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Better Kansas – Ideas for Living, Growing and Succeeding

Tag: 2020 Census

Better Kansas – Sept. 24, 2020

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

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This week in Better Kansas, we touch on the 2020 Census, brain health, more bugs, soybean market outlook, cattle recordkeeping and early industrial hemp research in Kansas. This is a small glimpse of what K-State Research and Extension across the state has to offer. Share on social media and subscribe! – Mary Lou Peter mlpeter@ksu.edu

Better Living, Better Communities

GREAT JOB, KANSAS! It’s so nice to have some good news. With just days left to respond to the 2020 U.S. Census, 98.6% of Kansas households had responded, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That beats the national response rate of 95% as of Sept. 22. For a current look at the response rate in Kansas and other states, check out the U.S. Census 2020 website. By the way, if you’re reading this and have not responded, you have until Sept. 30, so get in there and make sure our neighborhoods, communities and state get our share of billions of federal dollars that go to hospitals, fire departments, schools, roads and other critical resources.

 

BE HONEST, HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU CLIMBED THE STAIRS with five different things on your mind (or maybe just one?! :-0), and forgotten why you went up to that room to start with? It happens to all of us for various reasons. In Keys to Embracing Aging: Brain Activity, we learn about ways we can stay mentally fit through socialization, nutrition, sleep, physical activity, and mental stimulation. It sounds so easy, but that’s not always so. Our lives just don’t always lend themselves to taking good care of ourselves … sometimes a little retooling is in order. And let me be clear, it’s not strictly an age thing. Ask any woman who just had a baby about Mommy brain or brain fog. And guys, I have plenty of anecdotal evidence, it’s not just us girls.

HERE I GO AGAIN WITH THE BUGS….

If you have generally come to an agreement with the bugs in your neighborhood, that they stay in their space and you stay in yours, it’s easy to coexist with them. I don’t often find bugs in my house but have encountered three spiders in the last two weeks. I read somewhere that they’re just looking for a warm place as the days and nights get cooler. Can’t blame them but I really don’t want to share my personal space with them, either. Take a look at Household Insects of Kansas for all kinds of good information about everything from boxelder bugs to crickets to termites and everything in between. There’s even info on Firebrats … there really is such a thing and it’s not a tv show about superhero kids.

And one more thing … rest in peace RBG and know that you did your job well. Many of us benefitted from your strength, courage and wisdom, including me.

 Better Farming, Ranching and Gardening

SOME GOOD NEWS ON THE AGRICULTURE FRONT is that soybean prices have trended higher and may stay strong for a while. In the Sept. 11 Crop Production and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, known in ag circles as WASDE, the USDA projected the U.S. soybean average farm price at $9.25 per bushel, up $0.90 or 10.8% from the $8.35 per bushel it had projected in its Aug. 10 report. Take a look at the Soybean Market Outlook in September 2020 for much more information about the soybean market and what’s affecting it.

 

WITH MORE THAN 1.5 MILLION HEAD OF BEEF COWS IN KANSAS, producers have a lot to keep track of. Whether you have 30 cows or 300 or more, it’s important to keep good records on calving, vaccinations, treatment and other data. The Cow/Calf Record Book was designed to help with that recordkeeping. In addition to space for individual records, it provides a guide to body condition scoring, a gestation table, and other information. “You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” the authors say, and with the farm economy right now, people who know about these things say that now more than ever, management is the name of the game. Take a look.

 

MAYBE YOU’VE HEARD, K-STATE IS DELVING INTO RESEARCH ON INDUSTRIAL HEMP and its possibilities as a commercial crop for Kansas. Check out a research report on initial studies, a news article about studies focused on analyzing the safety of industrial hemp for use as cattle feed, plus listen to a Dig Deep podcast featuring a researcher who is leading industrial hemp crop studies at sites across the state. Since we’re in the early stages, I’ll keep you posted!

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For more resources and activities, contact the K-State Research and Extension office in your area. Check out our other blogs and subscribe to our weekly emails here: https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/blogs/

Better Kansas – Aug. 20, 2020

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

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In today’s Better Kansas, we touch on financial planning for the holidays, 2020 Census, SNAKES, corn and soybean status and crop irrigation research and outreach. This is a small glimpse of what K-State Research and Extension across the state has to offer. Share on social media and subscribe! – Mary Lou Peter mlpeter@ksu.edu

Better Living, Better Communities

IT’S ONLY AUGUST, BUT THIS MAY BE THE BEST TIME OF YEAR TO ASK THOSE WE HOLD NEAR AND DEAR FOR holiday gift suggestions. The thinking is that we can spread shopping (and the expense) out over a few months rather than wait until the last minute. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but it’s worth a try. We don’t really know what December in the time of COVID-19 will look like, but some things probably will not change – gift giving, gatherings (of people at least in your bubble) and possibly travel. Christmas Spending: Planning Ahead Matters gives us things to think about. Maybe we can buffer a little holiday stress by planning ahead.

 

A K-STATE RESEARCH AND EXTENSION SPECIALIST this week pointed out that one in three Kansans still have not responded to the 2020 Census. If you haven’t already, please take a few minutes (I promise, it’s no more than that) to go online or call 844-330-2020 OR dig out that paper form you may have received months ago, fill it out and mail it back. It truly is shorter than I remember from previous census forms and the stakes are huge. The results determine congressional representation, how billions of dollars in federal funding are allocated and other decisions that will impact every one of our communities. Decisions about where to build new schools, new roads, where to offer grants for community mental health, and much more are based on this data. Read about the census in Kansas, plus a Wichita Eagle newspaper article sheds more light on implications for the state. You may have to sign up for an account to read it, but it’s free.

Better Farming, Ranching and Gardening

I WAS IN CENTRAL KANSAS RECENTLY ON A FRIEND’S FARM and I admit, I was keeping a watchful eye out for snakes. With so many of us spending time outdoors right now, reading up on the myths, habitat, control and benefits (yes, there are some), is a good idea. Some of the common poisonous types we have in Kansas are cottonmouth, Copperhead, Massasauga and Timber Rattlesnake. But not all snakes are poisonous and we have many in Kansas that are not. To learn more, including how to tell a poisonous from a non-poisonous, check out Snakes: Urban Wildlife Damage Control.

 

SOYBEANS AND CORN ARE IMPORTANT CROPS IN KANSAS and this year’s crops are coming along but there are always challenges, including diseases. Southern rust, gray leaf spot, stalk rots and an interesting disorder called lesion mimic have shown up in some Kansas corn. Soybean fields have exhibited signs of (love this name) frogeye leaf spot, as well as Septoria brown spot and bacterial blight. Take a look at Status of disease pressure in corn and soybeans for pictures and descriptions of what to look for and potential ways to manage them. The Kansas corn crop was rated 15% excellent, 48% good, 25% fair, and 12% poor to very poor as of Aug. 16, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Soybeans were rated 19% excellent, 50% good, 25% fair and 6% poor to very poor. Data for weekly reports is contributed by USDA’s Farm Service Agency, K-State Research and Extension, and other reporters across the state.

 

WATER IS NECESSARY FOR LIFE OF ALL KINDS and in areas where it’s scarce, it’s even more important to get the most out of every drop. Making crop irrigation as efficient as possible is at the heart of the water management research program at the Southwest Research-Extension Center in Garden City and other research centers. Check out current projects and learn about Water Technology farm outreach efforts through K-State Research and Extension collaborations with the Kansas Water Office and privately-owned farms in western and southern Kansas, and other agencies and organizations. Through the vision and generosity of those farmer-collaborators, the public is able to view how new irrigation technologies and management techniques work on real-world farms.

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For more resources and activities, contact the K-State Research and Extension office in your area. Check out our other blogs and subscribe to our weekly emails here: https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/blogs/