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Pheasants in Nebraska
Pheasants are Nebraska’s most popular upland game bird, but shrinking habitat is impacting their numbers. Nebraska Extension Habitat Management Specialist Andy Little discusses what landowners can do to improve pheasant habitat and help support populations across the state.
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[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
Pheasant hunting in Nebraska is a time honored tradition.
On today's almanac, extension specialist Andy Little talks about how pheasants came to this country, and what farmers and acreage owners can do to promote a habitat where they can thrive?
[Andy Little, Nebraska Extension Habitat Management Specialist]
They were brought over from China back in the late 1800s, here to North America.
Um, a lot of, and basically the primary reason was uh, individuals wanted to be able to hunt pheasants over here.
And so they brought them over here and started introducing them into various states in particular across the United States and obviously Nebraska and the Midwest.
It was a designated location for releasing pheasants.
And so, uh, we released pheasants again, you know, kind of late 1800s.
And actually this year, interestingly enough, in Nebraska is the 100th year of pheasant hunting uh, in Nebraska.
And so again, it's uh, they've been around for quite a while.
Populations of pheasants in Nebraska, really peaked back in the, I'd say about the 50s, 60s time period, and a lot of that was due to crop diversity.
We had at that time, you know, in some places, 5 to 6 different types of crops being grown.
And so crop diversity was pretty important to them and really that kind of speaks to their need to have a lot of different types of cover in the landscape.
We can probably dive into that more in a moment.
Um, but at the end of the day, yeah, they, they were brought over here late 1800s, North America, and then continued to expand across the country as people were wanting to, you know, primarily from a recreational standpoint for hunting.
So.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Andy talks about what the ideal pheasant habitat is to help them nest, reproduce, and have protection from harsh weather and predators.
[Andy Little, Nebraska Extension Habitat Management Specialist]
So we'll kind of started like the nesting cover side of things in the spring.
So right now, birds are kind of the peak point of nesting for pheasants.
Um, so they they want to obviously have some level of concealment.
So we think of, um, a mixture of Forbes and Grasses.
Uh, and so people think uh, immediately of like CRP conservation reserve program fields, uh, that may have a little bit more of a, um, uh, diversity there of both, again, grasses and Forbes, just to have some level of structure.
So when she puts a nest in, Um, she can still be able to see potential predators.
You'll see pheasants, especially nowadays as we have, you know, again, peak back in the 50s and 60s.
Populations have continued to decline across the state of Nebraska and many states.
Um, what you actually see is birds will be nesting in, you know, roadside ditches because in cases like that.
Those roadside dishes are really all they have available to them.
Um, and then when you get to the brood running stage, once that nest hatches, the uh, chicks are going to need uh, more open kind of bare ground mixed with Forbes, they can find insects, but they can move around quickly.
And similar to turkey, uh, poults.
One of the things with pheasants is if, in that 1st, especially a couple weeks of life when they just hatch out, they can't really thermal regulate very well.
And so if it gets like a cool night and you got a lot of moisture and say you have, um, you know, like brome, you know, in your pasture, for example, it's really dense.
If they get in there, they can actually die from hypothermia because they get moisture on them and they can't thermal regulate.
And so you really want to have a diversity of kind of open areas.
And the way I always tell people to do this is if you want to know you have brooder in habitat, take a little kid's monster truck or a tennis ball and try to roll it through the area where you think is brood rearing cover.
If it stops immediately, that's not quality brooder and cover because they're not likely to get through there.
Now, if they, you can roll it through and there's some open areas, bare ground, then sure, they can definitely get to that.
And then you get later in the summer into the fall time period, you know, when most people are hunting them, they're thinking of kind of the taller 4 foot tall vegetation, the CRP fields.
That's what most people are obviously visualizing and thinking, hey, this is what quality pheasant cover is into a point, yes, but at the end of the day, you have to look it up from a life stage standpoint, because that really thick cover, maybe in that fall winter time frame is not really going to be the ideal cover for, say, brood rearing, because they need to have those mixtures of those different cover types really within a pretty uh, to each other in a landscape.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Stay tuned to future almanac programs where Andy discusses pheasant population decline in Nebraska.
For Nebraska Extension Almanac.
I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
Scouting Your Home for Termites
Termites can cause serious structural damage before they’re noticed. Nebraska Extension Urban Entomologist Jody Green discusses how homeowners can scout around their home’s foundation and recognize the tell-tale signs of a termite infestation.
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[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
Today's programs part three of our series on Termites.
Last time we told you about certain strategies around your home that could be good preventative measures to keep termites out.
Extension anemologist Jody Green continues that discussion to focus on what to look for inside your home.
[Jody Green, Nebraska Extension Urban Entomologist]
If you're looking for termites in your house.
So you're doing a termite inspection.
You want to consider what kind of construction.
You have in your house.
So if you do have a basement.
Do you have a crawl space?
Are you able to get into that area?
So if you've got a crawl space, you do want to, you know, wear your PPE, get a flashlight and you want to go under there and you're looking for mud tubes.
So these are shelter tubes made by termites, they can be free.
Freestanding mud tubes from the ground up to the structure or to those beams to the sill plate.
And you're also looking for any type of damage.
So, um, anything that looks, um, I guess it would simply look similar to wood rot, but, but a little bit different.
Sometimes people will see corsadaust or piles of wood.
And that is not going to be termites.
So termites eat the wood, so they consume the wood, and in the place of those, the wood material, they're going to leave fras, which is essentially poop.
So it's going to be mud and it's pretty much going to be packed into those tunnels because they have eaten the wood and they've left this frass.
Whereas carpenter ants or other insects that nest in wood, they're not able to consume the wood, so they're going to kick it out.
And that's when you'll see piles of sawdust.
So sawdust is not termites.
Termites are going to be more cryptic than that, so that's why they move in those shelter tubes.
If you don't have a crawl space, you do want to get into your basement and many of us have finished basements, so that makes it difficult.
So you want to go into a place that you can see the sill plate.
So that is basically where the foundation wall ends.
There's going to be some wood and then usually insulation.
And in that area where it's pretty hidden.
You know, sometimes you can pull that back, look for mud tubes.
There are a lot of homes that are completely finished, so what you can do is get a moisture meter.
And detect, look for high moisture areas.
So those are the places you're going to look around, uh, windows, where spigots are outside, maybe where downspouts come out or anywhere that you know you've had a flood in the past or, um, you know, high moisture.
So, you know, look at those areas.
And then on the outside of your house, you want to look around your foundation wall, you want to make sure you have a clear view of the ground up into the house.
So, dirt filled porches, in the garage.
You want to make sure your walls are not completely covered that you can see that area because if you see the start or mud tubes, then, you know, early detection's going to be the key, so there's less damage.
But if you are looking around and you don't see any of that evidence, then you might not have termite damage, even if you were to get a professional inspector.
There are a lot of places that we consider in quotes inaccessible because we cover things up.
So, you know, you just want to make sure that your your structure is uh, visible and is dry and uh, you know, keep those termites over at the neighbors.
Well, most houses that are going to be built with that kind of lumber are going to be pressure treated, if you are building your own home, you can have it treated with a borate solution that will protect it from wood destroying organisms.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
On our final episode at this look at termites, Jody will talk about a few control measures to eliminate them from your home.
For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
Extruded Soybean Meal as a Replacement for Distillers Grains?
Feed costs are a key concern for cattle producers looking to maximize returns. Warren Rusche, South Dakota State Extension Feedlot Management Specialist says a new study suggests extruded and expelled soybean meal may be a cheaper option for finishing cattle.
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[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
Optimizing feed costs is obviously a top priority for modern ranchers.
In the past, soybeans generally haven't been the best option for cattle due to higher cost than distillers grains.
On today's program.
South Dakota State University, Dr. Warren Rushi, discusses the research being done on extruded and expelled soybean meal that might be a good alternative to distillers grains.
So I'm going to start.
I'm gonna go back about one step before this study that we talked about.
We'd been working a little bit on soy protein for starting in about 2022.
And to be frank, it was the initial stab was because the South Dakota Soy Council had some resources available.
We need to fund grad students.
And so, and we were also developing in the state more soy crush capacity.
So we started off looking at, you know, just conventional soybeans, and then that turned into what about the heat treated soy?
And so, uh, our 1st study is the one, you know, that kind of led you to me, I guess, uh, you know, where we evaluated, extruded, expelled in a finishing diet.
And so one of the things that, you know, I think we need to talk a little bit about terminology, you know, because we start talking about soy and soybean meal and the, uh, we get, it's easy to get caught up in the weeds of what we're dealing with and what.
So if we think of starting at kind of at the ground level of conventional soybean meal, you know, the 44 or the 48% high pro that, you know, we've had available to us for forever, that's a solvent extraction process.
You know, they use hexane to strip out the oil, leaves the meal behind.
Characteristically, that is more room and degradable.
We don't think of that as having as much, you know, our undegradable protein or as much escaping digestion going to the small intestine.
The various heat treated options.
There's roasting, there's extrusion.
There's a couple plants in our region that do some steam flaking.
Roasting's pretty self-explanatory.
We're using heat.
Heat, that will change the, the structure of the protein, make it more resistant to degradation in the rumen, and then a greater proportion of those amino acids go intact into the small intestine.
Extrusion uses a press or a screw to create heat and pressure that does that same thing, changes the protein structure, changes degradability.
The expeller process takes it one step beyond, where they take then that extruded soy product, run it through a press and squeeze out as much of the oil as they can physically remove.
So to back to, you know, that 1st study we talked about, that was expeller processed where most of the oil had been taken out, but it left that that altered protein.
And what we found was in that study when we did a partial substitution for pulling out some of the dried distillers and added this expeller processed soybean meal, we picked up £20 of carcass weight.
And initially we, I think this one kind of slipped by us a little bit.
We were focusing on some other work and, uh, you know, and it wasn't until we did some follow-up work with full fat extruded soybeans that we began to think, hey, we're onto something.
We did a follow-up study with one of my colleague, Dr. Zach Smith's PhD students, Madeline Nichols, where we replaced all of the distillers with extruded soybeans, and we picked up £30.
And then since then we did a follow-up, um, where the partial replacement where it was only 6% of the diet or about a pound and a half .
We ended up with a £27 response.
The exciting part about that partial response and and also what Dr. Smith and our team did the 1st time is that is economical.
The, that full fat, full replacement with the £30 here sounds exciting until we start running a diet cost and realize, yeah, we spent too much money for what we got out of them.
But that partial replacement seems to be the sweet spot in terms of controlling diet, best cost kind of diets where we're getting a response that's large enough, especially in today's cattle market to offset that additional investment we have to make on the diet side.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
We'll explore more of this important topic on a future almanac program for Nebraska Extension Almanac.
I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
How to Prevent Termite Damage in Your Home
Homeowners can take steps to prevent termites from entering their homes. Nebraska Extension Urban Entomologist Jody Green discusses ways to control moisture, eliminate wood-to-soil contact, and use routine inspections to help keep termites away and prevent costly damage.
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Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
On our final program on our series looking at termites, extension anemologist Jody Green focuses on some control measures that will help eliminate these paths from your home.
She strongly encourages homeowners to use professional services, but to do some research before they hire one.
[Jody Green, Nebraska Extension Urban Entomologist]
Okay, so the termites that we have here in Nebraska are called subterranean termites, which means that they have to maintain some connection to the soil.
And this is why when you hire someone to take care of your termite issues, no matter where they are, if you find an infestation in like a 3rd floor, uh, bedroom window, those termites still have some kind of connection to the soil.
So that's why we do soil soil treatments for termites.
This is not something you're able to do by yourself.
There are not any products that you can buy over the counter despite what they may have on the label, if you actually read it, it may be for a spot treatment to kill termites that you are actually seeing at that time, but you want to get rid of the whole entire colony, which is going to be in the soil.
They're going to be feeding above ground, maybe on the house, but they are going to be in contact with the soil.
So a soil treatment, which is usually a liquid termiticide treatment into the soil, or there are also bait stations, which are dug and installed into the ground to take care of the termite colony.
So, I would suggest that when you have positively identified that the problem is termites, to contact at least 2 companies that specialize in termite, control and management.
This way you have the ability to see the differences and make a decision that works best for you.
It can be expensive, yes, but you need to know what they're treating, how they're treating, what they're using, and how long the guarantee is for, and what it entails after that guarantee is over.
So many times there's just a lot of questions because it is so expensive.
Um, and this is, you know, your investment.
So you do want to make sure you're choosing a company that is reputable, that you trust, what they are doing, and that you are able to call them back.
And if you see any issues with termites in the future.
So, After doing that, and termite treatments are normally priced according to linear feet of the home.
So you should receive a map of the home, detailed where the conducive conditions are, where active termites are located and what and how they will treat.
And so that can be a good visual for you to see what will be done.
Sometimes people are concerned when the salesperson or termite technician talks about subslab drilling, but sometimes you have to drill through the cement to get to the soil underneath, and that's the reason why.
So the idea is to create a complete barrier that termites cannot get to the house.
And if they are in that zone, that it will eliminate that whole colony.
So that is why they need to do the drilling.
And then there's also something called a trench and treat, and that's, um, for anything that's not cement around or they can dig a little trench and put some insecticide or turn mitaside in there.
And uh, termiticide is, um, it binds really closely to the soil, so there's not usually uh, uh, you know, problems with leeching and getting into the water because those people are very um, careful on where they need to put that.
So that's why you can't like dig up that soil after it's been treated and you don't want to plant any, you know, gardens there.
You want to keep that, that traumaticide in the ground close to the house.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
For more information on identifying, scouting, and treating a termite infestation, contact your local extension office, or go online to search for Nebraska extension resources that can help you solve this problem.
For Nebraska extension almanac, I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media, and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
Water Quality Testing
Water quality is important for the health and safety of people and livestock. Nebraska Extension Associate for Domestic and Wastewater Management Becky Schuerman stresses the importance of knowing your water quality and explains how homeowners can test for potential contaminants.
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[Mike Straub, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
High quality water is important to the health and safety of the people of Nebraska.
Extension Associate for Domestic and Wastewater Management, Becky Sherman, speaks on water quality, the importance of knowing the quality of your water, and how to test for contaminants.
[Becky Sherman, Nebraska Associate Domestic and Wastewater Management]
We are talking about water quality, the importance of knowing your drinking water quality, as well as making sure that your on site wastewater systems, and your domestic water systems, are kept in good shape and inspected twice a year, and maintained regularly.
And once you know your water quality, If there is an issue with a particular contaminant, let's say nitrate, that you are over the 10 milligram per liter, MCL, or maximum contaminant level, that you go ahead and look into implementing treatment, most often for residential homeowner, which includes our rural residences, that would mean a reverse osmosis system.
Typically, the basic, the most definite contaminants that we want people to test for are nitrate and bacteria.
But then finding out if there's any other contaminants of concern in your area.
So we do have naturally occurring arsenic and uranium throughout the state.
Nebraska is kind of blessed, I sarcastically say that, with hard water.
We have high iron and manganese throughout much of the state.
And so those are mostly nuisance contaminants.
Although, high manganese can also cause issues in health concerns with very young children, because of the fact that within the cereals, the baby cereals, and within a lot of the infant formulas, there's already manganese.
And so if you add high manganese water to that, you are going to have an exacerbated level of that within the food or the formula that you're feeding a baby, which can cause health concerns.
But we often tell folks, go ahead and check with your local NRD.
If you have a close by community water system, go ahead and find out if they have any contaminants of concern, and then go ahead and test for those.
Unfortunately, we don't have a one size fits all test for contaminant.
Usually, your nitrate and your bacteria tests are each going to run around $20.
We do recommend using a certified laboratory, which means a laboratory that can do public drinking water tests, because we firmly believe that your private drinking water is just as important as a community water system.
So, it's all, it's, if you know that you have high arsenic or high uranium in your area, I would go ahead and test for those as well.
But the biggest concerns, especially with our collaboration with UNMC, the water climate health program, we're looking at trying to educate healthcare providers on nitrate, and the health concerns of nitrate in drinking water, and then for them to be able then to also help pass on that information to their patients.
All rural domestic well owners need to be testing their water, regardless.
Most rule homeowners have farm ground that surrounds them.
But it's not just farm ground, it's also how you're taking care of your own yard, how you're taking care of your vegetable garden and landscape.
Unfortunately, more is not better.
And the aquifer is not set up in small little basins underneath each person's property.
It is shared.
And so nitrate concerns, depending on where your well is drawing from, often is the case, but nitrate concerns are everywhere.
[Mike Straub, Program Host]
For Nebraska Extension Almanac.
I'm Mike Straub.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.