Cummings and Goings in Agriculture
Mark Your Calendars For March 6 Agriculture Banquet
By Steve Cummings
Don’t forget to get your Ag Banquet tickets. The annual Yalobusha County Agriculture Recognition Banquet is March 6, at 6:30 pm at the Yalobusha County Multipurpose Building.
The speaker is former Buffalo Bills football player, Kent Hull, and entertainment will be provided by Thompson Ward. Tickets, which will include a meal, are $10 and may be purchased at the Yalobusha County Extension Office or Farm Bureau.
Horse show season kicks off on March 7 at the Yalobusha County Multipurpose Building with a timed event horse show. Training barrels will start at 6:30 pm with the show starting around 8 pm. As usual, the Tri-Lakes Horse Shows are free and open to the public.
There will be a Private Applicator training on March 10 at the Multipurpose Building at 6:30 pm.
If you plan to use restricted chemicals or if your private applicator’s license has expired, you need to take this training. There is a $10 fee to take this class. Please call our office at 675-2730 if you plan to attend this training.
Horticulture Tips:
Gardeners should be preparing now to prevent deer predation in their vegetable garden. Deer are cautious creatures and don’t go where unfamiliar smells, sights, or sounds are present. The surest way to prevent deer munching your peas is to erect a seven-wire ten-foot-tall fence around the garden. This is too expensive for most of us, so we rely on less sure, but much less expensive alternatives. All of these will work for a while, but the deer get used to them if they are present for more than ten days or two weeks.
Aluminum pie plates suspended from strings that flash in the sunlight or moonlight is one method that works. Turning lights on the garden at irregular times works if the area is normally dark, but does little good if you are in a subdivision with street lights.
Scent repellents like hair, strong smelling soap, cheap perfume, urine, garlic, and room deodorizers placed around the perimeter of the garden work for a while. Spraying eggs, (one egg per gallon of water) or hot pepper onto the plants in the garden generally works, but the smell of rotten eggs is not pleasant to gardeners (or their neighbors) either, and there seems to be some Cajun deer who like the spicy flavor of pepper with their greens.
Some success with having a dog in the garden has been reported, but more often the dog does more damage than the deer. Playing music or sound effects can keep the deer away, but again neighbors may complain. Using a succession of these methods should discourage deer from consuming your crop, but if there is another drought and browse is scarce the deer will come.
