The Official Newspaper for Foster County

Foster County crop report, upcoming events

Thank you to many volunteers whose efforts made the 2022 Foster County Fair a success.

A total of 126 4-H’ers, including 37 Cloverbuds, exhibited projects at the fair.

The exhibits included 373 static projects, 7 horses, 29 rabbits, 13 swine, 34 sheep, 26 goats, 14 dairy and 27 beef.

Be sure to check out the terrific photos from the fair which are posted on the Foster County 4-H Facebook page.

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Many people have said to me that it always rains during fair week.

That proved true again this year, with storms bringing 0.6 inches of rain to Carrington just before the start of the Ranch Rodeo on Friday evening.

June is normally Foster County’s wettest month, with a normal rainfall total of 3.8 inches.

This year the Carrington REC received 2.9 inches of rain in June. McHenry received 4.1 inches.

With plenty of sunshine and moisture available to them, crops have been growing rapidly.

On July 1, wheat and barley were at the jointing to flag leaf stages.

Most corn was about knee-high (16- to 20-inches tall), and the leaves were nearly covering the space between rows.

Soybeans were generally 6 to 8 inches tall with three to four trifoliate leaves.

The first cutting of alfalfa was average to excellent, and many fields were already showing good regrowth.

As I look around the county, it seems there is an increase in sunflower acreage this year.

I’ve heard a lot of complaints from farmers and ranchers about the prevalence of leafy spurge.

It’s not the first time that people have observed a surge in the growth of the noxious weed after a year of drought.

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Project Safe Send offers North Dakota residents the opportunity to dispose of unusable pesticides free of charge.

Farmers, ranchers, pesticide dealers and applicators, government agencies and homeowners are all eligible to take advantage of the program.

The service is provided by the North Dakota Department of Agriculture.

Pesticides will be collected at 12 sites around the state during July.

The collection points nearest Foster County are at Valley City on July 14 and Devil’s Lake on July 22. The collection time is 9:00 a.m. till noon.

Preregistration is required if bringing more than 1000 pounds of material.

Contact me in the Extension Office (652-2581, [email protected]) for more information about drop-off dates and locations.

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The Carrington Research Extension Center (CREC) Field Day will be held Tuesday, July 19.

The program starts with registration, coffee and a welcome at 9 a.m.

The morning tours depart at 9:30 a.m. and conclude with lunch at noon. Attendees will choose among four tour options: agronomy, northern hardy fruit, beef cattle and organic/sustainable agriculture.

A crop tour begins at 1:15 p.m. I’m especially looking forward to this tour because it will include the first regional demonstration of John Deere’s “See and Spray” technology.

By only spraying weeds in corn and soybean fields, this new technology offers the potential to reduce the use of non-residual herbicides by more than two-thirds.