As is the case with production agriculture, we are seeing agribusinesses exit our market place also. It continues to be a shrinking market with fewer agribusiness “players” in it. Your cooperative is in a position to grow and expand where we are needed.

Bulk feeds and bagged feeds continue to be our “soul”, with our Farm & Ranch Centers serving as our “front door step”. We welcome all producers and patrons who may see their current feed location go away. We are here and we are ready to meet your needs.

For Northeast and East Texas, pure local cooperative ownership and local cooperative governance has put us in a position to serve more beef operations, more dairies, and more members than ever.

Have a good September.

The heat this August has been devastating. It has made it very dangerous to be involved in physical labor outside during the afternoon hours. We have worked to keep our employees hydrated during their working hours to avoid and heat related illness. The countryside is burnt; hay meadows that were fertilized and received some of the spotty showers are green and pretty.

We are reaching the point where livestock cannot get what they need from the pastures. Grass is burnt and tough and cattle need some type supplement to aid them in the utilization of this less than choice roughage and give them some energy. The COOP is prepared to help with this problem. We have supplements that are medicated, have minerals and vitamins, high fat range meals high in energy, supplement tubs and the old stand by all types of cubes.

Come by and talk to our sales people and let them help you decide what fits your situation and can help you the most.

We appreciate you and will continue to try to earn your business and trust.

Go COOP!!

903 885 3143 Store

903 885 5036 Fertilizer

800 722 0174 Fertilizer

Retail Supply

What to do about no hay or not enough hay to get through the winter? If hay is costing $30 a roll and it takes 5 rolls to get the cow through the winter that is $150 worth of hay. Now add two pounds of cubes per day times 180 days equals 360 lbs of cubes times twelve cents a pound and your cube cost are $43.20 for a total cost of $193 per cow. The other option is spread 50 lbs of Bob oats and disk them in, or if you prefer you may disk first then no till the oats in. Then seed the following .75 lbs of Seven Top Turnips, 45 lbs of TAM TBO, 20 lbs of Crimson Clover with 200 lbs of 20-5-21 per acre. After spreading the seed and fertilizer, it would be good to pull a light drag to make sure that the seed made good contact with the soil. Then budget for coming back later with 300 lbs of 25-0-15 per acre. All of this at today’s cost is $157.85 per acre. With some good moisture, one acre should handle 3 cows with a back up of three rolls of $30 hay for a total of $90 worth of hay plus $157 and the total cost for 3 cows would be $247 or $82.33 per cow. That would be around $110 less cost then feeding straight hay all winter. If you only got 2 cows per acre you would still save $193 - $123.5 = $69.50 per cow savings. However, if I were planning on 2 cows per acre I would not plant the oats. I would plant this early between Labor day and the 15^th of September. For the turnips to work we need them to germinate in very warm soil. What about armyworms? Be ready to treat. Check twice each day, and have Silencer on hands to spray with. At worst you may have to spray twice, but the results far out weigh the cost. Silencer costs less then $3.00 per acre per application. We have it on hands. Some may ask why Turnips? Turnips are cheap to plant plus they provide the earliest grazing of any forage that is available. Some times your cattle may need to learn to eat turnips, once they figure them out they will really like them.

Texas A&M at Overton did some work on what is the best way to plant ryegrass. The study showed two very interesting discoveries. First, by lightly disking the ground increased the forage yield on the first harvest by about 50% more forage. They planted four different ways, first they just broadcasted the seed and dragged it in which gave the poorest results. Secondly they no tilled the seed in, this gave a little better results over broadcasting and dragging the seed in. Thirdly they lightly disked then they no tilled and the other they broadcasted and dragged. There was basically no difference in yield between no tilling and broadcasting on lightly disked soil. So whether you plan on no tilling or broadcasting followed by dragging, it really pays to lightly disk ahead of time. Be sure not to disk too deep, this will make the seed bed too soft and the seed will sink too deep in the soil and a poor stand will result. The second interesting thing about this study, they planted from 15 lbs to 45 lbs of ryegrass per acre. The increased seeding rate nearly increased the first harvest by another 50%. The study also showed that by doing both you could almost double your first harvest yield by disking firsts, and then increase the planting rate to 45 lbs. per acre.

Why are we so high on TAM TBO? If TAM TBO is not the top yielding ryegrass it is always up near the top. Most other ryegrasses will have a good year and than they come up with a really bad year. TAM TBO is always in the top 25% of all the ryegrasses at Overton and on a three-year average it is the top producing ryegrass. Next, to everyone’s surprise, TAM TBO can compete with Maton rye, wheat, triticale and barley for fast and early forage production. Last fall we asked Overton to run a side by side comparison, here are the results on the first harvest; TAM TBO yielded 1169, Maton rye was 539, Pennbar 66 barley was 364, tricticale was 174, and NF 96131 wheat was 746. The other factor to throw in this was that TAM TBO also yielded longer in the spring than the rest. Now as Paul Harvey says, here is the rest of the story; If your are trying to put gain on cattle or increase milk production on winter pasture, ryegrass has more digestible nutrients including energy than rye or wheat. With the high price of corn purchasing feed for energy is pretty costly. A good winter pasture as outlined at the first of this article will provide more energy for the money. Plus the fertilizer program will provide the nitrogen needed for having a good protein level as well. All that is left to do is to feed a good mineral and provide some dry hay if the ryegrass gets too lush.

We are short of hay this year again, but if feeding hay is your thing, then you need to consider making hay out of ryegrass in place of coastal Bermuda grass. Then what would you do with the Bermuda grass? Graze it. Here is the reason for this, first we get most of our moisture in the spring when ryegrass is ready to grow. Therefore ryegrass offers a better guarantee for hay than Coastal. In the two drought years we had, we had a producer who does this every year, he never had to sell cattle for lack of hay. The problem of putting up hay early in the spring is getting it to dry down. To help solve this problem, it is best to plant a late maturing ryegrass such as TAM TBO, Prine, or even Marshall. These will allow you to cut a couple of weeks later with out hurting quality. For this, I would recommend planting 25 lbs of ryegrass, adding clover would be a good idea, it will add value to your hay. Clovers I would recommend for this would be with my first choice first, Crimson Clover, Apache, and Ball Clover. I would rate Crimson with four stars, Apache with two stars and Ball Clover with one star.

What about clovers in pastures? First make sure you get your pH up above 6.2 to 6.7. The top perennial clover in grazing situations would be either Durana or Resolute clovers. If you are on very tight soils you may want to use Patriot clover. Plant these clovers after a good hard killing frost. Get as much of the thatch and top growth off as possible. Do not disk or loosen the soil too much if any at all. Put down only three lbs of seed per acre, drag to make good soil seed contact, then turn the cattle in to keep any growth of ryegrass from getting to big. Take the cattle off if it gets too wet and they start to track up the pasture. You will normally not see clover till about April, or May. I did not see any clover till late June and that was three years ago and I have an excellent stand today. Next fall you may plant ryegrass in the clover and your cattle are going to like you a lot. Why I like these clovers? Once you have them going, in the fall when it rains, they do not have to germinate, they just start growing when they get the moisture, which gives you much quicker grazing. Also these clovers will put down around 150 lbs of nitrogen per acre, and that will probably be all the nitrogen you will ever need in a grazing situation. After they are established, they will need to be controlled in the spring as they will really grow fast. So heavy grazing in the spring, cut for hay, or spray about a pint of 2–4 D per acre to slow it down. A second choice for pastures would be Ball clover. Ball clover is an annual clover, but it is a very good reseeder. Ball clover will put down around 80 lbs of nitrogen per acre. I have found that ball clover will do well in the sand. Like all clovers keep the pH up above 6.2 and keep the phosphate levels high. Which, if you are on a chicken litter program you need to be planting clovers. Why? Chicken litter helps bring the pH up plus it provides a lot of phosphorus which clover like very much. After the first cutting of hay from chicken litter most of the nitrogen will be used up from the litter. The clover will then provide extra nitrogen for a better second crop of hay.

If you missed our fall seed meeting we still have several of the hand-outs which are available at all three Farm and Ranch Centers.

For more information on fall planting ideas come in and visit with us. I also want to announce that our forage testing lab here at the Co-op will be able to do water and soil analysis after labor day. We are looking at a two work day turn around. I believe this is going to be a real asset for you.

If you weren’t able to attend one of our seed meetings last week, then you might appreciate a short summary. Small grain prices will be higher than last year as a result of the wet fall last year that kept farmers from getting the crop planted coupled with the drought in Russia causing increased pricing for seed. We will and do have a good variety of ryegrass seed in our warehouse. Crimson clover has arrived and we will be getting another load soon. Clovers can provide some protein for your cows and provide nitrogen back into the soil and reduce your needs for your grass.

If you plan to plant ryegrass for grazing, plant early and consider planting 40-50 pounds of ryegrass per acre. Research has shown higher yields and at a minimal price increase. You can increase yields by 50% and the cost by about $7 per acre. Also consider adding turnips. You can add about 1250 pounds of dry matter per acre for about a dollar per acre and it is the early grazing that it provides. The turnips should be planted in early September so there are adequate soil temperatures for emergence.

To help get your seed rooted down faster, look at using Grow Coat on the seed. The seed treatment wills about 4 cents per pound of seed and you use only 4 ounces of seed coat per pound of seed. We will be planting a comparison plot for inspection to see the difference. We will be getting a 12 pound bucket that will treat a ton of seed.

While waiting for your grass to get up and growing, consider using protein tubs to increase microbes and make the cattle hustle up that tough grass. We have baked and poured tubs available.

With the end of August hopefully comes an end of day after day scorching heat. Now if we could get a little rain all would be great! Well, maybe not all, but it sure could make us feel a little better. With the lack of rain most of our grass is depleted for now. Your Co-Op has the Techni-Feeds and Truckload Commodities available to assist those who may be short on hay and or grazing. The Forage Extenders are also available for the folks needing to stretch their forages out this fall and winter. Whether one of these products will fit your need or you need a product unique to your operation, your Co-Op can help you. The Co-Op Lab continues to test hay and forage samples and is now offering soil and water testing to the members. See the insert provided for more details. We appreciate your support and look forward to serving your feed needs this fall and winter. Have a great September.

GREENVILLE FARM & RANCH CENTER

By Freddie Dale

903 455 6365 Store

903 454 0940 Fertilizer

With Fall right around the corner, plans need to be made for our animal nutritional needs. Our Fall seed meetings went very well with lots of interest being shown in Tam Tbo ryegrass and turnips along with all types of clover. Come by our fertilizer plant or our Farm and Ranch Center in Greenville if you have any questions or seed needs. As always, we remain ready to supply all of your feed, animal health and fencing needs. Thank you for supporting your Co-op. Have an enjoyable and safe Labor Day.

Take samples to a depth of 8 inches from 4 corners and center of pasture for representative results. Combine and mix in a clean Ziploc-style bag marked with sample information. Deliver to Scale House. Results ready in 48 hours!

Water – pH, Conductivity, Total Hardness, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulfates, Nitrates, and Iron. Testing for livestock drinking suitability.

Collect samples from the specific area of trough or pond where water is generally consumed. Place into a CLEAN (preferably unused), lidded container marked with sample information. Keep sample cool, out of direct sunlight, and deliver within 6 hours to the Scale House. Results ready in 48 hours!

WE WILL BE CLOSED MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6TH AND REOPEN ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7TH FOR THE LABOR DAY HOLIDAY. ENJOY THIS TIME WITH YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS.