Grain harvest is winding down and producers throughout the state are busy marketing this year’s crop and planning for the 2012 season. Grain producers use their years of experience along with company and University assistance to plan for the upcoming season. They become soil scientists to match soil types, plant specialists to anticipate weed pressure, meteorologists to anticipate weather patterns, and economists to interpret variety results. Even after all of these decisions, the puzzle is still incomplete. Fertilizer and fuel costs, planting intentions in the United States along with Russia, China and Brazil also play a role in their final decision. Seed and herbicide representatives are requesting planting intentions and herbicide request earlier each year. These early decisions allow companies to align resources in their sales areas and producers can take advantage of company promotions, incentives and availability. Again this year, Cannon, Coffee, DeKalb, Rutherford and Warren Counties plan to host a Crops/Weeds Night in December. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, December 1 at the Woodbury Lions Club Building beginning at 6:30. We have scheduled Crop Specialist – Angela McClure and Weed Specialist – Larry Steckel. Again this year we want to thank our meeting sponsors, Cindy Anderson with Summitville Grain and Feed, Ken Tucker, Manager of the Rutherford Farmers Coop and Bruce Hooper with Hooper Farm Supply. We greatly appreciate their continued support of agriculture in Middle Tennessee.This meeting will in no way take the place of the Annual Middle Tennessee Grain Conference scheduled for January 26. The University of Tennessee Extension has posted results of several variety, fungicide and weed control plots available to assist in your decisions for 2012. This information is available at the Extension Row Crop website at UTcrops.com. For more information on the upcoming Crops/Weeds meeting, contact Steve Harris (931-723-5141, Mitchell Motes (Rutherford County Extension (615-898-7710), Michael Barry (DeKalb County Extension (615-597-4945), Dale Beaty (Warren County Extension (931-473-8484) or Bruce Steelman (Cannon County Extension 563-2554 office 615-542-1364 cell). Also, please mark your calendars for the Middle Tennessee Grain Conference planned for January 26th, 2012. The conference will be held at the Coffee County Fairgrounds in Manchester, Tn. Please contact the Extension Agent in your county for details.
