-(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
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the wool is really cheap
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♪ 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.
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