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Making hay pay SEE YOU THERE: Hay and forage has become almost a specialty crop, and serious producers will travel a significant distance to learn and see what’s new regarding the latest technology and information. This year’s Hay Expo is June 20-21 at Boone in central Iowa.
By ROD SWOBODA
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HE Farm Progress Hay Expo showcases machines to speed forage harvest. This year’s event, June 20-21 at the Farm Progress Show site at Boone in central Iowa, will feature the latest technology to help hay growers get the job done. The equipment seems to get bigger every year, and there’s a reason. Growers in Iowa and the Upper Midwest often find themselves having to harvest hay between rains. Hay producers and custom harvesters are looking for equipment that helps them put up quality forage in as little time as possible. Faster, more consistent drying of hay is what they’re after. It’s always been difficult getting hay to dry and harvested without having it rained on. But with the rainfall patterns the past few years, it seems like there’s even less opportunity. That challenge is creating more interest in chopping alfalfa and other forage crops for silage or haylage, which requires less drying time than baling hay. In the dairy areas of Iowa and other states, equipment dealers say more acres of alfalfa and
Key Points ■ Farm Progress Hay Expo returns to central Iowa this year. ■ It will be June 20-21 at the Farm Progress Show site at Boone. ■ The event features the latest in forage products and information. other forage are being chopped because it allows farmers to put up a quality feed without as many weather complications. Choppers at the Hay Expo will follow various types of rakes and tedders. Rakes and windrow mergers put mowed hay into windrows. Tedders and windrow inverters are sometimes used afterward to lightly lift the hay, so air can move under it and speed drying. These implements handle drying forage more gently and don’t knock the leaves off like a second pass with a rake would.
New ideas and innovations
On the Hamlett Farm near Strawberry Point in 2010, the last time the Hay Expo was held in Iowa, crowds lined up to watch a 30-foot Oxbo power merger pile the
mowed hay into massive windrows. The swath or windrow merger is a machine that allows self-propelled harvesters to make more efficient use of their harvesting capacity. That advantage appeals especially to custom harvesters. At this year’s Hay Expo, new innovations in hay balers and bale handling equipment will be demonstrated, too. Changes occurring in the livestock industry are creating demand for different kinds of forage handling equipment. For example, cattle feeders are looking at bale processors. An increasing number of producers are building monoslope housing for cattle or are using hoop facilities. They are interested in processors for grinding hay or stover bales for feed, and for grinding cornstalks or straw for bedding. Processors can unroll round bales into a feedbunk or blow stalks into hoop structures. The operator doesn’t even have to get out and open a gate. Farmers also want greater productivity in mowers. They’re buying bigger mowers, so one person can do the job with less help, eliminating the need for two smaller mowers to do a timely job.
Besides higher-capacity equipment, interest still exists in the traditional, smallersized haying machines. Markets for small square bales include the horse industry and smaller-acreage farmers. While hay acres in Iowa have declined in recent years, demand for stover harvesters is rising — both for bedding and renewable energy production. Cornstalk and corncob collection machinery is a new wrinkle.
More than machinery
While attending the 2012 Hay Expo, visit the large number of exhibitors in the Haying Industries Tent. You’ll find what’s new in livestock feeding and handling equipment, as well as companies with displays and information on seed, forage crop-protection products and more. Educational exhibits by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, and other agencies and organizations will have specialists on hand to answer your forage and livestock production and soil conservation questions. ■ For more information about the 2012
Hay Expo, see pages 8 and 10.
A Farm Progress Publication Midwest Group Edition
June 2012
Farm Management Wallaces Farmer
www.FarmProgress.com ● June 2012
37
Community college grows farmers By TERRI QUECK-MATZIE
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HINGS are growing at Southwestern Community College at Creston. The calves are growing. The chickens are growing. The corn and beans are growing. And the academic program for agriculture is growing. Expanded from a mere handful of students just five years ago to 48 students this past school year, the SWCC Agriculture Program has high hopes. Two new majors will be added next school year, and in March the school’s board approved the purchase of 81 acres from neighboring Crestmoor Golf Club, adding to the existing 130 acres used by the program to offer hands-on experience in crop production. “We’re not doing anything out of the ordinary here,” says Bill Taylor, SWCC vice president of instruction. “Our main focus is a traditional corn and soybean rotation. Being located in the Heartland, we need to be educating students on topics they’ll be dealing with day-to-day in the ag industry.” That focus is the heartbeat of the program. SWCC offers two majors in its two-year program: Ag Business and Ag Production Technologies. Beginning with the fall semester, the Ag Production course will be split in two, offering associate of science degrees in Crop Production and in Livestock Production. Students also may choose to earn the associate of arts degree that is transferable to a four-year college or university. The expansion of ag curricula and course offerings at Iowa’s community colleges is a sign of the times. There is an increasing popularity of production agriculture as a career choice. And the colleges are adapting to the current economic climate, responding to the need for community colleges to provide practical, hands-on career training. “Primarily, our focus is giving students what they need to farm,” says Erika Blair,
Key Points ■ Community colleges in Iowa expanding their agriculture programs for students. ■ SWCC at Creston is offering more options in its two-year production ag program. ■ Focus is to educate students on topics they’ll deal with day to day in careers. an ag instructor at SWCC. She says even though kids were raised on the farm, they benefit from the school’s curriculum. “Maybe their parents just assumed they new certain things, or maybe didn’t know the ‘why’ to tell them.” The program, Taylor explains, focuses on “corn, beans and cattle.” Courses include animal breeding and genetics, animal reproduction, livestock merchandising, swine science, agronomy, grains and forages, precision farming systems, ag markets and technical math for agriculture. New classes will be added this fall in animal nutrition, animal health, and a feeds and feeding lab. Blair has plans to add six or seven new courses over the next few semesters, all designed to teach students the basics from vaccination protocols to the economics of cover crops. Guidance from a community advisory committee and an extensive network of ag business partners helps keep SWCC’s program grounded in reality. GPS training assistance is provided for the precision farming class by the local John Deere dealer. Creston auctioneer Tom Frey provides marketing advice. Agronomists from seed corn companies help with soil sampling and seed selection. “These people are specialists for a reason, and we can’t be experts at everything,” says Blair. “Part of our instruction is how and when to contact the professionals, whether from ag-related industries or Extension.” The program also relies on adjunct faculty.
OUTDOOR CLASSROOM: Calving time at Southwestern Community College at Creston means checking birth weights, tagging calves and keeping a nervous mama at bay for students Jared Gillespie, Paul Antsey, Brandon Cline, Joey Shires, Brandon Frey, Chase Stoll, Allen Brown, Isaac Hoskins, Greg Ford, Colton Dunphy, Eric Erbes and Garrett Hollinrake. and yields of different varieties.” And a chance to increase the focus on the basics, which for most southwest Iowa farmers means a corn-soybean rotation. “That’s the norm,” says Taylor. “But that doesn’t mean it’s simple.” What tillage methods are best for the terrain and climate? What seed to select for the soil type? Is a simple corn-soybean crop rotation best? Or a two-year corn, one-year beans? “Most studies show corn on corn leads to nitrogen loss,” he notes. “What’s the best way to compensate for that?” These decisions affect not only stew-
ardship of the land, but also profit, “and that’s our primary goal in all sectors of agriculture — to be profitable,” says Taylor. “And to use common sense,” adds Blair. “We want to give as much hands-on experience as we can to the students, whether it’s how to choose a bull or what crops to plant. We do this so young farmers can be prepared to take advantage of the opportunities the world of ag presents. There’s built-in job security in farming, if they’re ready for it. Someone will always have to help feed the world.” Queck-Matzie writes from Fontanelle.
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Local community involved
GOOD START: Ag instructor Erika Blair tends to seedlings started this winter by the horticulture class. The ag program at SWCC focuses on traditional farming, but all types of crops are taught, with an emphasis on producing for profitability.
The school’s involvement with the local ag community is a two-way street. SWCC hosts an annual livestock artificial insemination clinic and an evening animal health class, both attended by local producers. Consigners are welcome, and recruited, for the annual livestock production sale. While the main focus is on corn, beans and cattle, the message of a new diverse world of agriculture is not lost. A hightunnel hoop building is being erected for use by the Issues of Sustainable Ag class. A horticulture class started seedlings months ago. Students built a chicken coop to raise poultry, including an adopted wounded goose. “We teach how to raise vegetables, popcorn, herbs and flowers,” says Blair. “The message is to find the profit in each plant, no matter what you’re growing.” SWCC also works with Iowa State University Extension and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to grow test plots of bioenergy crops like switchgrass and indiangrass. The additional cropland will allow more time for lab, tractor and combine work for students. “It’s an opportunity to disk, know what the ground looks like, and decide what depth to cultivate,” says Blair. “It provides a chance to explore the timing
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