Western Farm, Ranch, & Dairy - West-Southwest - Fall/Winter 2023

WESTERN FAR M, RANCH, & DAIRY

a Ritz Family Publication

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Copyright© 2023. All rights reserved. Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of this publication, however, the publisher does not assume responsibility for omissions or typographical errors. The publisher does not assume responsibility or is liable for the contents of any advertising herein. Publisher’s liability for errors in an advertisement is limited to a correct insertion in the next publication. In the event of a misprint, the publisher must be informed of such error prior to printing of the next publication.

AGRICULTURE

Stukenholtz Laboratory Inc.

Celebrating 53 Years of Agricultural Testing

In 1970, there were no commercial soil and plant testing laboratories in Idaho. Farmers applied fertilizers based upon educated guesswork. Dr. Dale Stukenholtz and his wife Joyce saw an opportunity to build a business and started a soil and plant testing laboratory and field consulting service based in Twin Falls, Idaho. Dr. Stukenholtz had an unusually diverse background as an educator at the University of Nebraska, an agronomist in the fertilizer industry, and a farmer, and he saw a need for more modern fertilizer recommendations to produce greater yields at less cost. His clients were the growers, so he could make unbiased recommendations that maximized economic return to the farmer. After extensive field research, he developed these improved fertilizer recommendations that quickly became popular with growers and form the basis for nearly all fertilizer applications in the intermountain west area. Stukenholtz Laboratory clients include growers from all neighboring states and several foreign countries including Australia, Canada, Egypt, Russia, Mexico and New Zealand.

Stukenholtz Laboratory provides 1 to 2 day service, including picking up and delivery time, across Southern Idaho from St. Anthony and Grace to Parma and Homedale. Results can be delivered, mailed, faxed, or pulled from the Laboratory’s webpage: www.stukenholtz.com. To improve their service, Joyce and Dale Stukenholtz expanded the laboratory 26 years ago, installed the latest in computerized instrumentation and quality control, and made it the most modern and well equipped agricultural laboratory in their market area.

Critical to the success of Idaho’s most efficient laboratory and largest field consulting firm has been its personnel.

Dr. Stukenholtz has had a PhD in Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition since 1964 and his son and Laboratory Manager

Paul has nearly completed his own. Consulting agronomists include J.P. Kruckeberg of American Falls, a 44 year veteran of field consulting and the most successful single agronomist in the state, and Bart Kunz. The Laboratory and office staff are equally good.

Stukenholtz Laboratory continues with research and improvement. In conjunction with the Idaho Crop Production Association and University of Idaho CFEP research project, Stukenholtz Laboratory has helped to ensure that fertilizer recommendations in Idaho are the most cost efficient possible and produce the maximum economic yield while protecting the environment. Stukenholtz Laboratory personnel have conducted field research on over 40 different products and continue to be the experts at “cutting edge” agricultural technology. As we end our first 50 years of business and begin our next, we would like to thank our current and former employees for their dedicated work and our customers and clients for their years of support.

STUKENHOLTZ LABORATORY Inc.

• Soil Testing

• Irrigation Scheduling

• Feed Analysis

• Contract Research

Agricultural Consulting & Testing

• Tissue Testing

• Pest Management

• Field Research

• Grid Sampling

• Variable Rate Fertilization

• International Testing

• Agronomic and CCA Seminars

• Nematode Testing

Contact: Paul Stukenholtz, Consulting Agronomist

Agronomists: JP Kruckeberg, Bart Kunz, Cameron Brower, Antone Christensen, Wess Gibson, Cody McCoy, Kevin Victor 208-734-3050 • 800-759-3050 • Fax 208-734-3919

P.O. Box 353 • 2924 Addison Ave E. • Twin Falls, ID 83301 E-mail: frontoffice@stukenholtz.com Website: www.stukenholtz.com

Analysis room at Stukenholtz Laboratory Inc.

The Fertilizer-Cost-andAvailability Crisis Requires Farmers to Practice Precision Farming to Stay in Business

Efficient Fertilization

Practice is now a necessity!

Noel Garcia, CCA – Chief Operating Officer & Senior Consultant, TPS Lab

Since the onset of 2020, fertilizer prices have been exploding. But now, simply the availability in addition to evermore outrageous cost of fertilizer due to a variety of well-publicized reasons has become very seriously problematic. Presently, there seems to be no ceiling to cost escalation or foreseeable end to limitations on supplies. This means that every pound or gallon of fertilizer applied must be utilized by the crop to the greatest extent possible.

About “Precision Farming”: This term has implied mechanical means of precise seed and fertilizer placement, variable-rate fertilizer applications based on grid soil sampling and nearinfrared ærial surveys, metered applications of fertilizers through irrigation systems and GPS guidance of tractors and sprayers. But realistically, these approaches address only a modest part of achieving maximum crop performance with the most efficient use of money and resources. Whether or not precision mechanical means are used, here some of the most important considerations when attempting to get the most out of the least:

• “Traditional” practices have got to go! Here are the biggest mistakes I’ve seen farmers make over and over again during my 30-plus years with TPS Lab:

• The major application of fertilizer being made at the start of the growing season, expecting it to suffice for the entire season.

• The wrong fertilizer for the soil type or crop.

• Not keeping up with the latest advances and discoveries in crop nutrition.

• Not using bio-stimulants to improve crop performance and its resistance to disease and insects.

• Ignoring existing soil nutrients which are plantunavailable, especially in calcareous, high-pH soils.

• Ignoring irrigation and spray water quality.

• Ignoring soil health/life.

• Not planning beyond this year’s crop using the “Regenerative Agriculture” approach.

• The key issues in efficient crop production are:

• Timing and placement of fertilizer applications.

• The correct fertilizer for your soil type, the crop and its stage of development.

• Acceptable irrigation and spray water quality.

• The use of biological inoculants and bio-stimulants, such as amino acids, growth hormones and other beneficial products that may not be essential for plant growth.

Timing and Placement of Fertilizer Applications Is Crucial

– Many farmers apply the bulk of their fertilizers at the onset of the season. This is colossally wasteful, as plants develop their appetites and tastes with growth, much of the fertilizer has been dissipated by the time the plants start needing it the most. This is particularly true with N. Remember that crop nutritional needs change throughout the growing season, so applying the wrong fertilizer at the wrong time for your particular crop wastes much of your money. As to placement, with row crops, side-dressing can require much less fertilizer and starter “pop-up” fertilizer is astonishingly effective in getting crops off to fast vigorous starts. After emergence, the use of foliar sprays is the most efficient method of getting nutrients into plants.

About Foliar Sprays – In some areas of the country, particularly the Corn Belt, foliar sprays of plant-beneficial and nutritional agents are typically seldom used, as this area of the country has been historically known as having the highest-producing capacity of corn and soybeans per acre. Unfortunately, the Midwest’s rich soil nutrient pool is declining due to reduction of soil organic matter (soil carbon) much like

the rest of the country. This leads to nutrient deficiencies, especially micronutrients, that limit plant genetic potential resulting in reduced yields and quality. As a result, increased disease and insect pressure increases input costs of additional fungicides and pesticides which reduces return on investment. Here, foliar sprays of bio-stimulants, micronutrients and trace elements can have big, faster and longer-term impacts on crop health, performance and economics.

Type of Fertilizer – Here is where a Soil Test is really important! If you have calcareous soils and buy micronutrients in the oxide form, you have literally thrown money on the ground with no benefit at all. When it comes to nitrogen, there can be a huge difference between anhydrous ammonia, urea, ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate as to its longevity, its utilization by the plant and its impact on native soil chemistry and soil life. Is it nitrate nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen or organic nitrogen? The forms of other nutrients are equally important – for example, MAP or DAP? Choosing the best fertilizer for your specific soil conditions or foliar fertilizer for specific stage of growth can save huge amount of money and increase ROI. This is the reason why some have not seen much success from the use of foliar sprays. The wrong product, mixing incompatible or antagonistic products together, wrong application rates, missing critical stages of growth and inadequate water quality are quite common mistakes.

Plant Sap Tests at critical stages of crop development during the season are crucial to determining the nutritional needs of the crop so that no more than necessary of what is applied, thus saving money and limited supplies. Plants eat and drink every day and their tastes and appetites change with time. Those changing needs (but no more than needs) must be accommodated to have some assurance of a profitable outcome.

Advances and Discoveries in crop nutrition and health are being made all the time – particularly in the chelated forms of micronutrients, resulting in a much higher efficiency of plant uptake and utilization. This means using less to produce more. A fairly recent discovery is foliarly-applied water-soluble silicon. Si stiffens and hardens cell walls, thereby discouraging piercing and gnawing insects and resist disease – and lodging. Si forms a very thin hard layer that resists nematodes and soil pathogens on roots. A very recent tool is nanoparticles that encapsulates the inputs you already use into tiny nanoparticles that glide through foliar and root barriers, thereby improving efficiency and speed of uptake and reducing the energy required by the plant to get nutrients into its cells.

Bio-Stimulants – There is more to crop health and nutrition than just chemistry. These game-changers include organic acids, growth hormones and biological inoculants that can dramatically improve crop performance, nutrient uptake efficiency and resistance to disease and insects - thus reducing or eliminating entirely the need for costly pesticides and fungicides. Encourage the plants, microbes and other soil life to do much of the heavy lifting!

Already Existing Soil Nutrients – Particularly in calcareous soils, many of the metal nutrients exist as carbonate and bicarbonate chemical compounds often in abundance – all very insoluble and therefore unavailable to plants. The standard soil treatment is sulfur but the latest method also includes the use of bio-stimulants. These break the chemical bond by chelating the nutrients into bioavailable forms. Humic/Fulvic Acids, Amino Acids, Enzymes and beneficial soil bacteria from additions of soil inoculants all play a vital role to access this nutrient pool. Additions of these bio-stimulants to your existing fertility program can increase your fertilizer efficiency by more than 20% in most cases, allowing you to cut back on fertilizer in times of high cost and limited availability, and have long-term cumulative benefits.

Water Quality Test – Irrigating with hard or salty water can have dramatic impacts on soil chemistry and structure, because What’s In Your Water Becomes Part Of Your Soil ®. As aquifer levels fall, natural dissolved minerals become more concentrated. There are several methods to remediate soil. Using hard water for the spray mix can change the chemistries of spray agents to the extent of making them ineffective and possibly damaging plants. Appropriate water treatment is needed to offset or remediate these problems.

Regenerative Agriculture – Planning beyond this year to reduce costs and increase crop performance by regenerating soil structure and health/life, thereby increasing long-term nutrient availability and carbon sequestration, reducing future costs and resources. Reduction of soil disturbance and continuous vegetation cover on soil as much as possible increases the amount of diversity of organic residues to maximize nutrient and water use efficiency by plants. Restoring overall microbial life is essential to soil/plant health and biodiversity. This sustainable approach is a long road to travel but it must be initiated if farmers want to be successful over prolonged challenging times.

Bottom Line – Maintaining balanced nutrition and vigorous soil life at every stage of your plants’ life cycle will ensure that no matter what challenge Mother Nature sends, your crops will have the best chance of making you money. Soil, Water and Sap Testing is one of the best investments a grower can make, especially during these times of uncertainty with exorbitant fertilizer prices so you can apply only what your crop needs, where it needs it and when it needs it!

Don’t guess and hope for the best!

Catch A Ride On The Feed Train®

In his previous career, before becoming a manufacturer, Bob Lutz was a cattle farmer. As such, he was always looking for ways to save time and money and make life a little easier. Since he was running a rotational grazing system to conserve his pastures, he was spending a lot of time moving feed bunks. Thus the dream of the time and labor saving mobile feed bunk system came into existence.

In order for this system to work properly, a special steering mechanism was necessary to cope with the hilly terrain here in northern Missouri. Bob kept experimenting until he came up with the correct formula and put it into action for his own use. He then applied for and was granted a patent on the steering system.

The high quality construction of the Feed Train® mobile bunk led to requests for stationary bunks of the same quality and those were added to the product line. Next we were receiving customer requests for creep feeders and these were designed so that no tools are required for set up, thus avoiding the “lost screwdriver syndrome.”

Customer requests for bulk bin storage followed and two sizes in portable bulk bins were developed – a 1.5-ton bin and a 3-ton bin. These sizes are also available as stationary units as well as a 5-ton bin. These bulk bin products are also used as seed tenders. And since most cattle farmers now use ATV or UTV units in their operations, we have created u nits for feeding from the seat of your vehicle.

Pull-behind units come in 500- and 1000-pound capacity. And the UTV unit that sits in the back of the vehicle holds 600 pounds. Scales are available for any of these units.

Take a look at our website at www.FeedTrain.com or call us at 888-592-2351 for additional information or to find a dealer near you.

Pocket Gopher Control

Uncontrolled pocket gopher infestations in hay and pasture fields cause significant financial expense. Damaged and worn equipment, dirt in the harvested crop, and premature plowing of the field are major losses. The main means of control have been trapping, baiting and fumigation. The reality of today’s labor situation means the “hands and knees” methods are both too costly and too labor intensive for most operations. That eliminates trapping, hand placed bait or hand probing to fumigant as viable control options. Fumigation with aluminum phosphide was the gold standard in many government tests, but it meant hand probing for tunnels, and repeated worker exposure to phosphine gas.

a solution that effectively controls pocket gophers, at reasonable per acre cost, while staying in the tractor cab.

The Gopher General machine meets those objectives, AND provides exceptional gopher control from phosphine fumigation. The machine meters aluminum phosphide tablets into a deep, well sealed tunnel. Phosphine gas is released underground over a few days, fills the deeper tunnel and moves through the soil adjacent to the tunnel. A bit of moisture and warm soil do the rest. The gophers expire quickly underground, before they can get any fresh air.

The only solution that kept you off your hands and knees was the mechanical baiter machine. These machines were widely manufactured and used, but gopher control has been disappointing for many of us in recent years. The general feeling has been that the baits aren’t working any more. Farmer and ranchers needed

There are over 100 Gopher General machines in operation over the Midwest and western USA. They work in hard or sandy soils, without plugging or replacing shear pins. This machine is capable of treating big acres quickly with excellent gopher control. Check out www.GopherGeneral.com for more information on the machines and the farmers who own them. After all, the best people to talk with, are the ones who currently run these machines.

Meet the all-new Bale Baron 5250!

Building on the original design principles that Bale Baron owners appreciate, the new 5250 models fea-ture many impressive upgrades designed to improve productivity and serviceability while still maintaining the out-standing reliability the Bale Baron brand is all so well known for. This year Marcrest Manufacturing Inc released 2 new models; the all-new 5250 and the refined 4250. Both of these units are available in the P (pick-up) and T (trail) models. The 5250 has a hydraulic requirement of 40 gallons per minute while the 4250 requires 30 gallons per minute.

Let’s walk around the 5250 and see what fantastic upgrades have been made. At first glance you can immediately notice the wider front stance and wide flotation rear tires which keep the 5250 firmly planted. You will also see that the body work has been completely remodeled and looks fantastic! The ladder has been conveniently attached on a generous angle allowing for safer climbing to the knotter. Upon open-ing the knotter cover the relocated and re-engineered knotter miss-tie sensors cannot be missed; the new sensor location is a sure-fire way to detect actual knotter miss-ties. Another upgrade to the already extremely reliable low maintenance Rasspe knotter is the 4-lobe knotter sprocket which reduces the knotter cycle time by 25%! After the easy climb down the angled ladder you will notice the massive twine boxes, which swing out to allow full exposure to the compression chamber and hydraulic lines for

inspection and maintenance purposes. While walking around the 5250 one can easily notice that there are no grease nipples on all pivot points; this is achieved by using nitride treated pins paired with composite bush-ings. This design has been proven and adopted from the 6240 self-propelled Bale Baron. A serious feature that has not been mentioned is the ISOBUS compatible PLC. What does that mean? It means that if your tractor has ISOBUS the 5250 can be fully controlled and monitored right from the seat in your tractor! Ahh, no, my tractor doesn’t have ISOBUS?... No wor-ries, there are ISOBUS screens available from Marcrest! And for those who aren’t into the latest and greatest technology, the 5250 can easily be operated by our ever-proven standard cab control box.

Now let’s take a quick look at the 4250. It has maintained the same body work and stance as the 4240/4245. However, it shares some of the fantastic upgrades mentioned on the 5250 such as the greaseless pivot points thanks to the nitride treated pins and composite bushings. It also has the new 4 lobe knotter sprocket on the low maintenance Rasspe knotter for faster tie cycles. And like its big cousin the 4250 also has the new ISOBUS compatible PLC which means ISOBUS connectivity is ready and available for the 4250 when you are.

For more information please contact your nearest dealer or visit our website: www.marcrestmfg.com

Benefits Of Using SweetPro On Dry Pastures

On many eastern US pastures, cattle take one or two steps between bites, but on some western grazing lands, cattle need to take between fifteen and thirty steps. The forages available on the ranges can be very good, but the time window of their peak nutrition can also be very short. There are times when cattle cannot be kept moving enough to find what they need. When cattle do find good grass in these conditions, they can park on that spot, eat everything and create problems with land managers.

What are the rancher’s performance expectations in these conditions? To keep cattle alive, or to grow the herd? The cow needs the right body condition to rebreed and grow a calf every 12 months. Harvey Dietrich of the Diamond A Ranch in Seligman, AZ Once Said, “You can’t play catch up with a cow.”

Supplementation with SweetPro lick blocks can help keep both cattle and the land healthy. SweetPro blocks are fiber based, not molasses with all its negatives (ie: storage, containers, sugar negative associative effect, microbial digestive upset). Also, unlike the costs of loose mineral daily delivery, SweetPro blocks are easy to move, clean up and only need to be placed out every 10 days.

SweetPro blocks significantly increase the forage feed efficiency of cattle on these western grasses and help raise body scores to a healthy producing state. This automatically puts up to 25 pounds on the calf at weaning time and helps improve ranching profitability. (Calves don’t need creep feeds when body weight is put on the cow.) Energy and fertility of bulls is also supported to further enhance rebreeding over larger ranges.

SweetPro blocks use DDGS and CDS for even delivery. Minerals, organic trace minerals, prebiotics (including the most MOS), enzymes, protein and fiber are provided to the animal on a fermented carrier without weather issues or over consumption. SweetPro blocks match the forage conditions.

Nevada Farms and Ranches! Paul Bottari, Broker ALC 775-752-0952 Chad Steele, Agent/Realtor® 775-962-1356 www.bottarirealty.com

Local: 909-889-4084

Toll Free: 800-345-2335

Fax: 909-884-5954 Email: Sales@CleanCutter.com

Email: greg@modernprinters.net www.modernprinters.net

Super-Efficient Liquid Biostimulant Fertilizers

3 – 4 – 3

41% L-Amino Acids +Chitosan For Maximum Stress Immunity.

4 – 2 – 3

38% L-Amino Acids Give Crops Extra Energy.

● Plant-Derived for Super-Efficient Plant Availability means much less is needed than other fertilizers because much higher percentages of nutrients get into plants with faster uptake.

● Plant Safe. Will not burn plants, even if used undiluted.

● Highest Percentages of L-Amino Acids for stress relief and disease prevention. - Compare with other brands -

● 100% Water Soluble. Will not clog drip emitters or precipitate in lines.

9 – 0 – 0

35% L-Amino Acids Safe for foliar application.

● Boosts Microbial Biomass and Soil Nutrients Availability. Foliar Spray To Complex Minerals, Nutrients and Hormones.