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On September 30, 2017

To Be Aware Of Crops Maturity Issues in Corn and Soybeans
Extension Agronomist Greg Roth reports crops have been lagging in maturity. However recent warm weather should help speed up maturity. Our agronomy team’s observations have been that corn maturity has been the lagging is due to the cool temperatures in August. In some areas, GDD accumulations have been lower than normal by 150 to 200 GDDs. Also, corn planting in some fields was delayed this spring. As a result, silage harvest has been delayed and there could be problems for some crops not reaching black layer before frost.
The recent spell of warm weather should help with the maturity issues. We have some concerns that warm temperatures could result in a more rapid drydown of corn planned for silage harvest. Now is the time to monitor maturities and dry matter concentrations in the remaining silage fields to avoid harvesting silage that is too dry.

Full season soybeans seem to be maturing slightly later than normal but Roth doesn’t see any serious maturity risks for them. Now is a good time to assess your maturity choices in full season soybeans. Earlier maturing soybeans allow for timelier planting of wheat.

Double crop soybeans in some areas are more at risk for maturity issues. If soybeans are not expected to mature or are forecast to be low yielding, then a forage harvest may be a better option. Soybean harvested for forage can result in a forage similar to medium quality alfalfa. Normally it takes about 12 days to progress from Growth Stage R5 (Beginning seed) to R6 (Full seed) and another 12 days to go from R6 to R7 (Beginning maturity).

To Learn About Extending Your Grazing Season with Brassicas

Specialists from Penn State University and USDA-ARS will present a variety of topics related to establishment and management of brassicas to extend the fall grazing season. This workshop is appropriate for novice and experienced dairy, beef and small ruminant producers wanting to learn how to incorporate brassicas into their grazing system. The program will include a pasture walk.
This event will be held on Thursday October 19, 2017. Registration is at 9:30 AM and the program runs from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. It will be held at Blue Mountain View Farm, 970 N State Rt 934
Annville, PA 17003. This is a free event and lunch is provided. To ensure an accurate lunch count, call or e-mail Mat Hahn (Penn State Extension) to register at 610-378-1327 or mmh29@psu.edu by Friday October 13, 2017. Walk-ins welcome, but lunch cannot be guaranteed.

To Learn About Research On Cage-Free Chicken Production

An increasing number of today’s consumers are scanning egg cartons for the words “cage-free,” “natural,” “free-range” and the like.

So much so, in fact, that many large institutional buyers of eggs and egg products have announced that within 10 years they will do business only with cage-free production facilities, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report.

That shift in consumer behavior is prompting some poultry producers to change the manner in which chickens are housed and cared for, and research underway in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences will help them convert from traditional caged housing to noncaged systems that continue to safeguard the health and safety of flocks and employees.

“Many consumers want food-producing animals such as chickens to live in environments that are nonconfining,” said Eileen Fabian, professor of agricultural engineering and environmental biophysics in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. “Poultry facilities are going through the largest evolution in design due to this demand. But the overall sustainability of cage-free systems is in question when one considers the increased feed, fuel, land and labor they require.”

Building on prior accomplishments in agricultural structure and ventilation design, Fabian and colleagues Long Chen, doctoral student; Paul Patterson, professor of poultry science; Daniel Hofstetter, extension research assistant; and John Cimbala, professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering, are examining various cage-free building configurations.
The purpose of their research is to design effective systems for improving indoor air quality and uniformity in cage-free houses, especially those that provide supplemental heat, and to develop mechanisms that reduce airborne disease spread within and between hen houses.

“Many commercial facilities have multiple buildings that each house between 20,000 and 50,000 hens, so there’s a lot to consider when creating a cage-free housing design,” Fabian said.
Blueprints will be created using a state-of-the-art computer design and analysis tool called computational fluid dynamics, or CFD, which allows researchers to enter a design model and then run simulations that investigate how changes to ventilation-system configuration in poultry houses affect indoor air flow patterns and air-quality parameters such as temperature, humidity, ammonia and dust concentrations, and potential disease particle spread during an outbreak.

“We can see how our designs hold up under various circumstances,” Fabian said. “For instance, we can set up a scenario that involves a sick chicken and see how our proposed ventilation system would move the contaminated air from that part of the building to prevent disease spread.”

For his part, Cimbala said he is eager to lend his expertise in CFD to support the study and is optimistic the results will meet the needs of the poultry industry and consumers alike.
“This research will help poultry farmers improve ventilation systems so that hens can walk around and perch freely in a controlled environment that ensures health and safety,” he said. “And there are people who will feel better knowing that the eggs they consume come from hens that live in this type of environment.”

The research, which involves visits to poultry facilities and input from construction professionals, will be conducted over the next several months. The team plans to release its final design recommendations to the poultry industry in May 2018. The U.S. Egg Industry Center has provided funding for this project.

To Enjoy A Banner Year For Fall Foliage
The rainy summer in Pennsylvania has set the stage for what could be an awesome autumn foliage display, according to forest ecologists in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

“The cool, moist summer should usher in great fall colors,” said Marc Abrams, professor of forest ecology and physiology. “The robust physiology of the trees this year should predispose them to producing good color.”

Leaves didn’t begin to change color early this summer as in recent years, noted Kim Steiner, professor of forest biology, who is director of The Arboretum at Penn State. That’s a good omen, he said.

“One very positive sign this year is that I have noticed almost none of the early fall color that we often have after a dry August, especially on walnut and some red maples.”

However, the picture is not entirely rosy, Steiner pointed out, because this year we are beginning to see the full impact in central Pennsylvania of the emerald ash borer on the native white ash. The invasive beetle has killed most of those trees.

“This species was never a dominant component of our forests,” Steiner said. “But ash’s yellow to purple fall color was a wonderful accent in the landscape, and now it will be largely gone.”

But despite optimal summer conditions for the trees, a spectacular fall foliage display is not assured, Abrams cautioned.

“What we need now is for cool to cold temperatures to arrive by early to mid-October to bring out the best colors,” he said. “Unless things go haywire with the weather — with unusually warm and wet conditions — it should be a fine year.”

For three decades, Abrams has studied how seasonal precipitation and temperature influence timing and intensity of fall colors in central Pennsylvania. “We believe that clear, bright days, low but not freezing temperatures, and dry but not drought conditions promote the best fall colors,” he said.

Cooler temperatures signal deciduous trees to stop producing chlorophyll, the green pigment responsible for photosynthesis, he explained. The chlorophyll breaks down and disappears, unmasking other leaf pigments. These other pigments — called xanthophylls and carotenes — are what create the yellows and oranges seen in the leaves of yellow poplar, hickory, sycamore, honey locust, birch, beech and certain maples.

After chlorophyll production stops, trees also produce another pigment in their leaves called anthocyanin, according to Abrams. The anthocyanins create the brilliant reds and purples seen in maple, sassafras, sumac, blackgum and scarlet oak.

Quote Of The Week: “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” M.K. Gandhi