Industry News

Industry News

High-Quality, Portable Gadgets Help Keep Batteries Running And Fully Charged

Shell jump starters feature currents that can jump start both diesel and gas engines. They have built-in flashlights, SOS lights as well as USB ports for fast charging of mobile devices, such as smartphones.

The devices come with advanced safety technologies, such as short-circuit, reverse polarity, over-current, overcharge and overload protection. The units are safe for anyone to use, according to the company’s press release.

They have an output voltage of 12V and operating temps of minus 4 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Shell battery charger and maintainers feature a multi-stage charging process and multi-level protection that can safely restore your batteries to full capacity and prolong their lives.

The units are suitable for any vehicle, including cars, motorcycles, lawnmowers, personal watercraft and tractors. They are also maintenance-free and suitable for a variety of batteries, such as lead-acid, AGM, gel and lithium ion.

Soil Liming And Lime Qualities fter receiving a soil test report, the first thing to check is soil pH, which influences soil nutrient availability. Most nutrients are available at the soil pH of 6.5. Therefore, soil pH needs to be adjusted to the target pH either by applying lime for low pH (less than 6.0) soils or with elemental sulfur for high pH (greater than 7.5) soils.

Soil Buffering Capacity

The lime rate depends on the initial and target soil pH and the soil’s buffering capacity (ability to resist the pH change). If the soil buffering capacity and the difference between initial and target soil pH are low, the lime rate would be low. However, for soils with high buffering capacity (low buffer pH), the lime rate would be high even for a small change in soil pH. Clay soils have higher buffering capacity and require a greater amount of lime for each unit increase of soil pH than silt loam soils. Shell battery chargers and maintain-

The Louisiana State University AgCenter Soil Testing and ers provide several layers of protection. Plant Analysis Lab does not run buffer pH. It does indicate the The safeguards include reverse-polarity, unit change of soil pH with the addition of maximum 3 tons of over-charging, over-voltage, short cirlime and lets the farmers decide how much they want to spend, cuit, over-current, over-temperature and assuming more than 3 tons of lime may be too expensive. defective battery prompt.

Target soil pH should be set at 6.3 for soybean and 6.0 for corn The chargers automatically identify a and cotton. Lime is required if the target soil pH is 0.2 unit more 6- or 12-volt battery and smartly adjust than actual soil pH. Lime takes six to nine months — depending current. on liming materials — to react with the soils and raise soil pH. It All these products are available at should be applied uniformly and incorporated in the fall. amazon.com.

Purity And Particle Size

The quality of liming materials — purity and particle size — is important to raise soil pH. Purity is determined in relation to pure calcium carbonate — calcitic limestone — that is rated as 100%. This rating is called calcium carbonate equivalent. The lime rate recommended by soil testing labs is based on pure calcitic limestone with 100% CCE. The lime application rate should be adjusted based on the CCE of the liming materials. For example, if the CCE is 80% and the recommendation is 2 tons of lime per acre, then 2.5 tons of lime (2 tons x 0.8) per acre should be applied.

Another lime quality is particle size, or fineness factor, and is expressed as the percentage of liming material that passes through various sized screens. Finer particles are more efficient in neutralizing soil acidity (increasing soil pH).

However, the liming materials should have a good distribution of both smaller and larger particles. The smaller ones can raise the soil pH quickly, and larger particles can have long-term control in neutralizing soil acidity. Both purity (CCE) and particle size (fineness factor) of the liming material are expressed together as effective CCE or effective neutralizing value. The higher the ECCE or ENV of the liming material the more efficient it is in increasing soil pH. Like CCE, the actual lime rate also needs to be adjusted with the liming material’s ENV if the recommendations are based on ENV. This feature is excerpted from an article by LSU AgCenter soil scientists Rasel Parvej, Brenda Tubana and Jim Wang.

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NAICC ANNUAL MEETING NAICC ANNUAL MEETING AND AG PRO EXPO AND AG PRO EXPO

January 24 - 28, 2022

Several members of the North Carolina State University cotton Extension team, county agents and others have recently developed or participated in production-related podcasts.

They can be found at the NCSU Cotton Extension Portal (https://cotton.ces. ncsu.edu/) under the “Podcast” heading on the lefthand red side bar.

You also can access the podcasts directly at the links below:  Cotton Specialists Corner: https:// bit.ly/3n2coQB

These podcasts include NCSU cotton specialists and their university counterparts across the country.  Crop Sense: https://bit.ly/3pfymCm.

This one was developed by Jones County, North Carolina, ag agent Jacob Morgan. It includes interviews with several NCSU Extension specialists, including most recently Drs. Charlie Cahoon and Wes Everman.

Register Now For The MSU 2021 Row Crop Short Course

Nov. 19 is the last day to register with no charge for this year’s Mississippi State University Row Crop Short Course. After this date, the fee will be $40 per person, including at the door.

The meeting will be held Dec. 6-8 at the Cotton Mill Conference Center in Starkville, Mississippi. Register online at https://bit.ly/3aJLjf9.

Lunch will be provided each day. A social mixer and dinner will be held Monday evening at the Cotton Mill Conference Center.

Tuesday, a social event and steak/ shrimp dinner will be held at 6 p.m. at the same location.

All meals are provided free of charge if you preregister prior to Nov. 27.

Blocks of rooms are available at these hotels:  Courtyard by Marriott ($139). Call 662-338-3116, press zero for the local office and mention the row crop short course for the blocked reservation.  Comfort Suites ($119). Your reservation includes a warm continental breakfast. Call 662-324-9595 and mention the row crop short course for the blocked rooms and rate.

For more information, contact Kathy Johnson at 662-325-2701 or Kjohnson@ pss.msstate.edu.