UW range students claim top team at national competition

UW claimed the top team award at the Society for Range Management competition. They include, front, from left, Travis Decker, Craig, Colo.; Ben Jones, Denton, N.C.; Amanda Van Pelt, Fernley, Nev.; Amanda O’Donnell, Spring Creek, Nev.; Sarah Kauer-Griffith, Durango, Colo.; Bailey Terry, Newcastle, Wyo. Second, Blair Gauthier, Rozet, Wyo.; Allen Wellborn, Oakland, Ore.; John Wagner, Buckeye, Ariz.; Kayla Bish, Longmont, Colo.; Hailey Lockwood, Big Piney, Wyo.; Katie Mattila, Plymouth, Minn.; Cassidy Comer, Gillette, Wyo.; Wade LaCount, Rifle Colo.; Back, Rick Comer, Gillette, Wyo.; Tyrell Perry, Clearmont, Wyo.; Kellen Smith, Gillette, Wyo.; Wilson Rogers, Pinedale, Wyo.; Scott Meyers, Fruita, Colo.; Sage Askin, Douglas, Wyo.; Tate Smith, Rye, Colo. Not pictured, Katie Schade, Fort Sumner, N.M., Evan Hathaway, Star Valley, Wyo.

The University of Wyoming was awarded the Trail Boss Award for the top collegiate team during competition at the 65th Society for Range Management (SRM) meeting in Spokane.

In addition, two students claimed firsts and a professor received the top teaching award. This is the first year the Trail Boss Award was presented by SRM.

The UW team is comprised of rangeland ecology and watershed management students in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. UW teams also claimed seconds in the Undergraduate Range Management Exam (URME) against 24 other schools and in Rangeland Cup against 11 others.

Sage Askin of Douglas was first out of 203 competitors in URME. He was also a member of the second-place URME team. Ben Jones of Denton, N.C., won the undergraduate extemporaneous speaking contest in which there were 13 teams.

Sage Askin

Megan Taylor of Swainsboro, Ga., won the graduate student oral paper competition with “Rehabilitation seeding and soil dynamics associated with invasive species in a semi-desert sagebrush shrubland.” There were 27 participants. She is advised by professor Ann Hild.

Travis Decker of Craig, Colo., was elected vice-president of the SRM Student Conclave (all university students). UW also claimed third place in the chapter display contest.

Professor Tom Thurow in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources received the Range Science Education Council’s Undergraduate Teaching Award, the top teaching award in the profession.

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Bed bug informational meeting Feb. 29 in Cody

The biology, life cycle and identification of bed bugs are topics at a workshop 1-3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 29, in Cody.

The free session by the University of Wyoming Extension is in the EOC room of the Park County Courthouse.

Joyce Johnston, UW Extension horticulturist, will present bed bug information, and Dave Jamison of Stroupe Pest Control will discuss inspection and control.

Bed bug infestations are on the rise around the U.S., said Sandra Frost, UW Extension educator in Park County. The Wyoming hospitality industry hosts guests from across the country and around the world, she said, and pests such as bed bugs may arrive more often than in the past. For example, bed bugs have infested University of Nebraska dormitory rooms in Lincoln.

Bed bugs:

Are small, brownish insects with six legs, short golden body hair, have two antennae and flat, oval-shaped bodies.
May be as small as a pinhead when young.
Feed on the blood of animals, including humans.
Don’t fly, but they do move easily over floors, walls and ceilings.
May live in mattresses where they can feed on bed occupants at night.
Tend to congregate in hiding places such as linens, upholstery, furniture crevices, wood trim, electrical boxes and outlets, floors and behind wallpaper and picture frames.

Residents can prevent infestations by examining accommodations when traveling, inspecting luggage when returning from a trip and vacuuming suitcases before bringing them into a home.

Control measures require pest control professionals. Multiple inspections and treatments may be necessary to control an infestation, said Frost.

For more information, contact Frost in Powell at (307) 754-8836 or sfrost1@uwyo.edu.

Poultry, horticulture, season extension topics at Goshen County spring garden conference

Jeff Edwards, left, and Hudson Hill build a mobile chicken coop during Fremont County Farm and Ranch Days in Riverton.

The former host of the PBS series “The Victory Garden” is among speakers at this year’s University of Wyoming Goshen County Extension Spring Garden Conference in Torrington Friday and Saturday, March 9-10.

Lucinda Mays’ “High Plains Gardening” discussion is among topics covering poultry, horticulture and methods used to extend the growing season, said Jeff Edwards, University of Wyoming Extension educator based in Torrington. Mays is a public horticulturist for Chadron State College in northwest Nebraska.

Sessions begin 1 p.m. Friday at the Goshen County Fairgrounds with an afternoon workshop building a mobile chicken coop. Saturday sessions include poultry selection, care, and economics of egg production; tree care; iris; building healthy soils; wise water use; season extension; and grant information from the Wyoming Department of Agriculture. Mays’ keynote presentation is 9:30-11 a.m.

Information about the shared-use kitchen incubator “Wagon Wheel Pantry” in the Rendezvous Center will be provided.

Registration is $25 and includes lunch. Pre-registration is encouraged and can be completed online at http://bit.ly/yGRVp5. A program schedule is also listed.

For more information, call the Goshen County UW Extension office at (307) 532-2436.

Risk Adjusted Marketing workshops set for Torrington, Pine Bluffs

Producers will use a case study of a typical grain farm to put into practice what they learn about pre-harvest selling using marketing tools at University of Wyoming Extension workshops in Torrington and Pine Bluffs this March.

Risk Adjusted Marketing sessions are Monday, March 5, in the Platte Valley Bank conference room in Torrington, and Tuesday, March 6, at the Eastern Laramie County Outreach Center in Pine Bluffs. Information is available at www.uwyo.edu/ces under Coming Events on the left-hand side of the page.

“This program will help producers with limited experience trading futures to combine marketing and crop insurance for optimal risk management strategies,” said John Hewlett, farm/ranch management specialist with UW Extension.

Speakers are Art Barnaby and Dan O’Brien, agricultural economics professors at Kansas State University, who conduct programs on financial planning, risk management, government commodity programs and crop insurance.

Participants will manage a grain farm as a case study. Type and level of crop insurance will be selected, whether or not to participate in Farm Service Agency programs, and then work through a typical grain marketing year. The case study will be limited to cash sales, forward contracts and /or puts

Registration opens at 8:30 a.m. and sessions start at 9 a.m.; they will end with summary and questions at 4 p.m.

Cost is $10 and includes lunch and materials. Registration deadline is March 1. Attendees can pre-register by calling UW Extension educators Jeff Edwards in Torrington at 307-532-2436, jedward4@uwyo.edu, or Kellie Chichester in Pine Bluffs at 307-721-2571, kelliec@uwyo.edu.

Living on a Few Acres information sessions Feb. 25 in Cody

How to build and stock ponds, tree care and pruning, growing and preserving fruit at high altitude, trees for saline soils and defending homes from wildfire are among topics at the Living on a Few Acres workshop in Cody Saturday, Feb. 25.

Sessions are 8 a.m.- 4 p.m. at the Holiday Inn. Two, fifty-minute programs start each hour in separate meeting rooms.

Presentations include:

8:30 a.m. – Bill Nye, a private fisheries consultant, will discuss how to build ponds and what fish to stock them with. Joe Scianna, director of the Bridger Plant Materials Center, Natural Resources Conservation Service, in Bridger, Mont, will talk about how to irrigate trees for successful establishment.

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