From the Barns: Pests on the march

Armyworms are appropriately named. They definitely work like an army, moving their line forward as efficiently and rapidly as possible, striking by surprise and in mass attempting to overwhelm the enemy and gain territory. Once again, we felt this way after discovering significant damage on the morning of Aug. 19. Two years ago, we made a similar discovery on the Sunday of that Labor Day holiday weekend.

This time we had one paddock, the largest of all, pretty much consumed upon discovery. Carson acted quickly with about 40 acres in seven different paddocks needing insecticide spraying for control, three of those were preventative boundaries. This new outbreak sure reminds us to remain vigilant and observe all of our 265 acres of permanent pasture, even when we may not have cattle grazing in the vicinity. Only immediate action can prevent widespread damage. Paddock 18B that was completely damaged has recovered fairly quickly, another good trait of reed canary grass, but our rotation plans were definitely thrown out of sync.

We are becoming very dry again. The row croppers probably don’t mind as corn dry down seems to be speeding toward early harvest. Our cows are not very happy with the dry grass that seems very prevalent as the warm days with full sun continue without any rain in the long-range forecast. I am always reminding Carson that September can be rainy and even bring flooding, either with a hurricane pushing rain up from the Gulf or just a series of fronts. Our second largest flood on the East Fork of the La Moine came in September 1980.

Our stockpiling of fescue paddocks is now 100%. Some of the earliest stockpiled paddocks already look good so if we can just add some September rain we could have great winter grazing.

It is a big week here at River Oak. Two beef nutrition classes from Western Illinois University were here the Tuesday after Labor Day for tours. Dr. Keela Trennepohl always has her students lined out by this time and they were attentive and had some good questions. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 6-7, was the Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition northern grazing school here.

As I write this Thursday night, Sept. 5, everything is prepared except table and chair setup in the morning and putting out some materials from the ILGLC grazing trailer and signage. The forecast is for nice, cool days. The following weekend, Sept. 13-14, will be the ILGLC Southern School at Jeff Beasley’s near Creal Springs. If you have not registered, please do so soon.

Stay safe and sane as harvest begins.