1)  K-State Cattlemen’s Day Is March 2; Special “K” Bull, Heifer Sale to Follow

MANHATTAN, KAN. – The 94^th annual Kansas State University Cattlemen’s Day will be March 2 at Weber Hall on the K-State campus in Manhattan.

The day provides cattle producers with the latest results in beef cattle research. This year’s event will include the opportunity to attend symposiums, a cattle market outlook and a commercial trade show. The 2007 symposium topics are “Ethanol Byproduct Utilization,” “Beef Reproduction” and “Adding Value to Calves.”

Following the program, the 30^th annual Special “K” Bull and Heifer Sale will begin at 3 p.m. at the university’s purebred beef teaching center. K-State will sell about 80 bulls, 10 heifers, two embryo flushes, 50 cows and semen packages.

Registration for the day is $15 per person if paid by Feb. 20 or $25 on-site. The registration will cover handout materials and morning refreshments. The lunch for registered participants will be sponsored by U.S. Premium Beef and commercial exhibitors.

More information about the event and a registration form are available by accessing the Web site at www.asi.ksu.edu/cattlemensday or by calling Lois Schreiner at 785-532-1267. A complete listing of the cattle to be sold at the sale is at www.asi.ksu.edu/bullsale.


 

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2) Forest Service Expanding Conservation Into Suburbia

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Kansas Forest Service is taking orders for the low-cost tree and shrub seedlings it offers yearly through the KFS Conservation Tree Planting Program. This year, however, it’s targeting Kansans who’ve bought homes with large lots, as well as the state’s farmers and ranchers.

“We start shipping in mid-March. Seedlings have better odds if they get in the ground by late March to early April,” said Joshua Pease, KFS conservation forester. “We start taking orders three months before that to help in planning. But, early orders also ensure that people can get the plants they want.”

Approved uses for the plants now include creating barriers to reduce noise pollution, block ugly views, mark property lines, reduce wind velocity, and/or create habitat for songbirds. The traditional conservation uses are more rural in nature: home or livestock windbreaks, living snow fences, Christmas tree plantations, firewood lots, and habitats for game bird or other wildlife.

“Times have changed,” Pease said. “Many new homes are going up on several-acre lots that used to be crop land. Their owners are quickly finding they have many of the same issues we used to associate only with farms. Of course, they mostly see the needed plantings as a matter of improving their new quality of living. But, those plantings can help conserve natural resources, too.”

The program offers more than 30 species, selected for hardiness in the central High Plains, he said. The plants are 1 to 2 years old. Most are bare-root stock, 12-18 inches tall, depending on species.

Special offerings include four types of mixed-species bundles, meant to benefit wildlife – the songbird, pheasant (western Kansas), quail (eastern Kansas) and wildlife mast (nut-producing) bundles.

All other plants come in one-species bundles of 25, with 50 plants the minimum order for bare-root stock. Order forms and more information are available at any county or district Kansas State University Research and Extension office or on the Web at http://www.kansasforests.org/conservation/.


 

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3) K-State Vet Says Vaccinate Soon to Control Scours Later

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The fact that weather can be unpredictable and sometimes harsh is no surprise to anyone who has lived in Kansas very long. But, the implications of that can lead to important health problems in cattle herds, including scours in newborn calves.

So, amid all of the problems caused by recent winter storms and their muddy aftermath, veterinarian Larry Hollis is encouraging Plains producers not to forget vaccinating cows and heifers for scours.

“First and foremost it’s important to read the label on vaccines,” Hollis said.

Generally, heifers should be given a first vaccination about seven weeks prior to calving with a follow- up injection four weeks prior to calving, he said.   If a producer is also concerned about scours in calves born from cows, the cows should typically be vaccinated about 30 days ahead of calving.

“It’s also important to make sure cows have adequate Vitamin A as they come into calving season, especially considering how dry it was coming into winter,” Hollis said. “If a cow needs a Vitamin A injection, as well as a scours vaccination, they need to be about a week apart to avoid an “antagonistic reaction,” which could lead to abortion.

“Nobody likes to work cows twice like that – especially in the kind of weather we’ve had recently, but that can help avoid any problems later on,” he added.


 

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4) Wildlife Often Fare Better Than Expected During Winter

MANHATTAN, Kan. – A homeowner looks out and sees a bunny huddled on snow so deep that long, shivering ears can barely fit under bare shrub branches. It’s Thumper – but alone, cold and hungry.

“No, it’s a rabbit acting like a rabbit – trying to be invisible, perhaps to a hawk circling overhead,” said Charlie Lee, wildlife specialist with Kansas State University Research and Extension.

Rabbits are one of the animals that do fairly well when winter seals away many food sources.

“No animals would be living in the High Plains now if they couldn’t handle some cold. They’d stay further south or migrate there for the winter,” Lee said. “Some native animals can be better equipped than others, depending on exactly what the weather deals out. But some actually seem to enjoy winter.”

Deep snow grants a brief spell of freedom to deer mice and pocket gophers. They can run around under a snow layer with no fear of the many predators that view rodents as a dietary staple.

The experience isn’t too new for mice, which also burrow under garden debris to find such juicy morsels as rose bushes, mulched for winter. For once, however, pocket gophers can stop digging tunnels (which can add up to 200 yards long) and simply feed above ground – safely.

Rabbits use snow as a step stool that allows them to nibble on higher food sources.

“After the kind of weather we’ve had this year, I always get calls from people who’ve lost windbreak or landscape plants. Rabbits tend to gnaw around, girdling and killing trunks,” Lee said.

Deer rarely have problems unless they’re already overcrowded, he added. Skunks, chipmunks and some bats hibernate. Many cold-blooded animals find shelter and become dormant. To get through any extremes, some birds enter a shorter “time out” called torpor. Beaver and squirrels live tucked away with fall-stored food. Red fox’s food search switches from fruits and insects to rodents.

“Ground-based predators may have to work harder and so need more food. But, typically their prey is getting weaker as their need increases,” Lee said. “When snow is too deep or too icy to scrape away, however, game birds will be in trouble if they use up all their body fat before the cover melts away.”