Estill County Farm Scoop
March 2024 Edition
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Estill County Farm Scoop - March 2024
Spring Garden Tilling
Home gardeners might be experiencing “spring fever” with the warmer temperatures and in a rush to do spring tilling. But keep in mind, the ground is still wet from a recent snowfall and a lot of rain. Don’t till the ground too early and potentially damage the very structure of your garden soil that could last for years to come. Tilling your garden while it is still wet can destroy valuable soil structure. Soil structure describes the arrangement of the solid parts of the soil and the pore space located between them. Once that soil structure has been destroyed, it is not easily re-established. The pore spacing is critical for overall plant health and root development. Soil that has been tilled when wet will often form soil “clods” that can give you problems later on and can be difficult to deal with. In addition, foot traffic on wet soil can do as much damage in some cases as tilling when the soil is wet. Also, if your soil contains even a moderate amount of clay, tilling with the right moisture content is even more important. One way to do a moisture check is a quick “squeeze test” to determine if you can till the soil. Take a handful of soil and squeeze it into a ball in your hand.
If pressure from your fingertips causes the ball to crumble, the soil content should be good for tilling. Another option is to drop the soil ball from about waist high. As you might expect, if the ball shatters when dropped, it may be dry enough to work the soil without destroying the structure. If you plan on adding soil amendments such as compost, it is good to work those into your soil early in the season. Be sure to blend any amendments thoroughly into the soil with a shovel or spading fork. Hand mixing in smaller areas is sometimes a better option than tilling compost into the soil with a rototiller. These warm, sunny spring days can be the best opportunity to work the compost into your soil. It’s important to remember that compost that has been sitting on top of your garden as a mulch has been insulating the soil too. The insulation effect can keep the soil from warming up and drying out. Mixing that compost into the soil will help speed up the warming process and could allow you to get plants into the ground sooner. Source: Ray Tackett, UK extension horticulture agent
Spring Tasks for Beef Cattle Producers
Source: Les Anderson, extension beef specialist
Rural Kentucky pastures are beginning to show off spring calves. For cattle producers, this brings in a new cycle of farm management. Farmers have a lot to remember to ensure healthy calves and to successfully rebreed cows. Observe spring calves closely, checking them at least twice a day. Check first-calf heifers even more. Be ready to assist heifers after one to two hours of hard labor or 90 minutes after the ‘water bag’ is visible. Be prepared to dry and warm chilled calves as soon as possible. Remember that each calf should get colostrum within an hour of birth. It’s also important to begin identifying calves with ear tags or tattoos while they are still young and easy to handle. Record the birthdate and the dam ID. Castrate and implant commercial male calves as soon as possible and weigh registered calves within the first 24 hours of birth. Go ahead and separate cows that have calved and increase their feed. Supplemental energy is important for cows receiving hay to prepare them for rebreeding. A 1,250-pound cow giving approximately 25 pounds of milk per day will need about 25 pounds of fescue hay and five pounds of concentrate daily to maintain good condition. To go from a condition score of 4 to 5, add an additional two pounds of concentrate to support that cow. Cows must be in good condition to conceive early in the upcoming breeding season. Avoid feeding hay in excessively muddy areas of pastures to avoid contaminating cows’ udders. Calf scours is something to watch for in the herd. If scours becomes a problem, move cows that have not calved to a clean pasture. Calves with scours may become dehydrated and need fluids to reverse the situation. Consult your veterinarian and send fecal samples to the UK Veterinary Diagnostic Lab to determine the most effective drug therapy. Plan to vaccinate calves for clostridial diseases like blackleg and malignant edema as soon as possible. It’s also a good time to get yearling measurements on bulls and heifers, if necessary, for special sales. You may need to increase bulls’ feed to increase their conditioning for breeding or order semen if you plan to use artificial insemination. For more information on beef cattle management, contact the Estill County Cooperative Extension Service.
Get Your Home Garden Off to a Good Start
Source: Rachel Rudolph, UK horticulture extension specialist
Springtime in Kentucky is the perfect time to get outside and start your home garden. A few tasks will help you have a successful season. Planning your garden on paper before you begin allows you to visualize the plants you want to grow and when they will be ready to harvest. Next, select a good gardening site. Plan a site in full sun, relatively level, well-drained, close to a water source and dries quickly from morning dew. You may need to get a soil test to best prepare the soil. Add fertilizer according to soil test results. Remember to only plan a garden as large as you can easily maintain.
Beginning gardeners often overplant and fail because they can’t keep up with the required tasks. You must manage weeds and pests and apply water so your plants will be ready to harvest on time.
A few other important tips:
- Grow vegetables that will produce the maximum amount of food in your available space.
- Plant during the correct season for the crop.
- Choose varieties recommended for Kentucky.
- Harvest vegetables at their proper stage of maturity. Consider how you will store them if you don’t use them right away.
Copies of ID-128-Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky are available for pick up at the Estill County Extension Office or online at https://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/id/id128/id128.pdf
Emma Lee
County Extension Agent for Agriculture & Natural Resources
emma.lee@uky.edu
