While the rains have slowed and harvest is progressing, Kentucky growers continue to deal with the ramifications of a cool, wet growing season.

The growing season came to a close the weekend of Oct. 17 with the season’s first frost. While that may seem early, it was only slightly ahead of the state’s average first frost date, according to Michael Mathews, staff meteorologist in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture.

Fortunately, the majority of the state’s corn was mature; however, only 75 percent of soybeans were mature, said Chad Lee, UK grain crops specialist. Most likely the remaining 25 percent will not grow any further, resulting in lighter seeds,” he said. These soybeans were mainly double-cropped with wheat or planted late.

Not only will the late soybeans have lower test weights, but they may have additional damage, which could reduce marketability and lead to additional price discounts at the elevator. When the frost hit, some of the soybeans had yet to turn yellow and drop their leaves. This could make the plant’s green color nearly impossible to get out of the seeds. High moisture levels may lead to shriveled seeds which could trigger an additional discount, said Jim Herbek, UK grain crops specialist. 

Corn and soybean harvesting delays are slowing wheat planting. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s weekly crop and weather report for the state, only 8 percent of the crop was planted as of the first of this week. This compares to 33 percent seeded by this time in 2008 and a 40 percent five-year average.

There could be a lot of late-planted wheat, especially if there’s another crop still in the field.

UK service to end soon

For more than 20 years, the University of Kentucky has been involved with beef cattle records and supported the CHAPS, or Cow Herd Appraisal Performance Software, program. However, UK’s record-keeping service will officially end Nov. 16.

The CHAPS program is a system that allows producers to track cattle performance from conception to carcass. This whole-herd management tool transforms raw data into useful information for producers to make confident management decisions regarding their beef cattle herd. UK has been fortunate enough to provide full service record-keeping for producers at a minimal cost due to funding from the Agriculture Development Board and coordination with the Kentucky Beef Network.

After Nov. 16, North Dakota State University will handle all technical support for the CHAPS 2000 program. As the developer of the CHAPS program, NDSU will allow participants to continue receiving the same benefits, with everything from updates to benchmark data. The custom processing service through NDSU is almost identical to UK’s; therefore, the transition should be very easy.

If you are interested in continuing the custom processing service, please contact NDSU at ndsu.chaps@ndsu.edu for their specific guidelines. For more information about the CHAPS 2000 program, go to http://www.chaps2000.org, or contact me at the Barren County Cooperative Extension Service at 651-3818.

Date set for conference

Don’t forget, for those of you who are interested, the Kentucky Grazing Conference will be held Oct. 29 in Princeton at the UK Research and Education Center.