Hay growers meeting starts Wednesday
Educational event offers 'newest, best' information
MID-COLUMBIA BASIN — Composted mint, hay thieves and rising numbers of a certain type of aphid are just some of the items hay farmers will address this week.
The annual Mid-Columbia Hay Growers Association meeting will begin Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. in Big Bend Community College's ATEC Center. The program goes until 3:15 p.m.
"The meeting is an educational event, primarily, (and) also a trade show," explained John Kugler, educator for the Washington State University Grant-Adams Area Extensions Office. "The purpose for Extension is to bring the newest and best info to growers so that they can make the best farming decisions."
The meeting includes a talk about composted mint and its value as an alternative to inorganic fertilzers, a presentation about the date of seeding alfalfa in the fall and how that impacts yields the following years and a panel on teff, an alternative forage crop.
Other programs include orchard grass fertilization and the balance between increased yields and nitrate accumulation, and the effects of wheat straw extracts and the germination of alfalfa.
"We try to put on things that are new," Kugler said. "We also go back and revisit things that are updated or when we find new ways for soil, water conservation, sometimes new equipment."
For example, later in the day a program will discuss "an increase of aphid we haven't seen in the Basin up until the last couple years," he added, noting that program is entitled "Cowpea Aphid: The New Problem?"
The "Sneaky Ways to Catch a Hay Thief" program will address several instances of disappearing hay truckloads, Kugler said, which have cost growers thousands of dollars.
"We hope to essentially provide alternative ways for farmers to protect their haystack from thievery," he explained, noting that hay is stolen because of its value in this area and on the west side. "There's really no way to trace hay. Once off the farm, hay is hay."
A program led by Hal Collins of the United States Department of Agriculture in Prosser will discuss crop options for biodiesel and ethanol production, because a growing number of farmers are interested in producing their own biodiesel, Kugler noted.
"It's important that growers can keep abreast of new innovations, of changes, procedures, laws and be more adaptable to technology changes and alternatives to increasing costs of fuel and fertilizer," he said of the meeting.
INFO TO KNOW
The annual Mid-Columbia Hay Growers Association meeting will begin Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. in Big Bend Community College's ATEC.