Agriculture

Published: 2019
By Ken Nelson

McCone County MSU Extension offers programming that addresses livestock production issues, nutrition, forage testing, water testing, and marketing. Programming is also offered for crop producers dealing with specialty crops, weed control, rental rates, and general crop production topics. Producer meetings and workshops are offered, as well as one-on-one consultations in the office and/or at the farm or ranch. MSU Extension agent Ken Nelson communicates a wide variety of current agricultural issues in a weekly newspaper column, “Notes from Nelson,” which often results in calls or visits to the Extension office for further discussion. Nelson also teams with several other Extension agents to present current issues and information in a weekly radio spot on a Miles City radio station. MSU Extension offers weed, plant and insect identification services; samples are brought in on a regular basis. Samples that cannot be identified immediately are submitted to the Schutter Diagnostic Lab. Forage samples can also be evaluated for nitrate content analysis. This year, late season moisture and cooler than normal temperatures caused a severely delayed harvest. Programs focused educational efforts on helping producers deal with high grain moisture levels, sprouting, falling number tests, as well as new weed problems and hay storage issues.