Latest news with #KansasStateUniversity
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Kansas ash trees under attack from returning pest
MANHATTAN, Kan. (KSNW) — A pest that last made a major appearance in Kansas nearly a decade ago is back — and it's feasting on ash trees across the state. Kansas State University entomologist Raymond Cloyd said the brownheaded ash sawfly is once again active, and residents are starting to take notice. 'We've had a number of inquiries regarding these caterpillar-looking insects,' said Cloyd, a professor in K-State's Department of Entomology. 'And they're not caterpillars — they're sawflies. It's important to make the distinction because certain insecticides will work on caterpillars but not sawflies.' The insect's larvae — yellow-green with white and green stripes and a brown head — feed on the leaves of green ash trees, leaving behind shot holes before consuming entire leaves, often sparing only the veins. 'They feed with chewing mouthparts,' Cloyd said, 'and can compromise the aesthetic quality of the plant.' This year marks the first widespread return of the brownheaded ash sawfly since 2016. The insect is specific to green ash trees and typically only produces one generation per year in Kansas. Skull of one-ton ground sloth found in Kansas Cloyd noted that while the sawfly is not as destructive as the emerald ash borer, it can still leave trees severely defoliated. 'If they continue to feed, your tree won't have any leaves on it, and that's the issue,' he said. Fortunately, there are a few simple ways to manage the problem. 'Heavy rainfall will wash them off,' Cloyd explained. 'You can use a high-pressure water spray to dislodge them, handpick them if feasible, or just let them go and know it will eventually stop.' If the insects have already moved to the base of the tree, Cloyd suggests collecting them in a bag for disposal. 'At this point, it's almost getting too late to apply some type of insecticide,' he said. 'It's either live with it, handpick, or remove the ones that have migrated to the base of the trees.' He also emphasized the importance of correct identification: 'Sawflies have prolegs—appendages on every section of the abdomen—while caterpillars typically don't. The feet of a caterpillar also have hairs or crochets, which sawflies lack.' In most cases, Cloyd recommends avoiding insecticides unless the damage is extensive. 'If populations are causing significant aesthetic damage, contact insecticides can be applied, but thorough coverage of the canopy, especially the leaf undersides, is important,' he said. For more details on identifying and managing the pest, K-State offers a free publication, Brownheaded Ash Sawfly. Residents can also reach out to their local Extension office with questions. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trade policy, getting a farm bill passed are top of mind for Kansas rancher, K-State professor
Hal Luthi, a third-generation rancher in Madison, Kansas, is anxious to see politicians in Washington, D.C., get a farm bill passed. (Submitted) TOPEKA — Kansas farmers and ranchers are paying close attention to tariffs and whether other countries will show up for negotiations, and they need a Farm Bill to pass in Washington, two agricultural experts said. Alan Featherstone, head of the Agricultural Economics department at Kansas State University, and Hal Luthi, president of the Kansas Cattlemen's Association and a third-generation rancher in Madison, both spend part of their days studying what's happening in Washington. Everything there has an effect on Kansas agriculture, Featherstone said, rattling off a quick list: trade policy, energy policy, interest rates, passage of a Farm Bill, crop and livestock insurance and tax policies. 'There's just so much uncertainty in the air until Congress and the president begin to resolve some of those policy differences,' he said. 'You compound that with the fact that most of Kansas agriculture did not have good years in 2023, 2024 — most of the income, at least on crop operations, came through government payments,' he said. 'I would suspect once the Kansas Farm Management numbers are released that roughly 50% or more of income came from' government payments. 'Probably the only thing that is going well right now is the cow-calf operations; even the feeder operations are struggling,' Featherstone said. Uncertainty is difficult but Luthi is focused more on whether or not a Farm Bill will move on. 'The ineptitude of our federal government to pass a new Farm Bill is certainly adding to all this because, well, we're heavy users of the livestock risk insurance, and we don't know what the future of that program is,' he said. 'So if we'd had the Farm Bill enacted when it should have been, well, that would certainly have alleviated a lot of the concerns people have.' But uncertainty in general, Luthi added, is something farmers are used to. 'We kind of operate on an almost daily basis of uncertainty out here in the countryside anyway, because we don't know if it's going to rain,' he said. 'We don't know what world events are going to affect our markets.' International trade is an important part of the Kansas agricultural economy, Luthi said. 'China has been a big purchaser of our soybeans and corn,' he said. 'But also I think that that's a two-handed approach. I feel like maybe they need us as bad as we need them, and at some point in time we're going to come together and come to an agreement.' Featherstone, whose work is often focused on international markets, said China imported about $1.5 billion of U.S. beef. 'To give an indication of that, the U.S. exported $8.5 billion, and so if you take 1.5 divided by 8.5 that's a pretty big percentage in terms of where that market is,' he said. 'Certainly the ability to export into the China markets is very, very important. If you look at pork it's probably less of an issue now, but two or three years ago, it was substantially different when they were fighting their Asian swine flu.' Featherstone said Luthi's point about China needing U.S. agriculture products is important. 'A lot of times we look at this from the U.S. perspective, but you also have to look at it from the Chinese perspective,' he said. 'For example, on the soybean market, they cannot import all of their soybeans without coming to the U.S. They take about 60% of the world's market.' Chinese consumers expect to have soybeans and pork available and that will put pressure on the country's government to keep trade flowing, Featherstone said. It's not all about tariffs, either, he said. Economists often will look at a 'naive' view of trade as in a free market, which assumes no taxes or tariffs. 'That's not the world we live in,' he said. 'I think it's very important to realize that you're in a negotiation here where we're not going from zero tariffs to a 10% tariff. We're in a situation where tariffs are already affecting the ability to trade. But in other cases, some of the non-tariff barriers are even bigger.' Those barriers include whether other countries will accept the use of technology the United States uses or if it could cause product bans, Featherstone said. He pointed to an announcement two weeks ago between the U.S. and Great Britain that lowered tariffs. 'My guess is that the Trump administration will back off the tariffs if they're not getting the negotiations,' Featherstone said. 'One is a hard-line view that you're just going to tariff, and that's going to be the situation as we move forward. The other is can we use these tariffs to bring countries to the table?' U.S. agricultural products did see a long-term impact from tariffs put in place by Trump during his first term, Featherstone said. 'China became more reliant on Brazil, and so certainly some of those markets are lost, but a lot of times they will shift,' he said. 'Probably the big thing that I think will occur, and you hear a little bit of discussion of it with the first trade war with China, there was the market facilitation program that essentially tried to provide the difference in price back to the producers.' While disagreements occur about subsidizing agriculture and farmers prefer to get their income from the markets, Featherstone said another program like that could help Kansas agriculture. Farmers received $23 billion to subsidize lost business because of tariffs during Trump's first administration. 'My guess, and I'm not a crystal ball economist, but politicians, if there's something that worked in the past, they may try it again if it's needed in the future,' he said. Luthi said tariffs can bring other countries to the negotiating table. He appreciates the fact that discussions are happening. 'We're pretty resilient,' he said. 'People are saying, 'Well, you know, we may get hurt a little bit, but if it's for the good of the country in the long term, we're willing to take that punch in the face.' And that's my feeling as well.' Luthi said the country's current path of adding to the national debt is not sustainable, and that he hears more people in the rural areas talking about that issue than about tariffs and how they might be affected. 'A lot of these tariffs aren't even in effect yet, right? Some of them don't go into effect 'til July,' he said. 'In reality, we hope maybe some of them don't ever go in place, that we have a new trade agreement or a more fair trade agreement before these tariffs are actually placed on the actual products.' The rapid-fire changes happening nationally and internationally do make it challenging to plan, Luthi said. That's especially true because spending has dropped and a recession may loom. 'We're gonna probably cut spending in several areas, and wait and see, you know, just what our actual opportunities are,' Luthi said. 'If we need a new piece of equipment, we may delay that a year. We'll certainly budget everything out and probably stand a little more conservative than we did this year.' The cattle business has been profitable recently, but the two previous years were tight, he said. 'I guess my biggest concern, maybe, is the country as whole would go into a recession because everybody's cutting back on their spending and that would affect the beef market, probably in a hurry, because that's one expense that people would probably tend to cut back on first,' he said. Featherstone said he thinks people need to be watchful because so much depends on whether negotiations are successful in getting other countries to the table. 'Farmers are resilient,' he said. 'I think there are things to be resolved, but again, elections have consequences.' For Luthi, uncertainty is part of his world. 'I don't know if we're ever in certain times, you know,' he said. 'You know, God has a plan for this world, and we're just here to utilize and enjoy it as long as we can.'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
‘Adapt or die': Western Kansas farmers consider alternative crops to save water
In dry western Kansas, the sound of artificial rain spraying from center pivot irrigation sprinklers fills the spaces between the small towns. Irrigation has turned this region into a productive agricultural powerhouse, churning out millions of bushels of grain. Heath Koehn farms with his dad near Montezuma over the Ogallala aquifer that supplies farmers with irrigation and communities with drinking water. He knows that changes are coming to the way they farm. 'Changes are going to have to be made with that aquifer. It's like adapt or die,' Koehn said. A lot of farmers in the area feel the same way. The underground water supply that used to be plentiful is running dry fast. Some areas might only have a couple of decades left at current pumping rates. In order to maintain life in western Kansas, farmers are contemplating pivoting to crops that use less water. Koehn decided for the first time to grow something he's never grown before: canola. He grew this instead of wheat due to wheat prices being so low. 'I've got some limited irrigation. I wanted to diversify and not just have all my eggs in one basket,' Koehn said. That change might sound minor, but it's a herculean task. The major systems that make up the complicated agriculture web are all built around irrigated commodity crops like corn, wheat and soybeans. Growing anything else is rare because it comes with more risk and no guaranteed crop insurance or local buyers. Koehn's farm is an example of southwest Kansas farmers looking to the future and trying new crops to save water and prepare for western Kansas to become more parched. The main problem lies within the crops that farmers grow. Traditional crops like corn and soybeans require a lot of water. The Kansas Geological Survey, which monitors the underground water in the state, estimates that 70% of the aquifer will be gone in 50 years. Statewide, the amount of water pumped from underground and sprayed onto crops averages out to more than 2 billion gallons per day. But Kansas State University has studied different crops that require less water and could be viable options in western Kansas. Logan Simon, agronomist for K-State Research and Extension, said the western Kansas environment requires greater creativity from those in agriculture. 'All of the crops that we're looking at here are going to be providing some sort of benefit in the form of a reduction in the water required,' Simon said. Earlier this year, Simon hosted alternative-crop schools around western Kansas, offering information on what options farmers have. The standout choices are canola, cotton, camelina and cowpeas, which include black-eyed peas. These crops not only require less water, but they can be harvested with equipment farmers already have and fit the same uses. Almost all commodities grown in western Kansas are for cattle feed or biofuels. 'The idea is not necessarily to replace all of these things, but provide alternatives to just build a more robust system,' Simon said. A canola crushing plant opened last year in northwest Kansas giving a new market to farmers. Canola compared to a crop like corn needs about 40% less water. Not only does this save dwindling water supplies but it diversifies how farmers make their money. Instead of just one industry like livestock feed, a farmer can sell their products to multiple industries. The crops can be used for human consumption, biofuels or making textiles. Alternative crops sound like they can solve all the water problems on the frontier. But so far, farmers aren't giving up their acres of corn and wheat for peas and canola. That's because farming at the end of the day is a business. Farmers need to plant what will turn a profit. 'Imagine that you just couldn't make a salary this year,' ag economist for Iowa State University Chad Hart said. In the current agricultural system, commodity crops like corn and soybeans are the most economically efficient, despite their water inefficiencies. Farmers really don't have much of a choice if they want to make money. 'You have to be willing to accept more risk to establish that alternative crop, because there aren't these built in mechanisms that we usually have,' Hart said. The agriculture system is built to avoid risk. Crop insurance, government subsidies and bank loans are all built around corn and other traditional commodity crops, not the possible alternatives. Southwest Kansas is one of the most profitable regions in the state because of irrigated agriculture from the aquifer. Corn profits can range to $160 per acre, while canola in a good year can hit $150 per acre. But corn has a stable market and is heavily supported by crop insurance. With a crop like corn, a farmer in southwest Kansas might lose more water, but at least they can guarantee some income if there's a drought or hailstorm. And they know that the local feedlots, grain elevators and ethanol plants will gladly buy their corn. The same cannot be said for a cowpeas or canola. 'Just because you grow it doesn't mean you'll have customers,' Hart said. 'Farmers have to spend more time thinking about how to market that crop.' And local communities do not want to stop irrigating altogether. Irrigation brings in more money to farms, and to all the things the farm touches. The local grain elevators, the feedlots, the truck drivers and the meatpacking plants. Congress first authorized federal crop insurance in the 1930s to help agriculture recover from the Dust Bowl. It started as a way to compensate farmers if a natural disaster struck and ruined their crop yields, which farmers still need today. But it also makes it harder for farmers to practice water-efficient farming. For example, if for whatever reason an irrigated crop fails, farmers aren't allowed to stop irrigating the failed crop because they need to prove they weren't at fault for the crop failure. These 'Good farming practices' are standards that guide crop insurance payments. And crop insurance and subsidies are no small thing. In 2025, government payments are projected to make up 23% of the total net farm income, a significant increase from 8-9% annually between 2022 and 2024. According to Iowa State Research Extension, approximately 90% of acres growing corn and soybeans were insured using federal Revenue Protection programs. Not only does this protect the farm's physical crops, but also all but guarantees a farmer will be paid even if the price for these commodities dip. In 2024, the U.S. paid farmers over $2 billion to grow corn through the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program. But farmers don't want to only depend on crop insurance, they want to grow successful crops. Alex Millershaski, a farmer in Gray County, has seen a massive change over the years when it comes to how much water his land can produce. 'We used to have twenty-something wells on the farm, and we're only pumping four now,' Millershaski said. Millershaski is still skeptical of growing alternative crops, but having less water available is making him consider trying something different. He has seen some neighbors try canola and cotton. And he thinks next year he will give canola a try in place of his usual wheat crop. Canola doubled in acres planted last year in Kansas to 3,000. And while cotton is expected to see a decline across the U.S., Kansas is expected to see almost a 13% increase. Processors in western Kansas, like 21st Century Bean, make cowpeas more viable. They buy and process wholesale beans for human consumption. All those factors make Millershaski open to look at the options. 'Do you want to try something different? And it's sometimes just that simple,' Millershaski said. Calen Moore covers western Kansas for High Plains Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can email him at cmoore@ . This story was originally published by KMUW.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kansas Board of Regents selects Pittsburg, Dodge City members to lead higher education board
Blake Benson, left, the president of the Pittsburg Area Chamber of Commerce. was selected to serve as chairperson of the Kansas Board of Regents in the upcoming fiscal year. He will replace Regent Carl Ice, sitting, as chairman of the higher education board. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — A Pittsburg economic development professional and a Dodge City public school diversity and language director were chosen to lead the Kansas Board of Regents during the upcoming fiscal year. Blake Benson was elected to serve as chairperson of the nine-member public higher education board, while Diana Mendoza was selected as vice chairperson. The board has governance authority over six state universities and a coordination role with Washburn University in Topeka and the state's technical and community colleges. Both were appointed to the state Board of Regents in 2022 by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. 'Higher education is a powerful tool capable of transforming individual lives and uplifting entire communities,' said Benson, president of the Pittsburg Area Chamber of Commerce. 'I look forward to working with my fellow regents, our Kansas colleges and universities and our external stakeholders to continue to leverage the system's strengths for the benefit of all Kansans.' He is in the 28th year of economic development work, and previously held positions in chamber of commerce organizations in Rogers and Fort Smith in Arkansas. He earned a journalism degree at Arkansas State University and a master's degree in business from Pittsburg State University. Benson replaced chairman Carl Ice, the retired chief executive officer of BNSF Railway, and a graduate of Coffeyville Community College and Kansas State University. Mendoza, executive director of diversity and English for speakers of other languages in the Dodge City school district, works with teachers to develop best practices for the education of culturally and linguistically diverse students. She leads an effort to support migratory youth. She said she was committed to making higher education beneficial to Kansas families and a contributing influence on the state's economy. 'Guided by the Board's strategic plan, Kansas colleges and universities are making significant strides in areas such as affordability and student success,' Mendoza said. She earned bachelor and master degrees in education at Kansas State University. She is seeking a doctorate in curriculum and instruction at Kansas State.
Mint
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Who is Steve Pepoon? Emmy- winning writer for ‘The Simpsons' dies at 68
Emmy-winning writer Steve Pepoon, known for his work on 'The Simpsons', passed away at the age of 68 on May 3. Cardiac amyloidosis was reported to be the cause of his death which is a heart condition that the writer had been battling for two years before breathing his last on Saturday in his hometown Paola, Kansas. His family shared the news through a post on X, "It is with deep sadness that the family of Steve Pepoon announces his passing on Saturday, May 3, 2025. Steve was a beloved member of our family and was cherished by many friends. He will be greatly missed. A celebration of life event is being planned, and details will be shared soon." The American television writer, known for his work on 'The Simpsons', iconic shows like 'ALF' and 'Roseanne,' was born in Missouri's Kansas City in 1956. After graduating from Kansas State University, he moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to explore the entertainment industry. The breakthrough in his career came with a script in 1985, which later became an episode of 'Silver Spoons' that aired in January 1986. In 1991, he received the coveted Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Animated Program' for The Simpsons. At the 43rd Primetime Emmy Awards, his work received recognition and Steve Pepoon's The Simpsons episode "Homer vs Lisa and the 8th Commandment" won the prestigious Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. Pepoon's career was marked by notable work on other legendary shows and all-time classics like Get a Life, It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Jackie Thomas Show, among others. Steve Pepoon was married to Mary Stephenson.
