Extension Service to explore new cropping options, ideas

First of all, I would like to say thank you to all the people that supported Nebraska Extension in the past few years.
I speak for both myself and my colleague Debbie Kuenning who does the 4-H programs and youth education.
We are honored to serve and be a part of the very progressive rural communities in southwest Nebraska. It pushes us to be better, to work harder and to be more grateful for the life learning opportunity we’ve been given.   
While farmers and ag-businesses are currently struggling with low commodity prices, Nebraska Extension has been going through a roller-coaster of its own.
Budget cuts and lack of funding opportunities for research have taken toil on the greatest resource that we have here at UNL—people.
Just in 2017, we’ve lost a farm manager of Stumpf Wheat Research Center at Grant, a cropping systems specialist for west-central Nebraska, a 4-H educator in Keith County, and five technicians that worked with specialists at research center in North Platte.
At the same time, demand for research information that will make farmers more profitable has never been higher.
Every generation of farmers goes through at least one long-term economic depression during their lifetime.
Many conversations I’ve had with older farmers that lived through severe droughts and low commodity prices still remember all the pain and struggle. But they also provide amazing insights on how they survived.
Crops like sugar beets, grain amaranth, sunflowers and millet were the livelihood for many families and still are!
Soil and water conservation practices such as no-till, residue management, chemical (eco) fallow and harvesting wheat with a stripper header were all new concepts back then.
Most of us recognize that times of $7/bu. for corn $5/bu. for wheat are long gone and that we ought to find other ways to farm and generate income (or pay off the debt).
Continuous corn has created short-term financial benefits. However it’s left behind some bigger issues.

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