New USDA Food Assistance Program Payment information

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USDA Issues First Coronavirus Food Assistance Program Payments

06/04/2020 01:07 PM EDT

 

(Washington, D.C., June 4, 2020) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) has already approved more than $545 million in payments to producers who have applied for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program.

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Research to improve soil health takes root at NMSU

DATE: 06/04/2020
WRITER: Carlos Andres Lopez, 575-646-1955, carlopez@nmsu.edu
CONTACT: John Idowu , jidowu@nmsu.edu
CONTACT: Rajan Ghimire, rghimire@nmsu.edu

Soil is a natural resource that supports human civilization and plays a vital role in global food security. So, while we may not be ranchers, crop growers or researchers, we all have a vested interest in soil – especially soil health.

Soil health, as defined by a team of researchers in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at New Mexico State University, is “the state of the soil being in sound physical, chemical, and biological condition, having the capability to sustain the growth and development of land plants.”

Rajan Ghimire, a cropping systems agronomist at the Agricultural Science Center in Clovis, put it more simply: “Healthy soil leads to healthy human beings.”

But soil degradation is becoming a growing concern. Worldwide, cropland, forest land, grassland and rangeland areas are declining in productivity due to degrading soil, according to the United Nations. If left unaddressed, soil degradation may affect food production systems that feed the human population.

“We have many degraded soils across the globe that are no longer productive and can only be regenerated to a fruitful state by applying soil health principles,” said John Idowu, an agronomist in the Department of Extension Plant Sciences.

“There has been an increasing demand from stakeholders to know more about soil health,” Idowu added, “and this demand has led NMSU to increase research and Extension efforts on soil health assessment and management.”

Idowu and other ACES researchers have identified several management strategies that will improve soil health. These methods include crop rotation, cover cropping, diversifying production, adding organic amendments, integrating livestock, reducing soil disturbance, using diverse plant species and practicing sustainable grazing.

But before committing to a management strategy, Idowu said, crop and rangeland producers should first assess the physical, chemical and biological attributes of their soil. Soil health management is a long-term strategy that requires education, thinking, planning, reading, discussion and investment, he added.

“Since each farm and ranch is unique,” he said, “the specific soil health practices that will deliver optimal performance will differ from place to place. Farmers and ranchers need to inform themselves and carefully plan an appropriate soil health management strategy that will work for their specific conditions.”

Idowu encourages land users and managers in New Mexico to connect with their local Cooperative Extension Service office when seeking guidance on soil health practices. To contact the office in your area, visithttps://aces.nmsu.edu/county/.

In eastern New Mexico, Ghimire is leading research projects that aim to understand the linkages between soil health and sustainable crop production, using
soil organic matter as the centerpiece of
his research.

“Sustainable agriculture aims to optimize resource use while maximizing crop production, economic profitability and environmental quality,” he said. “Healthy soils provide a foundation not only for better crop production but also for improving environmental quality through reduced soil erosion, improved organic matter and nutrient storage.”

Ghimire is studying how various tillage, fertility, crop rotation, cover cropping and crop residue management practices affect different soil organic matter fractions. He’s also looking at the rate of carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, greenhouse gas emissions and soil microbial activity related to cycling of essential nutrients as indicators of soil health in grain- and forage-based cropping systems.

In agronomic settings, Ghimire said, soil health is more important in soils that have eroded, have low fertility, or have other less-ideal crop-growing conditions, such as high variability in precipitation and temperature. These conditions exist in New Mexico.

“With the rapid rate of decline in water level in the Ogallala Aquifer,” he said, “producers in eastern New Mexico are facing challenges in irrigated crop production, which include increased fallow frequency, increased erosion, lost soil organic carbon and nutrients, and reduced production potential of the land.”

The soil health management practices Ghimire is studying could reduce such losses and maintain crop production and help farmers stay in business, he added.

“Our study finds a loss in soil organic carbon and nitrogen by 24 percent to 36 percent after the conversion of irrigated crop fields into dryland production, and crop production went down by at least the same proportion,” he said. “The loss of soil organic carbon and nutrients have both agronomic and environmental impacts. The part of lost carbon and nitrogen goes into the atmosphere as CO2 and N2O, potent greenhouse gases that cause global warming.”

To learn more about soil health and soil health management practices, visit
aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_circulars/CR694B.pdf.

POLIO IN CATTLE AND SHEEP

POLIO IN CATTLE AND SHEEP

 

Recently I have been called out to a number of heifer which had some unusual symptoms and behavior. The cause was Polio, and I have seen in sheep on feed but not very often in range cattle.  This year I am getting reports all over Eddy County.  The correct name is Polioencephalomalacia, commonly called (PEM).  It occurs sporadically in cattle and sheep and deer.  It is characterized by sudden onset of blindness, and head-pressing and pathologically by acute cerebral edema.   Un- like human polio the cause of this disease is not completely understood but there is a strong indication that thiamin inadequacy is associated.  Some also suggest selenium deficiency.

 

There are a couple ideas as what causes for this condition.  One is that certain bacteria in the gut of the affected animal produce an enzyme which ties up the thymine and prevent it from being metabolized by the animal. The disease may occur in range cattle grazing on dry, short, grama grass pastures. There is circumstantial evidence that Kochia scorpia which is common in Eddy County as is dry, short grama grass.  The case the Dr. Uric and I looked a few years ago was fairly rare because it was a mature heifer.  But since then we have seen it in mature Bulls and cows.  The disease is also associated with Sulfur consumption, which is common in some of our water.  The clinical finding is similar no matter what the cause.  Sudden onset of blindness, muscle tremor, particularly of the head, champing of the jaws and frothy salivation, and head pressing as well as the animal can be hard to handle.  With the high incidence of rabies found in the skunk population in our area these symptoms start sounding similar to findings with rabies.  One of the differences is polio animals will have close to normal temperature.

Control is dependent on the producer.  First consult with your veterinarian and follow an approved vaccination program.  Select supplemental feed with a good thiamin or vitamin b complex on the label.  Dietary supplementation of thiamine at 3-10 mg/kg feed has been recommended for prevention, but the efficacy of this approach has not been carefully evaluated, and may be at a higher cost. In a recent study, scientists at New Mexico State University's Clayton Livestock Research Center found that steers gained more weight per pound of feed if they also were fed a ruminally protected form of the B vitamin known as choline, or RPC.  In a recent NMSU study, 160 feedlot steers were fed varying levels of the vitamin. "RPC is a granular material that can be mixed in with the animals' feed," said Glenn Duff, current superintendent at the research center.  Steers fed a small amount of the vitamin -- one quarter of a percent of their diet -- showed increased feed efficiency and weight gain. "These steers had an 11-percent increase in daily weight gain compared to steers that weren't fed RPC," Duff said. "Also, their feed-to-gain ratio was improved, so they only needed 5.6 pounds of feed to gain one pound versus the 6 pounds needed by steers with no RPC." The steers fed a small amount of the vitamin also overcame another obstacle -- they began the experiment weighing less than steers in the other groups. "But by the end of the trial, the low RPC steers had passed the other groups in weight gain," Duff said.  The efficacy of PRC for prevention of PEM is unknown at this time.   During a PEM outbreak, sufficient roughage should be provided. If the problem could be associated with high sulfur intake, all possible sources of sulfur, including water, should be analyzed and the total sulfur concentration of the consumed dry matter estimated. Dietary ingredients or water with high sulfur concentration should be avoided; if this is not possible, then more gradual introduction to the new conditions can improve the chances of successful adaptation.   Because of the high rabies out break it is important for human health that a Veterinarian be call if livestock have some of these abnormal conditions.