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Articles written by Mark Watson Resources Conservationist


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  • No Till Notes: 'Only-16'

    Mark Watson Resources Conservationist|Dec 16, 2013

    The good news is that the temperature only dropped to 16 below zero last night and the weathermen are predicting a slow warm up for this week. It’s been quite some time since we have endured a prolonged cold spell like this one. By the time you read this I hope the temperatures are at least back to what will feel like a balmy normal winter temperature for our area. We did receive about a foot of snow here in the Alliance area. Fortunately the wind hasn’t moved the snow around too much and hopefully the snow will settle down and crust before the...

  • No Till Notes: 'Stripper head'

    Mark Watson Resources Conservationist|Dec 9, 2013

    Back in October when we were getting started combining our dry land corn crop I visited with a neighbor about the value of wheat residues and residue height in dry land corn production. My neighbor thought he should purchase a stripper head for combining his winter wheat crop to leave more standing residue. The year before he had combined his dry land wheat with a conventional head and had baled the straw for his cattle. He then planted his dry land corn into the wheat residue left in the field. Right beside his dry land corn field was a field...

  • No till notes: 'Wildlife conservation habitat'

    Mark Watson Resources Conservationist|Nov 25, 2013

    With pheasant hunting season in full swing I thought I would look at some opportunities for recreation in our area. I know we have a recreational opportunity in our region for attracting pheasant and deer hunters to our area on a much larger scale than what is currently available. If you provide a good hunting environment for these hunters there is a real opportunity for increasing farm income and benefiting the businesses in our communities. There are many hunters along the Front Range of Colorado and surrounding areas that are willing to pay...

  • No till notes: 'Grinding'

    Mark Watson Resources Conservationist|Nov 11, 2013

    We finally were able to start combining our irrigated corn yesterday afternoon as the moisture in the corn dropped to below 16 percent which was welcome news. Overnight it snowed about 4 inches, so we’re back in a holding pattern again. This has been a familiar pattern this fall planting and harvesting season. I was visiting with a good friend of mine who was comparing his sugar beet harvest to the crab fishermen on the television show “Deadliest Catch.” He felt his sugar beet harvest was similar to the fishermen pulling up empty pots with...