UNL Extension Webster County
November 2022 Edition Newsletter
Happy November
Have a happy and safe harvest!!
Sincerely,
The Webster County Extension StaffBeef
A Message from Dr. Waechter-Mead
As harvest wraps up and the dust from the fall run settles, cow calf producers may begin to direct their attention toward the upcoming calving season. Fall is a good time to re-evaluate any concerns or problems that may have occurred in the past year and set goals for the next year. The following are a few ideas to help get your calving season on the right track.
Pregnancy diagnosis
Pregnancy diagnosis, or “preg checking”, can provide valuable production information on herd females. Sorting cows and heifers into approximate calving windows can significantly lower disease risk. This method, known as Sandhills Calving, will create groups of calves that are similar in age. Research showed that calves shed bacteria and viruses as they continue to grow, and those pathogens can build up in the environment. Younger calves’ immune systems may not be able to overcome the large pathogen load from older calves and illness can occur. Having an approximate idea when calving occurs will also save on time and labor during those 2:00 AM checks.
Body Condition Scoring
Processing females in the fall after weaning is optimal time for body condition scoring (BCS). Getting your hands on cows helps to calibrate eyes when determining BCS. Nutritional requirements are at their lowest during early gestation and when females are no longer lactating, therefore cows and heifers can gain condition with the least cost inputs. UNL Beef Team has several resources available when scoring your herd:
Body Condition Scoring Your Beef Cow Herd | UNL Beef
A Practical Guide To Body Condition Scoring | UNL Beef
Evaluate Calving Facilities
Calving pens may not have been looked at for the last 6 months. Before the cold sets in, evaluate what needs repaired. Ensure calving areas are clean and remove any material that may be left over from last season. Calf hutches are a great space for young calves to congregate and get out of the weather. However, they can also be a breeding ground for illness. If possible, move calving hutches to a new area to expose the previous soil to sunshine. Ask a trusted person, such as your veterinarian, to walk through your calving area with you. Adding extra eyes may help to see something that is commonly overlooked.
For more information on calving season preparations, visit UNL Beef | Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Crops & Water Systems
Community Environment/Horticulture
Pirate Bugs and Psyllids
We are all trying to make the most of these last warm fall days. While enjoying the last little bit of warm weather, tiny terrors seem to be everywhere. Find out what the little insects are up to and how you can keep them from making you crazy.
The minute pirate bug is one such insect that is out at this time of year. Orius insidiosus, also known as the insidious flower bug. It is a predatory insect in the order Hemiptera. This tiny oval shaped insect is 1/8 of an inch long and black with whitish markings on their wings. The pirate bug larvae and adults are very effective predators that feed on thrips, mites, aphids, small caterpillars, and insect eggs. In the summer months, crop fields and landscapes are full of pirate bugs feeding on insects, but in late summer and fall they start biting humans. It isn’t their fault that they bite humans, they just mistake us for very large prey. The bite of this insect is surprisingly painful for their size. They use their sucking mouthparts to puncture and break the skin. They do not feed on blood, inject venom, or transmit disease. As with any insect, everyone reacts differently to their bites. Reactions can range from none to having the area swell up like a mosquito bite or turn into a hard red bump.
The downside to these tiny terrors is that it is not practical to control them. Mainly because a majority of the year they are beneficial predators and the people biting is later in the season and is temporary. If you are prone to being bit, there are a couple of options to try. Wearing dark clothing on warm days when the pirate bugs are active may help. Keeping covered with long sleeve and pants will also help to keep them from coming in contact with skin. Insect repellants might not be all that effective against the pirate bug, but if you are a pirate bug magnet it might be worth a try.
Another tiny terror that will soon be upon us is the hackberry psyllid. If you have a hackberry tree in your yard or neighborhood you are already well acquainted with this insect, maybe just not by its formal name. These tiny 1/10th of an inch insects are attracted to light and are small enough to pass through a window screen. Hackberry psyllids are the insects that make the nipple galls, or bumps, that are common on the underside of the hackberry leaves. The eggs of this insect are laid on the leaf. In response to the eggs, the leaf forms a gall, or bump, around the immature insect to protect it until it is mature and emerges from the gall. Once they emerge in the fall, they look for cracks or crevices to squeeze into so they can hibernate without freezing to death. Normally they overwinter under the bark of trees, but they often find their way into homes. Once inside, they often die due to the low humidity. The insects are not harmful to people, pets, or any home furnishings. They are just a nuisance pest. Once it gets cold outside their numbers will decrease and they will begin to hibernate.
Control of psyllids can also be tricky. One reason is because of the way the insect develops inside of a gall. For a majority of their life, the psyllid is encased inside of a gall and is protected from insecticide sprays applied to the foliage. Once the adults emerge in the fall it is too late to control them by spraying the trees. The trees can be sprayed in the spring to kill the newly hatched nymphs, but timing the applications can be very difficult. Egg laying happens over a several week period which could potentially mean several insecticide applications. It can also be impractical and not cost effective to spray large trees numerous times. Soil drenches of insecticides could prove to be an option for those who are extremely desperate for some relief, but is not usually recommended. Spraying in or around the home is usually not recommended because of the lengthy emergence of the adults from the galls. Unfortunately the best thing to do is keep the windows shut until the temperatures drop low enough to stop their activity. Once inside the home, the vacuum cleaner is the best weapon to suck up the intruders.
Don’t let the tiny terrors ruin what is left of the nice weather. With a little help, and proper identification, you can stay sane and not become the next mistaken prey of the pirate bug.
Elizabeth Exstrom is the Horticulture Extension Educator with Nebraska Extension in Hall County. For more information contact Elizabeth at elizabeth.exstrom@unl.edu, her blog at http://huskerhort.com/, or HuskerHort on Facebook and Twitter.
Vegetable Garden Cleanup
The rollercoaster temperatures can actually be a blessing. They mean that your vegetable garden has completed production for the year, but it also means the weather is nice enough to finish those final to-do’s. Fall is the ideal time to clean up the vegetable garden and its tools to prepare them for next year.
There are a few tasks to complete before you put your gardening tools away for the winter. Before you perform the actual clean-up of the garden, make notes about the year. Record the garden layout, cultivars that worked (or didn’t), and pests or diseases you encountered this past year. This will help you next spring when it is time to plan the garden and help you to remember what vegetables were in which location for your crop rotation schedule. A crop rotation plan is where vegetables from the same plant family are rotated around different locations within the garden. The objective is to avoid placing those plant families in one particular location for 3 years to avoid disease and insect problems. Two of the most common plant families in the garden include the Solanaceous crops and Cucurbit crops. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and Irish potatoes are all in the Solanaceae family. Cucurbitaceae family crops include squash, pumpkins, zucchini, melons, and cucumbers. Try to avoid putting those crops in the same plant family in a specific location in the garden for at least 3 years if possible.
The actual clean-up of the garden is the next step. Elimination of garden debris, like dead plant material, vegetable ‘mummies,’ weeds, and rotting vegetables, can help to reduce disease, weed, and insect problems next year. Remove and discard disease or insect infested plant material, but do not compost unless you are an expert composter. Most compost piles do not reach high enough temperatures to kill all pathogens, like fungal spores and bacteria. Discarding or burning the infected plant material will remove the pathogens that could potentially infect next years’ crops. Removal of weeds with mature seed heads will not only improve the appearance of the garden, but also help remove the seed source for potential weeds in next years’ garden.
Adding organic matter can help improve soil composition. Incorporating residues from healthy plants can act as a great source of organic matter, which can improve the texture of the soil. These healthy plants can either be turned or tilled into the soil or tossed into the compost pile. Organic mulches that were used in the garden, like straw, grass clippings, or even newspaper, can also be tilled into the soil. Tree leaves are another great source of organic matter for the garden. Leaves that are picked up with the lawn mower will break down faster once they are worked into the soil because they are chopped into smaller pieces.
Cages and trellises also need some clean up in the fall. Support structures, like tomato cages or trellises, should be pulled out of the ground, cleaned up, and placed in storage for winter. If you have had disease issues in the past, like blight in tomatoes, now is also an excellent time to disinfect the cages or trellises to keep them from infecting new plants next year. A 10% bleach solution, alcohol wipes, rubbing alcohol, or even ready-to-use bleach wipes can be used to disinfect the cages prior to winter storage.
Now is also the perfect time for some end-of-the-year tool maintenance. Digging tools, like shovels, hoes, pitchforks, and garden rakes, should have excess soil removed from them. Any rust that is present can be removed using a wire brush and a little bit of elbow grease or an electric drill with a wire brush or sanding attachment. After rust is removed, renew or sharpen the edges and points with a mill file or grinding wheel. For winter storage, apply a light coating of oil. Tools can even be stored in a 5 gallon bucket filled with sand and oil. Inspect the handles of your tools at the end of the season for cracks or splinters. Replace the handles if necessary. If the wooden handles are in good condition, they can be sanded and oiled at least once a year. Use a fine grade sand paper to smooth the surface. Remove any dust and rub linseed oil into the handle and allow it to soak in. Keep applying until the oil doesn’t absorb any more. Wait a half hour, then dry off any oil remaining on the surface.
With a little effort and maintenance now, the vegetable garden and tools will be in tip top shape for next years’ gardening season.
Elizabeth Exstrom is the Horticulture Extension Educator with Nebraska Extension in Hall County. For more information contact Elizabeth at elizabeth.exstrom@unl.edu, her blog at http://huskerhort.com/, or HuskerHort on Facebook and Twitter.
Rural Prosperity
A Message from Jason
Last month I talked about Three Wishes for a community. With this column I’d like to continue that conversation with other questions that I ask communities to learn about them.
One of the questions that I ask when I visit a community is: What else should I see in the area? Sometimes I get a good answer, sometimes nothing. When I was in Nelson, NE the clerk there told me I should go see the faces. She explained that there were face statues on the outside of the building downtown. They are very interesting. Sometimes the person I ask can’t think of anything for me to see. Every town has something to see, something unique, but people forget that the things they see every day are interesting to someone new. Rural Prosperity Nebraska has a program called Red Carpet Service that helps with this issue. Red Carpet Service is a program to train front line workers (retail, restaurant, and hotel workers) who work with customers and to teach them how to talk about their community.
Another question that I ask is: What good things have happened in your community in the last year? Many times I get a blank stare as an answer. Sometimes it feels like a community isn’t making progress, but progress can be slow. Building one new home in a community may be something that hasn’t happened for decades, it is something to celebrate. Before I go in and talk to a community member, I tour the community and take some pictures. If I notice new construction or new businesses, I try to suggest answers. Some people tell me about the latest festival that took place in the community. The best answers are those that tell me about new businesses, houses, and festivals that have happened in the last year. I can tell that these people are invested in their community and proud of what the community is accomplishing.
When I’m learning about a community, I like to ask this question: What group or person is doing good things in the community. I always follow up and ask what they are doing. Sometimes just asking the previous question makes people forget important progress, but when I ask who is doing things, it jogs their memories. This question not only provides me with more good things going on in the community, but also provides me with contacts to follow up with later on.
A new question that I need to add to my list of questions is: What would you miss about this community if you moved away? Over time, you become so familiar with your town that you forget what is special in your community. Is there somewhere in town that you like to eat, or a park that you like to visit. If you moved away and came to visit, what would you do? The answers to these questions are the things that are important to you in your community. There is a certain restaurant that I like to visit when I go to the town I grew up in. It’s one of the things that I miss from that community. The grease also probably shortens my lifespan a little bit each time, but it’s worth it!
The next time you’re driving through your community, think about all of the progress made in the last year. Those could be events, new buildings, or connections built between people. All of these things have an impact on your community and over time the impact can make a community grow. Small changes add up over time. Be warned that when I visit your community, I come with questions. I want to learn about what you’re doing, and then come with you on your journey to help you do more.
If your community could benefit from any of the Rural Prosperity Nebraska ideas that I’ve discussed in this column, please reach out to me. I’d love to speak to your community about these topics. You can reach me at jason.tuller@unl.edu or at the Thayer County office at 402-768-7212.
Jason Tuller is an Extension Educator for the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. He works in the Rural Prosperity Nebraska program and covers ten-county area including Kearney, Adams, Clay, Fillmore, Saline, Franklin, Webster, Nuckolls, Thayer, and Jefferson Counties.
Learning Child
Playtime Teaches Social Skills!
Learn more at: https://learningchildblog.wordpress.com/2015/07/15/play-skills-for-children/ #fitandhelathykids
Water Lessons For Preschoolers
Food, Nutrition, and Health
Family Fun on the Run!
Fall-Food-Fitness
4-H
Webster County 4-H Newsletter
Nebraska Extension Spotlight-Meet Elizabeth Exstrom
Nebraska Extension Spotlight-November 2022
The Webster County Extension Office and Courthouse will be closed in observance of the days below.
Regional Experts
Megan Burda
Engagement Zone 10 Coordinator
Megan is a Nebraska Extension Educator with a passion for fashion! She holds a Master of Arts degree in Textile and Apparel Design from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a specialization in entrepreneurship. Megan serves as an Engagement Zone Coordinator in Zone 10 with a focus on staff development, stakeholder connections, and UNL engagement. She is a maker, entrepreneur, Husker sports fan and baking enthusiast.
Photo and Bio from UNL Extension
Email: megan.burda@unl.edu
Location: 1340 G Street, Geneva, NE, USA
Phone: 402.759.3712
Lynn DeVries
Early Childhood Extension Educator
Lynn is an Extension Educator on The Learning Child Team, University of Nebraska Extension in South Central Nebraska. Lynn has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Nebraska Kearney in Vocational Family and Consumer Science Education, and a Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Concordia University Nebraska. Lynn works with families, child care providers, teen parents and schools to promote developmentally appropriate practices and enhance parent involvement throughout the child’s education. Lynn has 11 years of experience teaching Family and Consumer Science in the public schools, and 10 years of experience coordinating programming and curriculum with the Head Start programs.
Email: lynn.devries@unl.edu
Website: https://child.unl.edu/
Location: 2975 South Baltimore Avenue, Hastings, NE, USA
Phone: 402.461.7209
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UNLExtensionthelearningchild/
Elizabeth Exstrom
Horticulture Extension Educator
I am Community Environment Extension Educator with a horticulture focus who works in the Nebraska Extension office in Hall County. I provide horticulture related programs for youth and adults, act as the Central Nebraska Master Gardener Coordinator, and answer horticulture-based related client questions. I am a Nebraska Arborist Association Certified Arborist and a member of the International Society of Arboriculture and Nebraska Nursery and Landscape Association. You might recognize me because I am regular panel member on NET's Backyard Farmer program and even filled in as host a few times. I received my Bachelor’s Degree in Horticulture with a landscape design emphasis and my Master’s Degree in Public Horticulture from the University of Nebraska—Lincoln.
Photo and Bio from UNL ExtensionEmail: elizabeth.exstrom@unl.edu
Website: https://huskerhort.com/
Location: College Park, U.S. 34, Grand Island, NE, USA
Phone: 308.385.5088
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.m.killinger/
Ron Seymour
Crops & Water Systems Educator
Ron Seymour is a cropping systems Extension Educator with emphasis on corn and soybean production. Ron also works extensively in crop pest management with specific expertise in insect issues. Ron has an interest in developing areas that border field crops as habitat that promote populations of beneficial arthropods.
Email: rseymour1@unl.edu
Location: 2975 South Baltimore Avenue, Hastings, NE, USA
Phone: 402.461.7209
Jason Tuller
Rural Prosperity Nebraska Extension Educator
Jason has been working in the economic development field in rural Nebraska for more than a decade. He has worked as a small business consultant and as a rural economic developer. His goal now is to help grow stronger communities in Southeast Nebraska and throughout the stat
Photo and Bio from UNL ExtensionEmail: jtuller2@unl.edu
Website: https://ruralprosperityne.unl.edu/
Location: Nuckolls County, NE, USA
Phone: 402.768.7212
Cami Wells
Food, Nutrition, and Health Extension Educator
I am a Nutrition, Food and Health Educator and Registered Dietitian located in Hall County. Part of my time is allocated to the Nutrition Education Program (NEP) that provides nutrition education to limited-resource families in central Nebraska. I teach a variety of food safety and nutrition programs to adults and youth as well as serve on the media/marketing team that develops content for our food.unl.edu website. I graduated from University of Nebraska–Lincoln with a Bachelor’s degree in Nutritional Science and Dietetics and earned a Master’s degree in Nutrition and Health Sciences from Northern Illinois University.
Email: cami.wells@unl.edu
Location: College Park At Grand Island, West U.S. Hwy 34, Grand Island, NE, USA
Phone: 308.385.5088
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UNLExtensionFoodAndFitness
Meet our Team in Webster County!
Dr. Lindsay Waechter-Mead
Beef Systems Educator, DVM
Lindsay Waechter-Mead is the new Beef Systems Educator in Webster County and serves surrounding counties in this region. She is excited to bring her interests surrounding cow/calf health and preventative medicine to the Beef Team. Her current work involves looking at environmental effects on neonatal calf immunity and colostral transfer. She is also passionate about rural agriculture and what the veterinary profession can do to positively influence rural communities to ensure that generations can continue to enjoy the life that she loves.
Email: lindsay.waechter-mead@unl.edu
Website: https://extension.unl.edu/statewide/webster/
Location: 621 North Cedar Street, Red Cloud, NE, USA
Phone: 402-746.3417
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SCBeefExtensionUNL
Beth Janning
4-H Youth Development Extension Educator in Adams/Webster Counties
Beth Janning is a 4-H Youth Development Extension Educator. She provides programming in school enrichment, after-school, and traditional 4-H Programs. Her topic areas include but not limited to animal science, science, engineering and volunteer development.
Email: elizabeth.janning@unl.edu
Website: https://extension.unl.edu/statewide/webster/
Location: 621 North Cedar Street, Red Cloud, NE, USA
Phone: 402.461.7209
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WebsterCoExtNE
Alexa Pedersen
Office Manager
Email: alexa.pedersen@unl.edu
Website: https://extension.unl.edu/statewide/webster/
Location: 621 North Cedar Street, Red Cloud, NE, USA
Phone: 402.746.3417
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WebsterCoExtNE
Katie Bolte
4-H Programming Assistant
Email: katie.bolte@unl.edu
Website: https://extension.unl.edu/statewide/webster/
Location: 621 North Cedar Street, Red Cloud, NE, USA
Phone: 402.746.3417
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WebsterCoExtNE