Farm Progress

"Our Extension educators and specialists really work on this to try to understand what the needs of the industry are, the growers in particular..."

Shelley E. Huguley, Editor

February 6, 2018

14 Slides

January offered southwest growers many opportunities to learn the latest about research,crop technology, markets and rules and regulations, including at the Red River Crops Conference at Altus, Okla. The two-day conference, a joint effort between Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and Oklahoma Cooperative Extension, drew more than 200 growers and industry professionals from Oklahoma and Texas.

"We’ve always looked for those opportunities to look at where our growers are and how their world is shaped," says Tom Coon, vice president for Agricultural Programs at Oklahoma State University. "And clearly in cotton country, whether you’re on the south side or the north side of the Red River, it doesn’t really matter. The information needs, the challenges they’re facing with their crops and so on, really are common across that broad stretch of land.

See Tillman Co-op ginner recognized, learning to grow what he gins,http://bit.ly/2sbeBzR 

"I’m really pleased that we’ve had the partnership with Texas A&M over the last five years to put this on. Our Extension educators and specialists really work on this to try to understand what the needs of the industry are, the growers in particular, and to make sure we are getting the most current information out, whether it’s about farm policy or markets or agronomic traits or all the way up to ginners and millers."

Following Day 1 of the conference, Oklahoma held its first of many mandatory dicamba training meetings, drawing more than 200 growers and applicators.

"The training is part of the federal requirements for all applicators of the new dicamba formulations in the Xtend cropping systems," says training presenter Dr. Todd Baughman, Oklahoma State University weed scientist. “Not only must they go through the training but anyone they have applying the product for them must go through the training, which is a little different than some of the other rules and regs we’ve had in the past.

See The flu and the "Horrible Homemade Halloween Costume," http://bit.ly/2nIpy7H 

“I think there’s a lot of good information in the training. I think one of the biggest things that we learned this year, in order not to have issues with this product, is the sensitivity and potential increase in volatility with AMS (Ammonium Sulfate) and how important maintaining the cleanout is in all parts of the system.”

Day 2 of the conference focused on in season and summer crops such as canola, grain sorghum and wheat, livestock and grain markets and the farm bill.

See Dicamba training begins, detailed documentation required,  http://bit.ly/2no0z9o

 

About the Author(s)

Shelley E. Huguley

Editor, Southwest Farm Press

Shelley Huguley has been involved in agriculture for the last 25 years. She began her career in agricultural communications at the Texas Forest Service West Texas Nursery in Lubbock, where she developed and produced the Windbreak Quarterly, a newspaper about windbreak trees and their benefit to wildlife, production agriculture and livestock operations. While with the Forest Service she also served as an information officer and team leader on fires during the 1998 fire season and later produced the Firebrands newsletter that was distributed quarterly throughout Texas to Volunteer Fire Departments. Her most personal involvement in agriculture also came in 1998, when she married the love of her life and cotton farmer Preston Huguley of Olton, Texas. As a farmwife, she knows first-hand the ups and downs of farming, the endless decisions made each season based on “if” it rains, “if” the drought continues, “if” the market holds. She is the bookkeeper for their family farming operation and cherishes moments on the farm such as taking harvest meals to the field or starting a sprinkler in the summer with the whole family lending a hand. Shelley has also freelanced for agricultural companies such as Olton CO-OP Gin, producing the newsletter Cotton Connections while also designing marketing materials to promote the gin. She has published articles in agricultural publications such as Southwest Farm Press while also volunteering her marketing and writing skills to non-profit organizations such as Refuge Services, an equine-assisted therapy group in Lubbock. She and her husband reside in Olton with their three children Breely, Brennon and HalleeKate.

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