-(Narrator) Monatana Ag Live is

made possible by

The Montana Deptment of

Agriculture

The MSU

extension service,

the MSU Ag Experiment Stations

of the College of Agriculture,

the Montana Wheat

and Barley Committee,

the Montana Bankers Association,

Cashman Nursery and Landscaping,

and the Gallatin Gardeners Club.

♪ If your herbicides

and fungicides and

♪ The veggies you are growing

in your garden start to mold

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and you£re having a hard time

♪ Call Montana AG Live

♪ Knapweed in the ditch and

the old bull's got an itch

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the wool is really cheap

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are even worse than last year

♪ Montana AG Live where are you

- Good evening, welcome

to Montana AG Live

originating tonight from

the studios of KUSM,

on the beautiful campus of

Montana State University

and coming to you over

Montana public television.

I'm Jack Riesselman, I'll

be your host and moderator

and maybe antagonist tonight.

We've got some people here

that I've might have throw

some nasty questions to us,

it's always a lot of fun.

So tonight, let me

introduce the panel.

To immediate left, Gary Brester,

Gary's been on numerous times.

He's an ag economist so

if you have any questions

regarding ag economics

or economics in general,

now is a good time

to get an answer.

Next to Gary is Clain Jones.

Clain is a soil

fertility specialist

and this is a good time

of year to ask questions

about what you wanna do

relative to fertilizer,

either in your lawn and

gardens or on your ag land.

So, if you have questions

regarding fertilizer,

Clain's here tonight.

I'd like to welcome a

special guest tonight,

Richard Browning is with Montana

Department of Agriculture.

Richard is an ag land specialist

for appraisal purposes.

So, if you have questions

about how land is taxed,

anything you'd like

to learn about that,

tonight will be a good

chance to ask Richard.

Mary Burrows, plant pathologist,

I think Mary's been

here many, many times.

And answering the phone tonight,

starting from the left is

Barb Schaff, Nancy Blake,

and Cheryl Moore-Gough.

So folks, you know the routine,

if you have questions

call 'em in,

there's the number on

the screen pretty soon

but before we start,

Richard, tell us a little

bit about what you do

for the Montana

Department of Revenue.

- Yeah, certainly,

thank you, Jack.

Well, I've been at

this for about 12 years

since 2007, I've

been actively devoted

to agricultural appraisals

and (clears throat)

some of the history in

that is that in 2007,

we began ground truthing

where state why we went around

and identified fields,

field boundaries

and what type of

agricultural practice,

what type of irrigation

was occurring,

developed maps and

sent out what we called

ag mapped mailings to

all the ownerships,

ask them for review and

feedback and we got plenty.

And so, that led us to the

process and the methodology

that we use today to value

agricultural ag lands.

- Okay, we'll get into

that as day goes on

but you know, Montana's a big

state to do the entire state

was a big job.

- Yes, it was a huge project

and it's also included

forest lands as well.

They were handled a little

bit differently though.

- Okay, sounds good.

Mary, we'll get

started with you,

this question came

in from Plentywood

which for some of you who

don't know where that is,

extreme northeast

corner of the state,

they grow a lot of lentils out

in that part of the country.

Lentils have been a very

profitable crop recently

but this person had while

mold on their lentils.

What is it and what can

they do to avoid it?

- White mold is a fungal disease

caused by Sclerotinia

sclerotiorum,

and it kinda caught us

by surprise this year.

We had cool, wet

conditions after flowering

and in lentils, the fungus

can probably come in

in those deadly using the

bottom of the canopy as well.

So, we had washed

crops very bumper crops

as far as yields of lush

canopies, cool, wet conditions

it's very, very wet in

that area of the country,

and probably the inoculum have

been building up for years.

So, we had thousands of acres

that died from white mold

and I'll be up there

in a couple of weeks

talking about white

mold and scab on derm.

- Okay, do you foresee

lentils growth increasing

as it has the last few years?

- It's up to the

markets, I think.

I think, people, I hope,

they will be more attentive

to their crop rotations.

Sclerotinia infects

a very broad range

of dicot crops and weeds,

so if we can get 45 acres or

45 years between pulse crops

and be careful about

the use of canola

which is also very

susceptible to this disease,

we'll be a long far away ahead.

- And sunflower.

- Yeah, and sunflower,

and there are some fungicides

but they kept to be used

at the right time

and the right way,

and getting that penetration

of the canopy and lentil

is extremely difficult.

- I agree with you.

Richard.

- Yes.

- From Manhattan, this

person wants to know,

has his irrigated land

values increased recently?

He seems to think so.

- The last irrigated land

increase beginning of this,

the current reappraisal

cycle that we're in,

that would have been 2015.

In 2015, legislature

decided that we were going

from a six-year cycle

to a two-year cycle

so the value that was

established in 2015

would carry through

2015 and 2016,

and yes, it did

increase at that time,

however, the land

value wouldn't increase

throughout that cycle,

perhaps the taxes did

but that is more than

likely a mill levy issue.

- [Jack] Okay.

- May I correct?

- Sure.

- And Richard, it isn't

that the market value,

the market value of the land

may have been increasing

but what's determining

that is the mill levy issue

you mentioned and

probably the price cycle

over which the value the

crop was being evaluated

was the big changing

factor, wouldn't have been?

- Yeah, at the

beginning of each cycle,

the price cycle or the

Olympic year average

that we use to determine

the average commodity price

will stay, will be

the commodity price

that we use for

the entire cycle.

So, a value of an

acre of irrigated land

however, the mill

levy is the wild card

that would yeah, thank you.

- Sounds good.

Gary, cattle prices are much

lower, any reason for that?

What's the foreseeable

future for cattle prices?

- Sure, sure, there's

always reasons for it.

I was just thinking,

the first few times

I was on Montana AG Live,

I didn't need these,

and now, I do need

these to check

but actually, I had

somebody tell me once

that the good thing

about wearing glasses,

it gives you time

to take 'em off,

it gives you time to think

before you answer a question.

Cattle prices reached a

record high two years ago

and I'm talking about

both live cattle

and feeder cattle prices,

and it was actually

quite surprising how high

those prices were for some time.

It's a combination of demand

for agricultural commodity

is pretty steady.

I mean, I changes a little

bit from time to time

but not enough to cause

big swings in prices.

Excuse me, what causes

swings is production factors.

And a couple of years

ago between pork

and poultry disease problems,

we had a protein problem

that we just didn't

have enough protein,

prices went very high,

and prices are much lower

today than their record was

and it's primarily because the

pork and poultry industries

have their production

situation in good shape,

the U.S. live stock industry

responded to higher prices

and production

increased as well,

but nonetheless, while prices

are lower than the record,

it doesn't mean that

there a disaster,

we still have relative to when

I didn't need to wear these,

we have very strong price,

and of course, costs

are higher as well

but nonetheless,

I, for the future,

I think we're gonna

see sort of prices

near their long run

average which on the trend

would be about where

they're at today

but I kinda think this is

at the bottom side of that.

I think in the next year or two,

we'll see some strengthening

in those markets

and I'm very bullish

on the cattle industry

primarily because the world

just isn't creating more grass

and we're creating more

people and as a result,

I think you're never gonna have

a record price every

year, of course,

but I think we can expect

a pretty solid prices

down the road.

- I'm gonna come

back to prices every,

you mentioned pastures,

there's a question here

from Hamilton for you, Clain.

Their pasture

looks pretty tough,

it could be due to a lot of

things over grains and whatever

but they would like to know,

should they recede

it or fertilize it?

- So, a good question,

without seeing it,

it's hard to know but

what I would recommend

is do a soil test, there's

still plenty of time

before the ground freezes up

this fall or early winter.

What I would recommend

doing is, doing a soil test.

You can call local

fertilizer dealer,

they can come out

and do it for you.

I also have a Mont guide

that I'd like to show here

on soil testing and

fertilizer guidelines

and so, this specific

one is for home gardeners

but it can also be

used for pastures.

The title is Home

Garden Soil Testing

and Fertilizer Guidelines,

and you can find

this on my website

and the way you find my website

is you type in Clain,

C-L-A-I-N and soil,

and usually, my website's

the first one to come up

and then you can find this.

I'd recommend a soil

test before you go

and spend a lot of money

receding or fertilizing.

Find out whether you're

low in nutrients or not.

- Okay, we'll go back to Gary.

I'd like to throw

curves to people.

- Thank you.

- Yeah, you're welcome,

egg prices have collapsed.

Year ago, we were

paying $3 a dozen,

you can buy 'em for

69 cents now, why?

- Well, again, the

avian flu problem

really hurt so much to

the poultry producers

and so that's why poultry

production was down

but egg production

was down a lot,

so we had very, very

high prices for eggs

for six months, almost a year,

and since that time,

the production

systems have improved,

they have been able to get

rid of some of those problems

and production is

back on normal.

So, if we ever take a

look at these prices,

we always tend to think about,

it is relative to the highest

price we've ever seen,

this one isn't nearly as high

but relative to the long

run average price of eggs,

we're probably in the ballpark,

we're probably a

little bit lower

but that's the

usual approach again

with agriculture commodities.

Demand is pretty constant

and people have to eat

and I eat too much

and so, consequently,

pretty small changes, relatively

small changes in production

for agricultural commodities

caused pretty large

swings in prices

and that why people work

very hard at managing risks

through contracting in

future's markets when they can

and the versification

of different crops

and livestock enterprises.

So, the business is

certainly a risky one,

not only in the yield side but

especially on the price side.

- Sounds good.

Richard, this person

would like to know

why our agricultural

property taxes

based on the

productivity factors

rather than property values?

- That's a good question.

Well, (clears throat)

legislature houses deemed

that agricultural values

should not be affected

by the speculate

of market around them

and so productivity

is what we utilize along with

an average commodity price.

The productivities

that we utilize,

we use the NRCS soil survey.

The commodity prices that

we use are for spring wheat,

alfalfa hay, and

private grazing lease.

- For we have a lot of people

that are not basic farmers,

ranchers, and so forth

that watch the program,

can you give us

a ballpark figure

and what dry land,

agricultural land is valued at

for tax purposes

versus irrigated.

- Yeah, well, (clears throat)

well, valuation wise,

you could probably look

at dry land hay valuings

somewhere in that

$100 to $400 an acre.

Irrigated land is gonna start

at a minimum of $511 an acre

which is set by statute

and can go up to,

well, $2003 an acre

would be the highest

irrigated which we don't--

- [Jack] A lot of

variation there.

- Yes, yeah.

- [Jack] And you?

- And those valuations are

based upon the productivity

of that land but none

on the specific crop

with the exception

of spring weed

if you're in a dry land area,

irrigated areas are all

based upon its ability,

that soil type's ability

to produce alfalfa hay,

and that multiplied by

the price of alfalfa hay

over a certain period of time,

that gives you its value

which is then multiplied

by another factor to

represent a share of that

that would go to

land and as a result,

whether you're

raising sugar beets

or whether you're

raising lentils.

You know, lentils are never

again, try to think another,

molten barley, the same

taxable process is used

as if we were just all

being done with alfalfa hay,

and then all that's

multiplied by mill levies

and that's where a lot

of the variation happens

when you're in a fairly urban

area like around Bozeman,

we have higher mill

levies than you would have

in some lesser

populated counties.

- Sounds good.

- So follow up to

either Richard or Gary,

those were from property

tax reasons, right?

Valuations?

- Yeah, Sir,

valuations are for

property tax purposes only.

- And how do this compare

to just kind of in general

to say sale prices over the

last few years, any idea?

- Yeah, well.

- [Clain] Just curious.

- Well, you could

probably look at rec,

you know, I'm not an

expert in this one

but you could probably look

at recreational ranch prices

anywhere from 5,000

an acre on out.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, substantially higher.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- But housing,

residential housing is

it is done based on market value

but then, it's adjusted

down much lower

before mill levies are

attached to it as well so.

- Okay, Mary, from Cut Bank,

they have a lot of potatoes,

they wanna know whether

or not they should plow

the potato tubs back

into the garden.

- I thought everything

should by plowed back

into the garden, no Gary?

You're saying no?

- I use sanitation purposes.

I'm not sure, I

think I'd remove 'em.

- Okay, why?

Just very briefly.

- Yeah, there could be

several different diseases,

they could be on a, do

the same for sugar beets.

That's why you rotate I think.

- Yup.

- Yup.

- Okay, from Reggae, Clain,

this field they

have is low in zinc,

what can they do to replace

the low level of zinc,

what should they be doing?

- Right so, zinc is what's

considered a micronutrient,

crops don't need a

very high amount of it

but they still need some of it.

Somewhere in order maybe just

one or two pounds per acre,

so much less than

nitrogen which is needed

a closer to, say,

100 pounds per acre.

There's couple of ways

to get in into the plant.

One is to put it into the

soil and if you do that,

you wanna make sure you

put it near the seed

because zinc is what's

considered immobile in the soil.

It doesn't move very

far, it sticks to soil.

Another alternative to that

especially if you notice

the deficiency in season

would be to foliar apply it

to the leaf surface

and hope a little bit

gets absorbed by the plant.

Doing anything like broadcast

application, spreading it out,

just doesn't work because

it does stick so strongly

to the soil so with the

seed or foliar applied

would by my recommendation.

- Clain, what does

zinc do for the plant?

What happens if you

don't have enough?

- So, I'm not a physiologist

but some of the symptoms

are what's called

short internodes

so, like a corn plant

will have a stem here

and will have a stem

here, it'll be very short,

and that's one of the

big deficiency symptoms.

Another is yellowing

of the middle leaves.

Most deficiency show up

on the upper or the lower,

zinc is unique and

that it shows up

in kinda more the middle,

bronzing to yellowing

of the leaf surface.

- Okay, thanks, Clain.

Richard, last week,

this caller is referring

to something we talked

about last week,

they noted that there's

a lot of ag land

that is no longer being

farmed but it's just waiting

to be developed and as a result,

there were a lot

of weeds on 'em.

We discussed this

little last week.

Can they maintain ag land

evaluations or valuation

if they're not farming it,

just let them go to weeds?

- No.

A qualified ag classification

has to be under production

unless it's a 160

acres or greater,

and it's automatically

classified as qualified ag.

Personnels in town,

generally speaking,

I would say, most of 'em are

probably under 160 acres,

they would have to

be under production

and that, of course,

leads to another issue,

when properties are

within the city limits,

the first place to start is

with the city jurisdiction

whether they even allow

agricultural production

within the city boundaries.

So, in those cases,

we suggest people

go talk to the

planning department

and if they will allow it

then we would ask for

some written documentation

that we can hang our head on

and then we would, they would

have to meet the requirements

of minimum income requirements.

They would have to prove

that the activity on the land

is a bonafide

agricultural activity.

- What is the minimum

amount of dollars

to qualify for an

agricultural parcel?

- Yeah, for in the agricultural

application process,

the minimum dollar

amount is $1,500

and it's a gross

agricultural income per year.

- Okay, sounds good.

Mary, can one follow lentils,

this came from

Chester, with mustard,

if so, how much time is

required between the crops.

- I would not recommend

that for a number of,

put some cereals in between.

- Yeah, that be best.

Richard, from Gallatin County,

this person has 18 acres

with about two dozen chickens

and she sells the eggs,

can she get this designated

as ag land for tax purposes?

- (laughs) That's a

very good question.

Chickens are a little

bit different animal.

To start with, they

need to be free range.

In all of the agricultural

application process

what you have to

remember is that it's,

what is the soil producing.

So, everything goes

back to that soil,

how much forage or crop

it's producing to sustain

either livestock or crops.

With chickens, they

need to be free range,

they can have some

supplemental food

and the nutrition minerals,

and then hit that point

then they have to meet

the income requirement of $1,500

for the production

of eggs, meat.

- [Jack] So, she might

have to get more chickens.

- Chickens require some

pretty good documentation

and it's quite a bit

of back and forth,

quite a bit of conversation,

probably a little more involved

than what we can talk about here

but if you do, and

you have questions,

and if you're in

Gallatin County,

I would suggest call our office,

speak to Lorie Blue or myself,

and we can go into a

little more depth on that.

- So essentially,

you're trying to,

this will be a grazing land,

it's just that you're

grazing chickens on that.

Is that sort of how

it'll be evaluated?

- Yes actually.

- That's what

you're looking for,

is a grazing use, I guess.

- Yeah.

- Clain, thanks guys.

Clain, this person

would like to know

the best time to fertilize

their lawn this fall,

and they'd like a recommendation

as to what they should use.

- Okay, I would say

anytime between now

and early to mid-October

would be a good time

to fertilize if you're

gonna fertilize this fall.

If you know your sandy,

if you know your soil,

let's say coarse or shallow,

it might hold off 'til spring

'cause you might end up

using some of the nitrogen

but if you have a fine texture,

lot of clay and salt in it,

between now and mid-October

would be a good time.

The recommendations for turf,

you may not probably know

as well, as I do,

generally high in nitrogen

and relatively low in

phosphorus and potassium.

- Yeah, I would

say except in fall,

I'd like to back the

nitrogen down a little bit

because like 17-17-17,

so that work pretty

good right now.

Gary, this is always a good one.

This person says

that wheat prices

are ridiculously low right now,

and I might have

to agree with that.

Especially, relative

to a year ago,

they wanna know why.

- Yeah, well, it sounds like

the same song second verse

but in many cases,

that's actually true.

Wheat prices are pretty

near their long run average.

Right now, we had a very

stronger, much stronger price

a couple of years ago.

The reality is that's

that we've just had,

not only in the

U.S. but worldwide,

very good production conditions

over the last couple of years.

The U.S. are gonna produce

over two billion bushels

again this year,

stocks are going to be

high and as a result,

there's a lot of wheat around.

One of the good news,

pieces of information

for the Montana

producers is that Montana

is generally considered

the place that you go

and look for high-protein

spring wheat to mix with a lot

of lower protein winter

and other spring wheats.

We have such a big production

so much of it came out of

the Oklahoma Panhandle,

and those areas of winter

wheat that rain there.

And when it rains, of course,

protein level are quite low,

so there is, well,

overall wheat prices

are pretty low right now,

those people that manage

to get substantial protein

into their spring wheat

or getting some pretty

nice looking premiums

and will probably

continue to do that

throughout the year just

because big wheat crops

often mean a low protein

and so they come to Montana

and other places in

the northern tier

to find higher proteins

to mix and blend

that winter wheat up and

other spring wheats up.

- Long term projection

for acreage,

you think it will

continually increase?

Or because that

prices, you think,

wheat acres will go down again.

- Usually, acres

will follow a little,

low enough prices mean

people start looking else

where lentils and

pulses in Montana

but around the rest

of the country,

corn or other crops as

well and including barley.

So, you will see few acres

probably plan it next year

as a result of

lower prices issue.

That's how markets

work and as consumers

we love to see that.

As producers, I don't know

how people sleep at night

but, I think, I couldn't.

- Okay, Richard,

from Great Falls,

this person would like

to sell five acres

of ag land to their daughter,

how would this affect his

ag land classification.

- That's a really great question

because in that seemingly

simple question,

it addresses a myriad of

scenarios that we run into.

First off, the splitting of

the sale of five acres of land,

it'll trigger a post card being

mailed out to the new owner

saying that, "You've

just bought land

"that was previously

classified as ag land

"and we need to review it

"to see if we could

retain its status."

It would, as five acres,

it would go into a track

land classification

and the value of that would

be more a market valuation

so it would be

substantially higher

than the productivity

valuation of ag land.

Five acres is pretty

difficult to classify

as qualified ag through

the application process

simply 'cause it's a small piece

and it's hard to meet

that income requirement.

So, it's a great question

and I guess my suggestion

would be, if you're gonna

do something like that

is call the local office with

what you're intending to do,

find out what the

ramifications are

and if there is anything that

can be done to mediate that.

- Good advice, okay.

Clain, from Billings,

this person asks,

carrots that were

extremely hairy

and I've seen that quite often

and their potatoes

were really small,

any ideas what was wrong?

- So, by hairy, I simply

mean lot of fine roots,

- Lot of roots, yeah.

- I've seen that

and small potatoes so, I've

heard but I haven't studied this

but I've heard that

hairy carrots are

So, the person

might wanna back off

the nitrogen

fertilizer next year,

small, anything that

grows in the ground.

So, carrots, potatoes, radishes,

generally is indication

of low potassium.

So, potassium helps make an

enzyme which makes starch,

these below ground root

vegetable are full of starch,

and so, they're probably

high in nitrogen

and low in potassium

is my guess.

- And potassium and phosphorus,

are they mobile in the soil

or do they have to be

incorporated when you apply 'em?

- Yes, both potassium

and phosphorus

are what's called

immobile in the soil.

They stick very strong to

the soil just like zinc does

and so, you would need to get

it down into the root zone

with a rototiller or shovel,

some way to get it down

in the roots.

- Don't say shovel.

- Mary, can the small

potatoes be an indication

of a disease problem though

as well as the potatoes

have been in the same

spot too many times

are not using certified seed?

- It certainly could and

also hairy roots on carrots

are often due to phytoplasmas

which are so well as bacteria

transmitted by leaf hoppers

which are very

common in Billings,

and if their carrots are bitter,

that might be also

be an indication

or if they had small, yellow,

or purple leaves on them.

- With phytoplasma.

- Phytoplasma, yeah.

- They are usually one or

two in a row of carrots,

it wouldn't be all of them.

- [Mary] Yeah.

- That's what I've

seen within the past.

Okay, another question

for Richard from Forsyth.

This person has 78 acres that

he leases to another person

to have at few heifers on it.

He gets about

$1,500 rent from it.

The county says it doesn't

qualify as ag land.

Can he appeal this?

- Yeah well, yes, every

owner has appeal rights.

Probably what he's running

into is the, (clears throat)

the lease amount of

$1,500, you know,

it's a good indication of a

bonafide agricultural activity

but when livestock's

involved we have to utilize

animal unit months or AUMs,

the magic number there

is 31 AUMs, it's the

equivalent of the $1,500.

So, if the soil itself

is not as a parcel whole,

it's not meeting that 31 AUMs,

and we wouldn't be

able to classify that.

- So, if this person were to,

I'm gonna play the

devil's advocate,

if you input 35 to 50

units of nitrogen on it,

kick the forage up

by a ton per acre,

and put a few more

heifers on it,

then he could probably qualify.

- Yeah, in a case like that,

we would probably ask for and

require some documentation

from a soil agronomist

to substantiate

what his claim would

be on that parcel

since it what could

potentially be so different

from what the NRCS soil

survey is suggesting

the carrying capacity to be.

- Because Richard,

your first go-to

is the soil maps and what

we believe the productivity

is based on that soil type,

not necessarily what's

actually produced there.

- Absolutely, and we utilize

that so that, you know,

someone doesn't

overpopulate their parcel,

and it's a more uniform

approach statewide.

And if I could just back-up

to that previous question

about the five acre sale,

it could potentially

have an impact

on the remainder piece,

the parent piece as well.

If that piece were to

be less than 160 acres

and we'd probably have to review

the ag application

for that piece.

If it were, say, it were 22

acres, they sell off five,

that leaves a 17-acre piece

and a five-acre piece.

They're both below the

non-qualified ag classification

of 20 acres or more.

So potentially, that could

both go into a track land value

which would have substantially

higher tax liability for both.

So again, I would suggest

call the local office

and those are good questions,

ask the folks in

the local offices,

they're more than

willing to help.

- Clain, if you put 35 to 50

units of nitrogen on a pasture,

how much forage increase

would you normally get?

That so mean that needs

a little nitrogen?

- Yeah so, I usually

say about 25 pounds

of nitrogen per ton but

does last units of nitrogen

usually don't produce that.

So, there's kind

of a plateauing.

So, it might be about

a ton if nitrogen

was really limiting but

water is often limited first.

- Yeah, I agree with you.

Mary, this person's

from Great Falls

and obviously they've had

some wheat streak issues

which is a virus up

in that area on wheat.

They wanna know if

there's any insecticides

which they could use

to manage the vector

which is a wheat curl mite?

- No, and the questions

I've been getting lately

are Cruiser, that was a seed

treatment or corn and wheat,

and that has no efficacy

in wheat curl mite.

There's one foliar product

that did have

efficacy on curl mite

but it did not prevent

the spread of the disease

so it's not effective enough.

- [Jack] Okay, sounds good.

- What's the best

thing a person can do

to avoid wheat

streak mosaic virus?

- Eliminate the green

bridge and right now plenty.

- Will you explain the green

bridge, we have a lot of people

that probably don't understand

what a green bridge is.

- So, the green

bridge is the presence

of green plant material between

the harvesting of one crop

and the planting of the next.

So, if you're trying to

plant your winter wheat now

and there's spring wheat

nearby that's still standing

that might will move into

your newly planted crop,

and move the virus with it.

- Or volunteer.

- Or volunteer which is

usually volunteer wheat

or cheatgrass is

also a significant

- We have cheatgrass in Montana?

- [Mary] No, none.

- Okay, Richard, this

person wants to know

why they're grazing

land value decreased.

- (laughs) Well,

for 2015, again,

it's a legislative decision,

and as footnote,

everything that we do,

we administrate legislative

decisions and laws, statutes,

but for 2015, the

size of an animal unit

was increased from 1,000

pounds to 1,200 pounds.

So, by doing that, it

decreases the amount of forage

that's available on

a piece of ground.

And so, the

productivity's went down,

and that was enough

to offset the increase

in the private grazing lease

which is the commodity price

that we utilize to

value grazing land.

- Okay, sounds good.

Clain, fall fertilizer on

winter wheat, good or bad idea?

From Great Falls.

- I think it depends a

little bit on the the soil

and how busy your going

to be in the spring.

Traditionally, winter wheat

was fertilized in the fall.

I think, with research done

by my colleague, Rick Angle,

showing that there's more

loss to the atmosphere

if you fertilize in the fall.

People are going later in

the fall which I'd recommend

or waiting until late

winter or even early spring.

There's going to

be a fewer losses

the longer you can

afford to wait.

A lot of people are

very busy in the spring

so they're trying

to find something

they can get done ahead of time.

- Do people have used

anhydrous ammonia

in winter wheat

production at all?

- It's almost like less than

half of percent of Montana,

it's hardly done anymore.

- And why is that?

- You know, I don't

know the exact reason.

I've heard things that once

the equipment gives out,

it's hard to replace spreading

urea via fertilizer deal

or something very

easy and simple to do,

it's not quite as easy to manage

tanks of this toxic ammonia

so I think, there's

a variety of reasons.

Still being used, you know,

pretty heavily elsewhere

in the country though.

- And you're not as wide and

so it's gonna take longer

and you're pulling

shanks through the soil

that are using

horsepower and fuel,

so, I think, a combination

of all of those things.

- Is it more reasonable

anhydrous cheaper?

- Anhydrous per pound of

nitrogen is cheaper than urea,

so it used to be the kinda more

of the standard fertilizer.

- But while we have you, urea,

if you put it on the surface,

and it's 75 to 80

degrees, what happens?

- If it's moist in

75 or 80 degrees,

there's a good chance it's

gonna escape to the atmosphere.

- So, it almost has

to be incorporated

or rained in or something?

- Yes.

- Okay.

Richard, from Chouteau,

this is another one.

You're striking the tom with

a lot of people out there.

- It's a hot topic.

- It is.

This person has a parcel land,

160 acres listed as ag land

but it was plotted for

subdivision in about 2,000.

Is that subdivision

plotting still in effect?

- Yeah, I believe that,

you know, if it's platted,

then it's platted until

something occurs to unplat it.

At 160 acres and it

would be classified

as agricultural land.

- Okay.

- You know.

- Sounds good.

Mary, from Denton, winter

wheats double in that area,

have areas that brown

that yielded 30% lower

than other areas of field.

What do you think it is and how

can they avoid it next year?

- We've gone a couple of

samples from that area.

A lot of it has been

Fusarium crown rot,

and it's actually causing

the stubble to turn brown,

and that's very

difficult to control

if you're gonna grow wheat.

So, there's some seed

treatments that you can use

that would help prevent it

but they don't last very long

and overall, they don't

prevent it long term.

- You know, when I was

around the state years ago,

there were areas

northern then up,

closer to Havre, Black Eagle,

that area that had a

lot of hardpan areas

that would do the same thing.

Do you see any of

that with Denton area?

- I have not been

there to look for it.

The samples that we

got had crown rot.

- Okay, Clain, you know

of any hardpan in--

- No.

- No, okay.

This one, for Gary

and/or Richard.

Do agricultural

property taxes increase

because of urban encroachment?

- Only in that the

mill levy may increase,

agricultural land,

again, is valued

on its potential productivity

that we utilize in

NRCS soil survey,

by statute, agricultural

land is not subject

to the speculated

market around it.

So again, it's agricultural land

is based on its

potential productivity

and an average commodity price.

So, not really.

However, the tax

liability can be affected

by the increase in

mill levy as a result

of what's happening around it.

- Yeah, urban

encroachment, of course,

when you have more people

move in, you need more streets

and you need more waste

water treatment, and schools,

and all those sorts of things

so that ends up causing

mill levies to rise.

So, you know, that's

absolutely right,

didn't change the

productivity of that land

but no levies going up does

affect agricultural taxes

for that reason and

that reason only.

That's not to say that the more

of an encroachment you have,

the easier it is to farm

because you're moving equipment

and there's all sorts

of things that go on

when you have this so

there are some other cause

but not on the property tax,

other than for urban

causing no levies to rise.

- Okay, sounds good,

Mary, from Bozeman,

they have mushrooms

growing in their yard,

there are huge variety, buttons,

they look like

tree roots almost.

They wanna know how

to get rid of them.

- That's a great question.

I have more over there,

they're basically living

on decomposing matter.

So, when it gets wet in

the spring in the fall,

the mushrooms come up

or with your irrigation,

you'd have to get rid of

that organic matter so,

that they're growing on, so,

it's really, really hard.

There's some fungicides

you can use for fairy rings

but you have to

identify the species

and surely, a diagnostic,

we can help with that.

- Yeah, and really they

don't hurt that much.

- They don't, you know, and

we get a lot of questions

every year about my

dog ate this mushroom,

or I ate this mushroom.

Get it identified before--

- Find out what it is

before you eat 'em, that

true but in general,

a lot of those where

probably metal mushrooms.

- Yeah.

- Does mechanically removing

that stuff in the spring

with those machines are

coming and tearing them up,

does that help any of that?

- Well, you can aerate your lawn

which would favor decomposition

of any organic matter but

it's not gonna eliminate it,

as a problematically.

- Richard, you see that

map in front of you,

why don't you hold that up

and we'll try to get

it close-up of it.

- [Richard] Certainly.

- And tell us what

it's all about.

- Yes, well, this

particular thing

is actually a copy of

ArcReader GIS aerial map.

Get that so it doesn't glare.

And it's two copies,

that's the identical parcel

and what it's showing is

the ownership boundary

that is in red and

then the yellow lines

would be the field boundaries,

and the large field that

shows up as a dark green

is labeled I/S which refers to

an irrigated sprinkler field,

and then on, oops, excuse

me here for a moment.

(clears throat) On my right,

your left would be the parcel

without the soil lines on it.

On your right would be the

lavender soil boundaries.

Each one of those

soils has, again,

from the NICS soil survey

has a potential productivity.

So now, when we value these,

each soil would

have its own value.

In the case, in this

particular field,

there are similar

productivities.

One is at 4.1 tons

of alfalfa per acre,

and the other soil

is at 4.2 tons.

But today, each of those

would have its own value

whereas in the past, there was

an average tonnage per acre

that was created and was

valued as such that way

so it's much more soil

specific these days.

- [Jack] Science in action.

- Science in action and

this is a great little tool

that sitting down with

producers and owners.

It shows what we're talking

about and it's helpful.

- Sounds good.

- Yeah.

- Okay, I've another question

while we're got you up there.

This person has heard

of an Agricultural Land

Valuation Committee,

what do they do

and can you explain

what their function is?

- Yeah.

Yes, it's the Governor's Ag

Land Valuation Committee,

they review methodologies

that we use,

anything that is suggested they,

well, let me back up

just a little bit,

they're appointed

by the governor.

Last cycle, there was a

little bit of a change to that

and that four

members of the senate

and congress were added.

There, it's composed

of producers,

people in the

agricultural world,

they review any suggestions

that the department might have,

they can have their

own suggestions,

they review these

things for viability

and if they feel it's something

that they wanna move forward

then it moves in

to the legislative

If they pass muster there,

then it goes to the

full legislature

for approval or disapproval.

So, it's an oversight

committee the convenes

prior to each reappraisal cycle

to consider any changes

that might be afoot.

- And we've Montana State

University Department

of Agricultural

Economics for years

is often had an

agricultural economist

who has been part

of that committee

and then consulting

role at least

to talk about, does

the same reasonable,

does that reasonable sort

of for probably 30 years.

- Yup, the agricultural

economist here at MSU

are very active in what we do

and very, very

helpfully guide us and--

- Don't give 'em that.

(speaking over each other)

Fishing for a complement

but I really wasn't.

No, I've never been

on the committee.

- (laughs) Okay, sounds good.

I've got you up this

one from Billings.

This person has 1,200 acres

that were put together

from different tracks in

the early 20th century,

if they were going to sell

with some parcels

less than 160 acres,

would the process fall

under the subdivision laws?

Again, I not sure you're

knowledgeable on that matter

but I'll throw it out to you.

- Yes, subdivision law or laws

is definitely not my wheelhouse

so I think before you

would do anything,

you would wanna talk to your

local planning jurisdiction.

As far as the any

agricultural valuations,

once we knew, what was occurring

or what you intended to do

then we could sit down,

probably talk a little more

intelligently about it then.

- Okay, sounds good.

- Yeah.

- Contact you if they

want more information.

- [Richard] Yeah, definitely.

- Okay, from Scobey, Mary,

the pea seed tested in

the 20's for Alternaria,

what does that mean

and does that suggest

that they need to use something

as a seed treatment next year?

- Okay so, Alternaria is a

fungus that causes a leaf spot,

and it'll often come in

when the tissue's wounded

either hail or wind, we don't

have wind in Montana either.

And we found probably

80% of the seed lot

have different hit levels

of Alternaria and pea,

we don't really

know what it means

if it's gonna affect seed,

it doesn't seem to be

affecting seed quality,

we gotta test that.

There's about eight different

species of Alternaria

so some of those might be

more pathogenic than others

so the short answer

is I have no idea

but you probably should use

a seed treatment anyway.

- They're not very expensive--

- No, for pulse crops

always use a seed treatment.

- Question from Forsyth, Gary.

What's the projection for

sugar beet prices this fall?

- Pretty low.

Sort of, probably

a little bit lower

than long-run average prices.

Again, great production

not only in Montana

but very good yields throughout

the northern tier part of

the U.S. but also worldwide,

very strong yields

from most of the places

that are the major producers.

So, there's a lot of

supply in the market.

There was a lot of

supply in the market

within the United States

from last year's crop

which was also very good.

So, there's a lot of

inventory out there

and, you know, I think,

all of the companies

over the coming year

will probably cut reduce

the productive acres again,

trying to get that inventory

under control a little bit so.

- Clain, yeah, I worked

with sugar beet years ago

but I've kinda forgotten, is

that a heavy nitrogen user,

do you put a lot of nitrogen

on a sugar beet crop?

- Quite a bit more phosphorus

but quite a bit of nitrogen.

Somewhere around seven pounds

per tons when you're growing,

30 tons that adds up 200 pounds.

- That is a lot of nitrogen.

- Yeah.

- Richard, from Belgrade,

what happens to ag

land classifications

when the ag land is

annexed by the city?

- Yeah, that's a great question,

for this area and other booming

areas in the state as well.

It depends.

Our suggestion is always check

with the local planning office.

Some locales will allow

agricultural use, some will not,

some will, if a

piece is currently

under agricultural production

and is annexed into a city,

Belgrade for example.

Currently, as far as I know,

they will allow that

to be grandfathered in.

If it's not, then we cannot

classify this agricultural land

that would go to a

track land valuation.

- Sounds good.

Mary, you have some dead

plants in front of you.

- [Mary] They were kind.

- [Richard] My garden?

- Your garden, right?

- My garden.

- Why don't you hold them up

and tell us what you have there.

- Okay so, I use my garden as

an example quite frequently

so, if you have white,

powdery stuff on your squash,

that is powdery

mildew and right now,

all the cucumbers in the

state are probably dying.

Mine happened to have a

downy mildew which is pretty,

I don't think it'll show

off on camera very well.

The other thing I had

to show from my garden

was blossom-end rot

and we think about this

on tomato a lot

but not on squash

and this is a squash from

earlier this year that--

- [Jack] Turn it around

so they can see the--

- Yeah, see the--

- Yeah.

- And it's all spotted in

that, yeah, it's a good idea.

This is kinda in clean spill box

as far as it's a

calcium deficiency

but the calcium deficiency is

due to inconsistent watering

which is certainly

true with my garden.

And Sheryl diagnosed

this for me earlier,

this is probably

also inconsistent

and it actually wasn't my

apple tree but (laughs)

it was in the neighborhood

so you can see the cracks

and growth circles

on the top there

and that's pretty

common on apple.

- [Gary] Clain, how do

we get enough calcium

into those soils?

What's the product

a person should use?

Because blossom-end rot it's

always seems to be a problem.

- All right so, most Montana

soils are loaded with calcium

so it's not that we don't

have calcium in the soil.

One problem we do

have though is high pH

which makes that calcium

not very available,

and then like Mary mentioned,

if you're not watering or

you're watering too much,

it's hard to get the

calcium into the plant.

I do add elemental sulfur to

the bottom of my tomato holes

which lowers the pH and

then I add some gypsum

which has calcium in it,

and I think I've seen a

reduction in blossom-end rot

but it could just be a chance.

- Okay.

- I seem to see like

really early in the season

and then when it's

growing rapidly,

I don't see it so I

just live with it.

- Yeah, okay.

Before I move on,

there's an old name

for that on the apples, it's

called cat face of apples,

and it used to be

a huge problem.

They've learned to manage

apples a little better

than years and years ago where

they didn't get any water.

- Is that the

pathological description--

- That is, no, it's not land,

it's just a common name of it.

Plant path is really

pretty simple,

you describe what you

see and if it's a symptom

that looks like a cat face,

you call it cat face of apples.

- [Gary] That was la, okay.

- Richard, from Molt, we're

running a little long time

but in 2015, this person

says that the value

of an animal unit was

raised to 1,200 pounds.

Previously, horses

were 1.25 animal units,

now that it has been raised,

that mean the horse's

value is one animal unit?

- Oh, off the top of my head,

I can't really quite say

what the equivalent would be

but it would adjust

as well, you know?

- Okay, this one,

again, from Manhattan,

a lot of questions

from Manhattan tonight.

What causes changes in

agricultural property taxes

from year to year?

- Well, (clears throat)

land wise, it could be a

long term change in practice

for that particular field

could possibly change

the classification.

In those cases, we look

at again, long term use,

predominant use,

that sort of thing,

but also involved in

agricultural properties

or the improvements that

are on your property,

your house, your barns,

any, build a new house,

build an addition,

add a barn or anything

along that line

could also have an effect

on your property taxes.

Again, year to year if nothing

changes, it's mill levy.

The mill levy will

change each year

and will have an effect

on your tax liability.

- [Jack] Okay.

- And if you had five years

in a row of pretty high prices

that eventually become

part of your price average,

that would change when

the next cycle then.

- Well yes, for each cycle,

we develop a new

average commodity price,

and that's based on

an Olympic average

where you drop the

high and the low

and so, yes, each cycle,

you'll potentially gonna

have a change in value

but if nothing changes,

that value should

stay with the property

for the entire cycle which

is now currently two years.

- Okay, and that was

changed by the legislature

just a few years ago.

- Correct, it went

into effect in 2015,

went from a six-year cycle

the a two-year cycle.

- Okay all right,

we're low on time

but I'll get this one in for

Mary, it's from Whitefish.

They have fairy ring

mushrooms in the lawn,

what can they do to control 'em?

One time at fall, we're

gonna answer that question.

- Same as the

mushrooms in the lawn,

there are some fungicides,

you can ask your landscaper

but aeration, anything that

decompose that organic material.

- Yeah, good aeration and

a good watering program

and a couple of years time,

you'll pretty well mask it.

We have a question

here from Laura,

we're not going to

get to it tonight.

We'll get to it next week

because I know there's an answer

but they have problems with

mice chewing in their car

and traps aren't working

but we'll find something

for next week that'll

give some answer.

Richard, thank you for

being here tonight.

It's been a pleasure.

The rest of the panel,

I appreciate it.

Next week, we're going

to have Mac Burgess

looking at the status

for organic crop

production in Montana.

Have a good week, good night,

and thanks for watching.

("Montana AG Live

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Live is made possible by

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