NEWSLETTER. Sincerely, Daniel Carpenter, LaRue County Extension Agent for Agriculture & Natural Resources Education

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1 NEWSLETTER Cooperative Extension Service LaRue County P.O. Box 210, 807 Old Elizabethtown Rd. Hodgenville, KY (270) Fax: (270) larue.ca.uky.edu LaRue County Cattlemen s Meeting will be Tuesday night, November 14 th at 7:00pm and will again be located in the cafeteria at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School. Burkmann Feeds is sponsoring the meeting and will be presenting about how to figure feed rations for calves. There will be a meal and we ask that you please bring a dessert. Beef Quality and Care Assurance Training Thursday December 14 th at 6:00 pm and Friday, December 15 th at 9:00 am. This new program will be a combination of the Beef Quality Assurance program and the Cattle Handling and Care Certification program. This program will consist of an introductory video and a variety of video modules on aspects associated with the proper handling and care of cattle and practices necessary to provide a safe and wholesome product to consumers. Participants will watch approximately one hour of video content and then take an assessment exam on the materials covered. Upon acceptable completion of the assessment exam, you will be certified in Beef Quality and Care Assurance. Recertification will be required every 3 years; however, the content of the videos used can be altered. The cost is $5 and must be paid by check, NO CASH. If you d wish to have a farm sign, then there is an additional $5 cost for that. We will have another 2 or 3 trainings scheduled for January. Sincerely, Daniel Carpenter, LaRue County Extension Agent for Agriculture & Natural Resources Education daniel.carpenter@uky.edu

2 The previous GAP curriculum has been updated and now includes some of the basic principles of the Food Safety Modernization Act as well as other updates. Starting January 2020, GAP diplomas will no longer be valid for Sampling Certificates and all vegetable growers needing food safety training should have gone through the updated PBPT training. Growers must complete PBPT to get sampling certificates. We have a Producer Best Practice Training scheduled for December 6 th at 2:30pm. This training will replace the former GAP training for vegetable producers. The training should last around 2 hours. We plan to schedule another training in January if you have a conflict with this one. If you are growing vegetables and selling them at all I highly encourage you to attend this meeting and get at least a refresher course on the best management practices for growing healthy produce. We do not have a scheduled date at this time, but if you need to complete this training, please contact the LaRue County Extension Office. We can do this training out of our office this year. The LaRue County Extension Service will conduct Private Pesticide Applicator Training on Thursday January 11 th at 6:00pm and Friday January 12 th at 9:00 am at the LaRue County Extension Office in Hodgenville. The two hour training session will qualify farmer attendees as a certified private pesticide applicator until December 31, Call the Extension Office, , if there are questions about the training. March 6 th, 2018 LaRue County Extension Office 9:30am until 3:30 pm (one hour lunch break). This workshop is required to become a Homebased Microprocessor in Kentucky. It is the first in a series of steps which includes recipe approval, verification of an approved water source, and annual certification by the Kentucky Food Safety Branch. To qualify, farmers must live and farm in Kentucky. The final product must contain a fruit, vegetable, nut or herb grown by the farmer and may be sold only in specified locations. Cost is $50. - Dr. Jimmy Henning Potassium can be a neglected nutrient in forages, especially hayfields. Potassium is needed for many essential plant processes including stomatal opening and closing (regulates water status of plant), winter hardiness, and resistance to plant disease and stress. Fall is a great time to sample pasture and hayfields and apply needed fertilizer such as potash (K 2 O). Silage crops are heavy users of K 2 O, and the stover/stems contain ¾ of the potash. If these fields are not amended with additional K 2 O according to soil test, subsequent forage crops will be K deficient. Repeated removal of hay crops without K 2 O replacement results in low to very low soil K 2 O test levels. Hay crops on these soils will have a diminished response to N, and can even appear nitrogen deficient after N fertilization. A ton of fescue or orchardgrass hay will remove 17 to 19 lbs. of phosphate (P 2 O 5 )per ton compared to 53 to 62 lbs. of K 2 O. Using 20 and 60 for P 2 O 5 and K 2 O removal respectively, a three ton hay crop will remove 60 lbs. of P 2 O 5 and 180 lbs. of K 2 O. Replacement of these nutrients using would require 900 lbs. of product per acre. Commonly used rates of 200 to 300 lbs. of per acre would undersupply the K 2 O needed by 120 to 140 lbs. per acre. To prevent potash from being limited in your hayfields, get a current soil test and then work with your fertilizer dealer to prepare a blended fertilizer that will supply recommended nutrients. Hay fields that are very low in potash will requires high application rates over time. Soil Samples are free for all LaRue County residents! We also have soil probes to loan out that will help you get more accurate results.

3 Dr. Bruce Anderson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Is my alfalfa safe to graze after a hard freeze? Usually the alfalfa is still quite green, even with low temperatures in the low twenties. There may be some wilting and yellowing, especially on the top, but most leaves still are attached to the plant stems. The real question often being asked is Can I be sure my cows won t bloat and die if they graze my alfalfa?. To be quite honest, you never can be 100 percent certain that alfalfa won t cause bloat. I remember back to my father s small dairy farm. Over the years that I helped on his farm, my dad had a couple cows that would bloat even when eating dry alfalfa hay. Since they were good milkers he didn t want to cull them. So those cows were hand fed small amounts of alfalfa hay at a time so their bloat could be minimized. Thus, the only true answer to questions about grazing alfalfa safety is probably. Bloat risk is much lower a week after a hard freeze that causes wilting. But always use good animal husbandry methods to reduce the risk further. Have cows full before turning out to alfalfa. Wait until mid-day, after frost or dew is gone, before turning out. Provide other dry, palatable feeds or even bloat guard. And keep a close eye on them for the first couple days. Alfalfa can be grazed safely with rotational stocking, even after a freeze. Just be careful and realistic. Suzy Martin Farm Business Management Area Extension Specialist During years of low net taxable farm incomes, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows farmers to optionally pay selfemployment (SE) tax. One might ask why anyone would voluntarily pay a tax; however, there are several benefits to paying SE tax. These include retirement benefits, eligibility for disability payments, and survivor benefits. Some may argue about the longevity of the retirement benefit part of paying into the system, particularly for young taxpayers. The biggest benefits for young producers to paying SE tax are to remain current and eligible for disability payments and survivor benefits in the event of life changing circumstances. Benefits are earned by building up credits. You can earn a maximum of four credits each year. For 2017, you must have earnings of at least $1,300 to get one credit. Earnings of at least $5,200 will result in the maximum of four credits for the year. According to the Social Security Administration (SSA) website, to receive disability benefits, you must have accumulated at least 20 credits in the 10 years immediately before you became disabled if you are 31 or older. For those younger than that, the requirement is to have worked half the time between the age of 21 and the time you become disabled. The number of credits needed for survivor benefits depends on the age of the taxpayer when they die. The younger you are, the fewer credits you need, but nobody needs more than 40 credits (10 years of work). There is a special rule that allows children to receive benefits if there were at least six credits (1.5 year s work) in the three years before the death. Keep in mind that tax returns can only be amended for three years following the due date of the original return, so the ability to go back and create credits is limited. In years that farmers have low to negative taxable farm incomes, the IRS allows them to use the farm optional method to calculate the SE earnings. Generally, you can use the farm optional method if your 2017 gross farm income is $8,444 or less, OR your net farm profits are less than $5,630. If you meet either of the requirements, you can calculate your SE earnings as two-thirds of your gross farm income up to $5,200. In addition to the benefits mentioned previously, optionally paying SE tax could have a positive impact on tax credits such as the child or dependent care credit, the earned income credit and/or the additional child tax credit. If the taxpayer has an off-farm job with taxes reported on a Form W-2, then it is likely they have already earned enough to build up the credits for the year. As always, it is important to consult your tax preparer, as everyone s situation is different.

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6 LaRue County PO Box 210, 807 Old Elizabethtown Rd. Hodgenville, KY NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID HODGENVILLE, KY PERMIT # 61 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED The Best Bean Buyer app is now available for download in the App Store for Apple and Google Play for Android users. In partnership with the Kentucky Soybean Board, this app helps soybean producers determine and compare the best price received by elevators when considering delivery costs and high moisture discounts. This app helps answer the question, should I sell my soybeans to the closest elevator or should I haul them a further distance to receive a price premium? By incorporating critical factors such as cash price, discount schedules, and hauling elements, a soybean producer can estimate and compare net prices at various elevators in real-time. The balance between maximizing the price per bushel received and minimizing hauling costs could be the difference in turning a profit given the current margins for soybeans. So act now and download the free app in time for soybean harvest. A short YouTube tutorial on how to use the app is at the following link: The College of Agriculture, Food and Environment is an Equal Opportunity Organization with respect to education and employment and authorization to provide research, education information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function without regard to economic or social status and will not discriminate on the bases of race, color, ethnic origin, creed, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, marital status, genetic information, age, veteran status, or physical or mental disability. Inquiries regarding compliance with Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Educational Amendments, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and other related matter should be directed to Equal Opportunity Office, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Kentucky, Room S-105, Agriculture Science Building, North Lexington, Kentucky