The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
An arctic blast brought brutally cold and windy conditions to Foster County during the second week of January.
Temperatures remained below zero for five consecutive days, with a low of minus 23 degrees on January 14. Winds gusted at speeds up to 42 miles per hour, and wind chills fell to minus 53 degrees.
Temperatures climbed slowly back to normal by January 20 and then kept climbing.
Forecasters predicted temperatures near 40 degrees by the end of January compared with a normal high of 20 degrees.
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The strong winds in mid-January blew soil from farm fields, turning the surface of our snow cover from white to grey.
People make fun of “snirt”, but wind erosion is not a laughing matter. Soil erosion costs producers money in terms of lost nutrients and reduced productivity.
More than half the topsoil has been lost from cultivated fields in many parts of North Dakota during the past 100 years.
A lot of blame is put on the dust bowl days, when windstorms blew clouds of dust across the Midwest and all the way to Washington D.C.
We should learn from experience. However, data show that significant loss has occurred in North Dakota in every decade since the dust bowl.
In the spring of 2021, we saw deep drifts of soil in many Foster County road ditches. That was just a fraction of what was really lost. Even more soil was lifted high into the atmosphere and blown hundreds or thousands of miles.
Reduced tillage and cover crops help reduce soil loss, but NDSU Extension soil scientist Dave Franzen believes that the only solution is a shift either to no-till or to modified no-till practices such as strip till.
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The Foster County Ag Improvement Association will have their annual meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at the Carrington REC. The meeting will begin at 10 a.m.
An election will be held during the meeting to select the Foster County representative to the North Dakota Oilseed Council - Sunflowers. The position is currently unfilled.
Current representatives to the commodity boards are Jeremiah Blahna, North Dakota Soybean Council; Tysen Rosenau, North Dakota Corn Utilization Council; Lee Greger, North Dakota Wheat Commission; Jeff Edland, North Dakota Barley Council; and Caylor Rosenau, North Dakota Oilseed Council - Canola.
Foster County’s seat is vacant on the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Council.
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Private applicator pesticide training will be offered on three dates this spring in Foster County: February 13 and 27 and March 14. All of the trainings will begin at 12:30 p.m.
The goal of the training is to provide information that will help applicators use pesticides safely and effectively.
Those people who complete the training will maintain their certification to purchase and use restricted-use pesticides.
Notifications have been mailed to producers who need to recertify this year.
If you have any questions about the recertification process, please contact us in the Extension office (652-2581).
