Farming

Harrison County’s Cooperative Extension Agent Gary Carter along with intern Eli Mann will be conducting a Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) Chute-side Training.  The BQA training will be held Aug. 4 starting at 10 a.m. at the Harrison County High School’s Vocational Agriculture Farm.
The goal of the BQA program is to maximize consumer confidence and acceptance of beef by focusing the producers’ attention to daily production practices that influence safety, wholesomeness and quality of beef and beef products.

Kentucky USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Executive Director John W. McCauley, announces that pollinator habitats, which support a variety of pollinator species, will now be accepted as a Continuous Sign-up Conservation Reserve Program (CCRP) practice. CCRP is a voluntary program that helps producers apply conservation practices to safeguard environmentally sensitive land.

Knock on wood, please, because I may jinx myself by publically declaring that my tomatoes look awesome.  
It is the healthiest set of plants and fruit that I can ever remember, honestly.  
The plants are remarkably free of any pest problem, brown or yellowing leaf or rotting fruit.  
Most are heirloom varieties; they were fertilized once at planting with fish emulsion and immediately mulched with newspaper and pine straw. One irrigation occurred during a hot, dry spell but that is it.

If you have a garden chances are you appreciate nature in all its glory.  
But, sometimes nature gets in the way of our desires to cultivate.  
Deer browsing, rabbit munching, squirrel digging, bird pecking, mole trenching and resident vole feasting have all come up in the last two weeks.  
While I have no silver bullet for any of these problems, I do have some practical approaches to offset the shared use of our gardens.  
Squirrels are notorious for taking one bite of a tomato and then throwing it on the ground.