Extension Notes: It’s time to start thinking Farmer’s Market
The Warren County Agriculture Producers Association is meeting this Monday night, March 1 to assigned market stalls and prepare for the coming market season. This association runs the local Farmer’s Market and last year was the first season in the new market facility. They had a good year and one the highlights was probably the start of the Friday evening market.
They’re hoping for another successful season this year. The meeting Monday night starts at 6 p.m. at the Warren County Administrative office Building on Locust Street.
The board of directors for the association has set Saturday, April 3 as opening day for the coming season. The Wednesday market will start May 5 and the first Friday evening market will begin June 18.
Twenty assigned market stalls will be offered to the same folks who paid for them last year. They must pay for these stalls by Monday, March 1. Anyone else who wants an assigned stall may buy one if stalls are available. The remaining 11 stalls will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis just like last year.
The officers for the association are president Brent Bain, vice president Gloria Whitaker, secretary Carolyn Bickford, and directors Walter Clarke, Linwood Michael, Burton Jones, Carl Wilson and Clarence Webb. Mary Cantrell is the market manager.
We will also discuss vendor rules for the market season. Come to the meeting on the first, and you will receive a copy of the rules for the coming year. The board of director hopes that everyone interested in participating in the Farmer’s Market this year will come to the meeting. They want to hear your suggestions and ideas on how to improve the market for the vendors and the customers. If you have questions or need more information give me a call at 473-8484.
UT BULL TEST STATION SALE
The UT Junior Bull test sale will be held Thursday, March 8 at the Experiment Station south of Spring Hill, Tenn. The sale starts at noon and features approximately 53 Angus, ranging in age from 12-15 months. This is a good place to find a bull for a fall calving herd. Buy him now and you won’t get caught needing one next fall. I’ve got a few catalogs here at the extension office and you can look at a video tape of the bulls at the Warren Farmers CO-OP. Give me a call for more information. You can look at the bulls pedigree and performance information on the Web at: animalscience.ag.utk.edu/beef/bulltest.htm
The Beef Agribition will be held in Murfreesboro at the MTSU AG Pavilion on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, March 9-11. This program features beef cattle shows and sales from 13 different breeds of cattle. You can see ’em all at their best at this program. Also coming up later on March 26 is the eighth annual sale at the Plateau Experiment Station in Crossville.
This sale will feature open replacement heifers, yearling bulls and mature bulls, all of which are Angus, Gelbvieh or Balancer. Give me a call for more information on this sale.
CORN VARIETY PUBLICATION
I recently received copies of the UT Experiment Station Corn Variety Test bulletin for 2003 here at the extension office. This publication give the results of all the different corn variety tests conducted at the UT Experiment Station across the state as well as the county standardized tests. There’s information in this bulletin about Roundup Ready corn varieties as well as information on corn grown for silage. If you want unbiased information about corn varieties and their performance grown under Tennessee conditions this is the place to look.
CATTLE IDENTIFICATION
An issue that all cattle producers in this country are going to face in the near future is individual animal identification. Starting July 1 USDA will put a program into work that will lead to all animals being identified with an ear tag and number that will follow that animal all its life. Now don’t worry yet about how much the tags will cost, where you can get them or any of the other many questions that come to mind.
Answer another question first. Do you have the facilities to gather your cattle, restrain them and attach the identification number to the animal? Folks, cattle handling facilities are important. They can range from the fairly simple and inexpensive chute alongside the wall of a barn to more elaborate, labor-saving designs. The point is that it’s almost impossible to manage a group of cows if you can’t get them up without a lot of trouble and extra labor.
I’ve got a lot of information on cattle handling facilities available here at the extension office. If you want to find out about improving or building a new set of cattle handling facilities on your farm give me a call or come by the extension office. I’ll be glad to help.