Candace Krebs
The Ag Journal
One farmer claimed to have learned more in one day of master irrigator training than he had in five years of farming on his own.
For another, the light bulb came on when he realized by making one simple change he could save $10,000 a year.
Colorado Master Irrigator program manager Brandi Baquera was thrilled to share those glowing endorsements during a panel presentation at the virtual Ogallala Aquifer Summit in late March. She always believed the program’s “one-stop shop” format was exactly what the region’s irrigated farmers needed.
The first class of the master irrigator program, which was held a little over a year ago, offered 32 hours of instruction to 25 producers who collectively farm 20,000 acres across multiple counties in the Republican River Basin.
Candace Krebs
The Ag Journal
The challenge in matching meat supplies with dramatic shifts in demand a problem underscored this past year as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe and retail meat cases emptied has led to widespread questioning over whether packing capacity is adequate to maintain product availability for consumers and market access for producers.
That issue was one of the main topics discussed during this year’s annual Cattlemen’s Day at Kansas State University.
Interestingly, while beef and pork processing volume dropped 40 percent at the peak of the disruption from last year’s disease outbreak, poultry processing remained stable and showed little adverse impact, noted Jayson Lusk, agricultural economics head at Purdue University.