as you said, but right now, it is a very, very busy time of year. Producers have a lot on their minds. Our communities are busy, we're trying to get back to school, trying to get back to a normal work schedule and adapt to the surroundings we're currently facing. And so there is a lot on people's minds, the stress levels are higher than normal. And so thinking about farm safety sometimes gets unintentionally put on the backburner because we're so focused on the task that we need to get done. And Mother Nature doesn't always help us with the amount of time we have to get those tasks done as well. So our plates are overloaded, we can be overwhelmed, so farm safety really sometimes takes a backseat in the forefront of our minds.

Kelli: What are some of your best tips for working safely on the farm?

Angie: I really like to think about farm safety in terms of slowing down and really thinking about our actions. So stop, think and act when we're working with farm equipment. Are we ready and properly trained and our employees properly trained on operating this equipment? Are we wearing the correct personal protective equipment for the job, farmers will joke about riding on open cab tractors in their youth or even currently and how poor their hearing is. And so hearing damage is irreversible. Taking the time to wear ear plugs or ear muffs or some type of hearing protection is absolutely crucial around the loud equipment that we work with. 

Communication is so important too and knowing your surroundings and being able to get your message across in terms of what tasks you want completed, not only communication, but anytime an issue arises with the equipment you're working on, such as if your combine plugs out in the field as you're harvesting grain or crops, take the time and shut that machine off. You know, it's not worth an accident happening where your hand or your leg is in the wrong place at the wrong time. And so by slowing down, shutting off the equipment itself and doing proper maintenance on it, those are some ways to help prevent those life threatening actions.

Kelli: And finally, what are some of the resources that NDSU Extension has developed to help farmers, their employees and their families stay safe on the farm?

Angie: The NDSU Extension farm and ranch safety team has developed a wonderful website that features our NDSU Extension resources, anything from window clings that you can put right in your tractors to help you communicate with your employees and your farm families while you're in the cab and while someone's right on the ground. Also looking at cleaning and disinfecting of your equipment because we don't really think about the flu or the common cold as farm safety issues. But in this day and age, anything that slows us down and slows your operation down is detrimental to your farm. So whether you're fighting a cold or whether you're concerned and want to keep your equipment clean, really focusing how, as a whole, your farm is protecting yourself and your employees from infectious diseases. 

So farm safety has a huge broad scope. Our farm and ranch safety website looks at everything from grain bin safety publications to chemical pesticides handling safety. Please take the time to  checkout our materials and maybe start incorporating intentional farm safety talks and discussions with your employees and families at home.

Kelli: Thank you so much for your time today, Angie. This is incredibly valuable information. This has been Sound Ag Advice a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension.

Kelli: This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson. This week we're going to be talking about alternatives for harvesting drought-stressed corn. Again, drought conditions across much of North Dakota have created some major issues for livestock and crop producers, and many are facing support conditions. 

Today, I've got Zac Carlson NDSU Extension beef cattle specialist to talk about some of those alternatives for harvesting corn. So Zac, before a producer decides to harvest their corn for forage. What are some things they should do first?

Zac: Great question, Kelli. The first thing they need to check is to make sure that those crop acres are certified to be harvested. So, check in with your crop insurance adjuster and make sure that you are meeting all qualifications prior to going into those fields in harvesting so that you meet all insurance qualifications for that. A second would then be to check your chemical labels for those herbicides that you've applied to those fields. Oftentimes, these chemicals come with restrictions and they'll be posted on their label. 
There is a great guide, it's the NDSU publication, Weed Control Guide 2021. Pages 109 through 112 list the common chemicals found, and then the grazing or harvesting restrictions on those in days from application. So be sure to check there, before entering into the field and taking these forages.

Kelli: So, Zac, you have a recent news release that mentioned some concerns with harvesting corn, especially corn is drought stressed, which we've seen a lot of. What are some of those concerns you might have for harvesting drought-stressed corn?

Zac: A lot of drought-stressed plants can become nitrate accumulators, and corn is one of those. So, in situations where the growth of the plant is stunted, whether that's a frost that we're familiar with, or in this case, we're dealing with drought, the nitrates will tend to accumulate in the plant and they accumulate and are more concentrated closer to the ground. So from the stock, and then they get less concentrated as they move up the plant. So be sure if you're considering harvesting or grazing these that you take a representative sample from your field. So that would look like several areas of your field and be looking out for short corn, tall corn plants, dry, maybe lush. Take all a sample from all those at the height that you intend to harvest, or if you're grazing then go ahead and take that plant. And then the Vet Diagnostic Lab here at NDSU can analyze those samples or you can send them off to a commercial laboratory and get an analysis of nitrates. So combining those samples together, chopping it up in any way that you can and mixing it in. And if you need help with this, your NDSU Extension agent in your county, would certainly be willing to help you out in getting these processed, as well as submitting to a lab.

Kelli: One final question, if a producer would like to turn their cows out to graze standing corn, what are some of the things they should keep in mind? 

Zac: Yeah, so if we're talking about grazing, we're going to again be talking about nitrates, having that analysis in hand, and knowing what your nitrate content is in the field, will help you as you can adapt cattle to higher nitrate levels. But it's important to know what you have before going out and grazing. 

So, understanding what your nitrate content is, and then really, essentially, with grazing considerations on nitrates, you want to ensure that you're not forcing cattle to eat that lower portion of the stock so having a lighter stocking rate in those fields will allow those cattle to select the ear, leaf and husk which we know they typically do and the upper portions of the stock without going to those heavier concentrated areas of nitrates. So, like stocking lightly. 

The other thing we want to be aware of is, although there may not be a lot of grain fill this year, and a lot of our corn fields that cows that have previously grazed, those cows will be more likely to target ears of corn when they get into those fields, so if you have fields, that did have some ear development and some grain fill, then you want to be sure that you're keeping a close eye on how those cows are behaving and acting and grazing. Just to ensure, once again, that you have lightly stocked that field. And, again, kind of moving from a low nitrate or low nitrate-concentrated fields. 

And then you can kind of move those cattle through into some higher-nitrate content fields. It may be also, as it's always recommended, whenever grazing to turn cattle out, not hungry. So make sure that you've been providing feed in large amounts so that these cattle aren't hungry two to three days prior to grazing. So that will allow those cattle to not overeat in those first initial days and give you consequences in both possible acidosis through grain overload, if that's the case, or nitrate poisoning through high-nitrate content feed. So just make sure that those cattle aren't hungry when they're going out. 

Kelli: Thanks for your information today, Zac. Our guest today has been Zac Carlson, NDSU Extension beef cattle specialist. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. 

Kelli: This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature provided by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson and I’m joined this week by Daryl Ritchison, director of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN). It seems like the word drought has been on everybody's mind this summer from agricultural producers to urban homeowners. Daryl, can you give us a current snapshot of the drought conditions around the state?

Daryl: It's surprisingly equal. As most people know, we have well over 100 NDAWN stations within North Dakota we have some through Montana and Minnesota. In total now we're up to about 170. Some of them are just rain gauge only sites, most of them have a complete complement of data, information, but if you look at that data source, a lot of the state is approximately 50% of normal. There are spots there's probably somewhere in the 10 to 20% of the state that's actually doing quite well. They've gotten the right thunderstorms they're doing really well. And there's probably you know 10 to 20% of the state is just doing awful I mean, they're at 20, 25, 30% of normal range. But you know that other bunch, you know, probably two-thirds are, you know, approximately 50% are in the 40 to 60 range and trust me, as everyone knows, being at 60 to 62% of average rain, is a lot better than 42% . You know you've gotten that extra thunderstorm. But you know that’s been the situation, just in the last week we've gotten a couple of really good rains across the southern tier of the state and then especially northeastern North Dakota.

If you look back, Kelli, at past dry summers, say 2017, 2012, 2006, even the famed 1988. All of those years, started to see a little pattern change in August, and I’m not saying, that you know, the dryness is going to end.  Those years, though, we went back to more average precipitation not for everybody, but a good chunk of the state, and you know really, in the last week was a testament to that. That we got a little bit more precipitation and although we are about to hit another kind of a tough stretch, it’s going to be warm and dry. As we go through the next week or two, it looks like we're going to get back into a more rainy pattern, so yeah it's a really tough time. I see at least a little window that maybe say the soybeans that desperately need rain in August, there will be pockets that will get that necessary rain, but you know, to get out of this is going to require more than just you know a few weeks back of average precipitation, of course, but I think at least August, will be a little bit better than May, June, July we're and many areas, not all, but in many areas.

Kelli: So, you mentioned that we might have a few chances for some rain coming up in a short term forecast. Is that for all parts of the state or is that just in certain areas of the state?

Daryl: More than likely in certain areas, and what those certain areas are you know, in this type of scenario long range is really, really tough. Let's look at just the last week as many people probably remember or know, we had some pretty good rains in the southern tier of the state there's some areas in the south, central and southwest. That they got a lot of, probably a little bit too much, rain in small areas, but there were some flash flood warnings out and then, if you look at the event that occurred Monday evening.  You know our Langdon NDAWN station had well over three inches of rain that's more than a whole average month’s rain for August, for instance, and there are pockets out there of an inch and a half and two and a half inches but at the same time, if you live anywhere between Fargo and Bismarck neither event hit you at all, you either got zero or just a few hundreds of an inch.
That's the whole scenario with thunderstorm complexes. The fall of 2019 which most people still remember, pretty much everybody got a lot of rain. That's the exception, not the rule, more often than not, you know in our summer seasons, they come with thunderstorm complexes so these four or five counties do pretty well. These four or five counties get very, very little. But if we have a more average summer over the course of the summer, you know everyone gets you know into those thunderstorm complexes and we've had very few thunderstorm complexes the summer.
Of course, and when we've had them, you know they tended to fall in the same areas and again why you know, say, maybe as much as 20% of states not doing all that bad because it keeps that same 20% got multiple thunderstorms, so the odds favor as being kind of hit and miss, Kelli, but you know if we get even three or four thunderstorm complexes at least, it will get everyone with something because let's be honest in July, I mean there's parts of the state that pretty much didn't rain almost the entire month or very, very little. At least it looks a little bit more promising in the short term, say in the next two three weeks.

Kelli: One final question for you Daryl, and I know this is variable across all parts of the state and, depending on what we're growing, whether that's grass range land or whether it's crops, but the question I have for you is: About how much rain would it take this fall to return us to a more normal pattern or more normal conditions?

Daryl: Most of the state in the summertime and by summer I mean May, June, July and August. But if we extend that out say later and maybe a little bit in September that we're probably talking anywhere from about 11 to 14 inches of rain. Well, if you take that 50% and again it's approximation, you know we're at least you know, five to six inches being conservatively below average.

For instance, November, most of the state only averages between three quarters of an inch and an inch for the entire month of November. After that, the ground freezes. It varies on the year but usually around Thanksgiving the ground is frozen we don't get penetration anymore.
But that's just a little bit of an idea, Kelli, that we really are talking you're going to need three to sixes to at least get you up closer to that. And really in many years a little bit more than that, the expectation is just not very likely going to happen.
Winter, a snowy winter still only three or four inches of moisture, it adds up to a lot of snow, but could cause problems because of that, but to me, if you know can get a little bit in the fall, but it's really late spring/early summer is our big rainy season and my strong suspicion is that's when we're going to have the best opportunities to catch up, so I think this talk about soil moisture replenishing for 2022 is going to be a very big topic of conversation, probably for the next six months.
Kelli: Thank you so much for the information today Daryl. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension.

WHAT IS SOUND AG ADVICE?
“Sound Ag Advice” presented by NDSU Extension, features NDSU Extension specialists and staff talking about current agricultural issues. “Sound Ag Advice” is free and can be used in any way you see fit.

Speaker 2: Dr. Ken Helevang, NDSU Extension Agricultural Engineer

This is Sound Ag Advice - a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson and I'm joined this week by Dr. Ken Hellevang, NDSU Extension Agricultural Engineer.

Kelli:  Now this year’s drought could be having an impact on your home, says a recent news release from Dr. Hellevang. This drought is not only affecting crops and plants but is causing problems for homeowners with barns and other structures. 

Dr. Hellevang, what are some of the issues that homeowners may be seeing as a result of dry soil occurring during the drought? 

Dr. Hellevang:  Well,l the first thing that they'll probably see is that, particularly soils like clays, will contract or shrink if the moisture is being removed and then of course if we had water back then they expand. Well, the expansive types of soil becomes an issue around homes or any building that has a basement or a footing because the first thing that they might notice is the soil will pull away from the basement or the foundation. As it pulls away from the basement then air can get down into that space and continue to dry out the soil. The house or many buildings are supported on a footing that sits on the soil. If the drying takes place down to that level of the footing then we start feeling the soil pull away from that footing which typically is concrete and then we will see settling taking place in the structure And that may show up and windows that they don't slide the way they're supposed to it might be doors that don't close. A lot of times they do you know all of a sudden don't latch as you’re closing the door probably that would be some of the first things that you would see in a home our in an ag building whether it's a livestock building or even a pole building you start seeing that settling in and movement within the structure and that can become an issue in a basement it might show up if there is enough of that movement with cracks forming in the basement wall. It might be a crack showing up in the sheetrock or drywall that's in a home or in an ag building it it's typically a movement where you start seeing things moving out of alignment and like I said with doors not closing- and so it's impacting the structure.  

Kelli: So if a homeowner begins to notice some of these issues how can they minimize the damage around their home or other building? 

Dr. Hellevang: The goal is to try to maintain the soil moisture at a constant level. We don't like it when it's real wet because then we have water coming into basements and affecting us that way. But if we have movement that's taking place ideally we would like to bring some of that moisture level back. We don't do it by putting a garden hose next to the house down into that track because then and we're going to may be causing water intrusion into the building. But we want to be increasing the moisture content of the soil. Maybe using a soaker hose with little holes in it and rather than having it sprinkling up we can even turn it upside down so the holes are gradually adding water to the soil. But again that footing might be 6-7 feet down below the surface so we need to gradually increase the moisture content of the soil. Maybe run the water for an hour today and then get an hour tomorrow so that we gradually give time for that water to work its way back down to the footing level and increase the moisture content. That should cause the soil to expand. Some of the windows we will notice that slide better doors may actually come back so where they're closing and latching. What we don't want to do is like I said, put water right next to the the foundation or footing and we don't want to add soil and fill that crack because as the moisture comes back either through rains or through adding moisture that's going to cause the the expansion to occur and would be a force pushing against that foundation or basement wall. Same thing is going to be true with livestock buildings or with pole barns- gradually adding that water back so that we're creating a nice uniform moisture content and creating that footing level that our buildings need to sit on. 

Kelli: Thank you for the information Dr. Hellevang. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. 

Dr. Gerald Stokka, NDSU  0:32  
Yeah, thanks, Kelli. That's a good question. And we know that some are done with the breeding season now. But many others have turned the bulls out recently. And you get busy doing other things. And they become an afterthought. But it's critical, especially in early part of the breeding season that these bulls not only know what they're doing, but are actually capable of mating but there are several things that can happen to these bulls out there. The first thing that I do, when I go out and check because I want to make sure they're there. Are they there? And are they in shape and in condition to be able to breed? Or are they missing and I might spend some amount of time just trying to find them. Or do I find extra bulls in the pasture that shouldn't be there. So that's a an issue as well. But what I'm looking for is bulls that are active with the cows, that they're not laying off by themselves, which they will do later in the breeding season when perhaps they think they're done. But they shouldn't be laying around now. They should be acting right with those cows. And if they're not, if they're off by themselves, or if they're lagging behind. What's the reason? Could be an injury. Could be a disease condition, like foot rot. Could be pinkeye. So we got to be mindful of all those things. That's one of the most important things I can do when I go out and check cows and calves is to make sure the bulls are doing what they're supposed to do.

Unknown Speaker  1:48  
If we suspect one of our bulls is unhealthy, what should we do?

Unknown Speaker  1:52  
Yeah, proper diagnosis. And so most of our producers are pretty well in tune with making a diagnosis of pinkeye. You know, it's where you got an infection in the eye and tears, you got tears coming down the side of the face, we call it photophobia, which just means as painful in the sun. So you got an eye that's trying to be partially closed because it's painful, and there's a lot of tearing coming on. Most of the time, that's going to be pinkeye in a pasture setting. It could also be just a foreign body that's lodged in the cornea, like sometimes we get. But if you have more than one, it's usually a diagnosis of pinkeye that should be treatable, provided you catch it early enough. And the other one, of course is foot rot. Now, sometimes we tend to think that all lameness is foot rot? Not necessarily. There are several different diagnoses that can be made regarding lameness. Is it an injury? Is it actually the foot or isn't it? Is that a crack in the hoof that's become infected?  Foot rot is pretty classic in that the animal is severely lame. The bottom of the foot, just their skin and soft tissue just about the hoof will be swollen, I mean, dramatically swollen. And if that's the case, the diagnosis usually is pretty clear. It's what we call foot rot.

Unknown Speaker  3:06  
What are some of the treatment options for pinkeye or foot rot?

Unknown Speaker  3:10  
Good question. Both of those conditions are mostly caused by a bacterial infection. And most of them are quite amenable to being treated with an antibiotic. But in a pasture situation, that can be a little bit of a problem. And in some cases, or in many cases, you may have to bring the entire group in just to treat one or two animals. Now I know some have used darts to treat animals on pasture if they can get close enough with an air pump rifle within 15 to 20 feet. But I just caution people about that because you need to spend time to get close enough. Is the dose right? Have you got a dose enough for a larger animal? And is it delivered properly? There are some studies that indicate that you're really not getting the right dose, it's not the right amount actually into the animal. And so it's way less than second best to dart an animal for some of those conditions. The best is actually provide restraint and, and put the right antibiotic or the right dose into that animal.

Unknown Speaker  4:10  
Great advice from Dr. Gerald Stokka, our NDSU Extension Veterinarian and Livestock Stewardship Specialist. For more information on keeping your bulls healthy throughout the breeding season, go to our NDSU Extension Ag News site and find the news release called Don't forget the bulls. This has been Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Kelli: 
This is Sound Ag Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension. I'm Kelli Anderson and I'm joined today by Sean Brotherson, NDSU Extension Family Life Specialist. Today we're going to be talking about how North Dakota farmers and ranchers can have a lot of stress in their lives. Sean, can you tell us a little bit more about that? that's just conditions are not unusual for people working in the field of Agriculture?

Sean: 
Stress conditions are not unusual for people working in the field of Agriculture. There's research that shows it's one of the more high-stress occupations somebody can work in. But there may be particular times when stress levels increase and sometimes substantially. Usually that's because of conditions like weather difficulties. We've seen drought conditions across the state that have been challenging during the past year. Contributing to that - and also the prices in agriculture have dropped from higher levels and that's putting a squeeze on farmers and the value that they're getting for their commodities at the marketplace. 

Kelli:
Sean, we know you said working in agriculture can be stressful but sometimes stress goes beyond just general symptoms. What are some of the symptoms of stress when it's unmanageable?

Sean: 
When there’s stress in agriculture it doesn't just stop in the field. It tends to travel with the person into the home and into their relationships and even to how they're feeling physically. One of the characteristics of people working in agriculture is that they tend to be self-reliant, proactive individuals who can get something done but have the tendency to kind of Go It Alone when you're facing challenges that seem beyond your control sometimes is not helpful when you're dealing with stress. And so we see effects in areas like how finances are managed within the family. We see it in their emotional responses. We see it in their physical health and well-being. And we often see it in the quality of their relationships. All of those can be affected by higher stress levels.

Kelli: 
What are some ways that farmers can control stressful situations in their life, especially around the farm?

Sean: 
That's a great question. One of the first things they can do is identify and then access resources that are available to them and they need to think about the individuals in their life that they can talk to, that they can trust.  Simply communicating with somebody is helpful to be able to express your feelings and also generate ideas about options or strategies that you might take so that's one of the first things that they can do. 

Avoiding withdrawal as a mechanism of dealing with stress is really important instead dealing with proactively with things by communicating about you know where are things with the financial situation or what are important decisions coming up that we need to make or if someone is is experiencing stress and are feeling it physically having difficulty sleeping or having headaches tension things like that we need to talk about that with someone in their family or Community they can trust and then access local resources that may be their physician. It may be a counselor, but it’s really important to communicate about what they're feeling and then what are the resources that could be of support to them.

Kelli:
You mention local resources. What are some of the resources that we have available through NDSU Extension?

Sean:  
For individuals who may be in the field of farming and ranching- often they can talk with their local County Extension agent who will have expertise or the ability to connect them with resources in their community or that are available through Extension. They can just Google “NDSU Extension and drought stress” or “NDSU Extension and farm stress”.  We have a series of educational bulletins and resources for individuals who may be in the field of farming and ranching.

Kelli: 
Great information for our North Dakota farmers and ranchers who might be dealing with stress in their lives. Our guest today has been Sean Brotherson, NDSU Extension Family Life specialist. This has been Sound Advice, a weekly feature presented by NDSU Extension.