By: Bobby Smith

For many years, high-quality Bermuda grass hay producers have needed a pre-emergence herbicide for the control of crabgrass, goose grass, Texas panicum, sandbur and other summer annual grasses. BASF announced Jan. 21, 2010 that Prowl H2O is now labeled for use on forage Bermuda grass.

Prowl H2O has been used for years for annual grass control in numerous row crops such as cotton and soybeans. The active ingredient in Prowl H2O, pendimethalin, is also used under different trade names for a similar purpose in turfgrasses and ornamentals.

This new use for Prowl H2O will be shown on a supplemental label. Over the next few days or weeks BASF will be obtaining state registrations for Prowl H2O. The supplemental label will then be posted at www.cdms.net .
At this time Prowl H2O will be labeled for applications to only dormant Bermuda grass. Applications to tall fescue, bahiagrass and other perennial forage grasses are currently not labeled. However, it is expected that these forage grasses will eventually be added to the label.

 Pertinent remarks and precautions are as follows:
 1. Prowl H2O may be applied to forage Bermuda grass grown for hay or pastures.
2. Apply Prowl H2O to established Bermuda grass when in winter dormancy in the late winter and early spring months. In most areas of Georgia this time period would be February through early March.
3. Crabgrass begins to germinate when soil temperatures average 55 F. Prowl H2O must be applied before crabgrass or other annual grasses germinate.
4. Recommended rates of Prowl H2O range from 1.1 to 4.2 quarts per acre. Research conducted in Georgia has shown that usually 2.0 to 3.0 lbs. ai/acre (2.1 to 3.2 quarts per acre) is needed for season-long annual grass control. 

Story by Colby Dunn | Photos by Angelina Bellebuono

The midway was muddied and the rain continued to patter down, but the cakes, cookies and candies still rose and lambs and goats rose to the occasion for the annual 4-H fair competitions.

4-H had to forgo the popular dairy heifer show this year, drowned out by the rain and its accompanying mud, but the lamb and goat competitions went ahead and the annual bake-off, arts and crafts, photography and poster competitions were successful, as well.

Thursday's bake-off featured five categories - cakes, cookies, candy, decorated cakes, and Splendalicious, a sugar-free category - and a range of entries from the youngest cloverleaf competitors to the senior category entries.
Phyllis Martin, a first-year bake-off judge and also the Morgan County Schools nutrition director, was taken with a fluorescent red-velvet cake that she cited as her favorite. Filed under surprising tastes was a lemon pound cake, Martin said.

"It was good," she said, "but unexpected."

The ever-popular bake-off, which attracted 37 entries this year, has been a staple of the annual fair for years.
"It's probably been going on as long as the fair has been going on," said Laura Rolader, program assistant for Morgan County 4-H, "at least 10 to 15 years."

The lamb show has also long been a fair standard, according to county extension agent Bobby Smith.
"We have had a lamb show since I've been here since 2000," said Smith, "and probably 10 years before that."
Smith said that many of this year's competitors have parents who showed lambs through 4-H, as well.
The goat category, however, is a relative newcomer to the scene, started three years ago when 4-H goat projects were started in Morgan County.

Special to the Citizen

The Morgan County 4-H archery team is excited to announce that the annual Archery Fun Day is scheduled for this Saturday, October 24 from 10:0 a.p. to 2:00 p.m.  This fun filled event will allow for plenty of opportunity to show off your archery skills or learn how to shoot!  Beginners are welcome and encouraged to come to this event.  Those who want to learn more about how to shoot or about the 4-H Archery program are asked to attend this fun filled day at the 4-H archery range.  The archery range is located behind the new Morgan County High School gym.

Lunch will be provided by the archery team.  They will be serving hotdogs, chips and drinks which will be provided for participants and their families.  So, plan to make it a fun family day at the archery range.  Bring the family and enjoy the event.

Although there is no cost for the event, parents of participants are required to fill out a 4-H Medical Release Form which can be completed at the range or it can be downloaded at www.ugaextension.com/morgan.  Parents are also encouraged to join the fun.  Coaches and 4-H volunteers will be on hand to instruct and help new shooters.  This will be a great opportunity to find out if the 4-H Archery Team is something that you would like to be a part of this year.  The state 4-H archery competition will be held in April and the team practices will begin in December.  A mandatory orientation meeting to organize the 2010 4-H archery team is also scheduled for November 2.  Students ages 9-19 who are residents of Morgan County and either enrolled in the public schools or are home-schooled are eligible to participate on the Archery team.

According to Dr. Nancy Hinkle, UGA Extension Entomologist, the fall is the time of year we notice more spiders in and around our yards. Why? Because the spiders are at their largest size and they are producing egg sacks for next spring.
Between now and Halloween we will be seeing more spiders around our yards. The first hard frost will kill them off; now they are mating and producing egg sacs so their eggs can overwinter and re-establish the population next spring. There are two orb-weaver spiders with large webs that are most commonly seen.

Barn spiders (Araneus cavaticus) can be found on porches, where flying insects attracted to porch lights get trapped in their webs. These spiders are nocturnal, constructing a new web every evening and taking it down before dawn. This rusty brown spider has legs extending about two inches, making it look large and noticeable. These spiders hide during the day, but at night are found in the middle of the web, waiting for insects to be trapped.

The yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) is one of the longest spiders we have here in Georgia. It is frequently found in gardens and around shrubbery where it constructs large webs to entrap flying insects. The abdomen has distinctive yellow and black markings while the front part of the body, the cephalothorax, is covered in white. The female yellow garden spider typically remains in one spot throughout her life, repairing and reconstructing her web as it is damaged and ages. Her web may have a distinctive zigzag of silk through the middle, explaining its other common name, “writing spider.” Unlike the nocturnal barn spider, the yellow garden spider can be found in its web anytime. Sometimes a smaller spider will be found in the web with her; this is the male garden spider.

By Angelina Bellebuono
Staff Writer

On Friday morning, rain or shine, Morgan County High School seniors will be parading down College Drive in celebration of Homecoming, 2009.

But behind the scenes, just a few men, a few more students and a whole lot of pork will be working together, so to speak, to feed a hungry crowd prior to the Homecoming game at Bill Corry Stadium.

These efforts aren’t simply to satiate the hungry, however. This annual barbecue benefits the Morgan County High School FFA, and is organized and executed by the FFA Alumni group each year.

This year, treasurer Rhonda Towe reports that the men manning the grill will be cooking more than 900 slices of pork, which, she says will, be marinated in Philip Crowe’s Barbecue prior to its time on the heat. The official menu includes baked beans, slaw, bread and tea, and Towe says, “There will even be a drive-thru, so if you want to pick up a plate, but don’t want to get out of your car, you don’t have to.”

The FFA students will be on hand to take tickets as people pull up, and they’ll just hand the food to the driver, she explains.

“We did this last year, and people just loved it,” Towe says.

But walk-up tickets are limited, with only 60-80 extra plates available on the day of the event. According to Towe, the best way to make sure those craving a taste of barbecue pork shoulder get what they’re after is to purchase tickets ahead of time from Tim Savelle at Morgan County High School (MCHS) or from an FFA member.

Plates are $8 each, and the profits from the event go entirely to support the MCHS FFA program.

It's a sweltering summer afternoon - a cow and her baby cling to the sliver of shade cast by a work shed, plump melons cling to their leafy vines in a wide, verdant garden, a lone, violently fuchsia hibiscus stretches its face to the sun and, a few yards away, Tom O'Neill is angry. The cows, and their four lowing black companions, are his, as are the flourishing vegetables and flowering fauna, and he thinks the county isn't paying enough attention to them.

Tom, who works this 13-acre tract of land in Buckhead, and Judi Chamberlain, who owns it, have been trying to get the plot into conservation land use for nearly two years now, with no success. When the Morgan County Board of Tax Assessors said the land didn't qualify, they took the next step and appealed it to the Board of Equalization, who hears tax appeal cases. That body agreed with them, granting them conservation use status, protecting the land and slashing their property taxes.

Shortly thereafter, Chamberlain received a lawsuit from Morgan County, challenging the ruling and asking for the decision to be overturned, and requesting a slew of admissions from Chamberlain, admitting that the land does not qualify and stating that the county followed proper procedure.

O'Neill and Chamberlain, who have been readying the property for a small-scale livestock operations since late 2007, balk at the lawsuit and what it implies, saying they haven't been given a fair shake.

"It's taken me the better part of two years just to get the county to step on the property," says O'Neill, who maintains that the process the county uses to assess conservation use is faulty and fraught with carelessness.
O'Neill, who has six thriving cows and two pigs - the aptly named Pork and Beans - he is raising to sell, believes that these livestock and the work he has put into creating a home for them qualify the property for conservation use.