Two nationally recognized events will take place this week. One involves a bunch of men, who are paid entirely too much money to run, throw and kick an air-filled pig’s skin around a field. The other event revolves around a ground-dwelling varmint whose aversion to sunlight supposedly curses the land at this time each year, with six more weeks of winter. Growing up in Ohio, we had groundhogs there like we have prairie dogs in Kansas, so let me tell you a little about the star of Ground Hog Day, the groundhog.

Also known as a “woodchuck,” which comes from the Cree Indian word “wuchak,” a groundhog absolutely resembles an overstuffed prairie dog, from its large front incisor teeth, to its short stumpy tail. They are about the size of a badger, and live in deep underground burrows usually hidden it fencerows or in the edges of woodlots. They are herbivores, and are lethal to young green plants like corn and soybeans.

When I farmed, I could walk through fields of young row crops, and see row after row eaten off to the ground for several feet into the field. While not nearly as fierce as a badger, a groundhog can give a nasty bite with its big front incisor teeth, if cornered or barred from its burrow. We had one dog that was especially adept at killing groundhogs, and it was not uncommon to find old dried up groundhog carcasses around the barn during the summer. The dog would circle and maneuver itself to get them by the scruff of the neck, them shake them furiously until their neck broke.

I remember one summer day when the corn was nearly mature, we heard a horrible ruckus of growls, screams and thrashing cornstalks coming from somewhere in a cornfield near the house. By the time we found the source, that dog and a groundhog had flattened a patch of corn the size of a pickup, and once again, the groundhog had lost. I remember another time, when a neighbor’s dog named Wimpy, which was obviously not wise to woodchucks ways, ended up with one clamped onto his nose. It took several good wallops from a two-by-four to dislodge the critter. Groundhogs hibernate each winter in a special den dug just for that purpose. Research shows that during hibernation, a groundhogs body temperature falls to less than forty degrees, its breathing slows to an amazing one breath every six minutes, and its heart rate decreases to four beats per minute; the legend known as “Groundhog Day” centers around them awakening from this nearly dead state.

Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania was settled and named by the Delaware Indians as a campsite halfway between the Allegheny and Susquehanna Rivers. When German settlers arrived in the 1700’s, they brought with them a tradition known as “Candlemas Day,” celebrated in Germany on Feb. 2nd, which happens to be the midpoint between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, (winter and spring.) Tradition held that if Feb. 2nd were sunny, the last half of winter would be nasty and cold, and vice-versa. In Germany, for whatever reason, hedgehogs were observed to see if a shadow was cast. In Pennsylvania, given the absence of hedgehogs, groundhogs were selected to assume that role. An old German saying read: For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day, So far will the snow swirl until May; For as the snow swirls on Candelmas Day, So far will the sun shine until May.

Pennsylvania’s first official celebration of Groundhog Day was in 1886, when the legendary groundhog was named Punxsutawney Phil, and the first trip to Phil’s mythical home on Gobbler’s Knob, was made the following year. Today Phil’s handler is local funeral director Bill Deely, who says that Phil currently weighs fifteen pounds, and thrives on dog food and ice cream in his climate-controlled home at the Punxsutawney Library. Each Feb. 2nd, he is carried up to Gobbler’s Knob and placed in a heated burrow beneath a simulated tree stump before being pulled out at 7:25 a.m. to make his annual prediction. Common sense says there have been several Phil’s since 1886, but no one has fessed-up.

Anyway, maybe we in Kansas can come up with our own figure-head to predict something, say a coyote for instance. We could call him Carl the Coyote and put him in a big pen in the middle of a CRP field where he’d be comfortable. We’d use his big fluffy tail to predict the weather. For example, if his tail was sticking straight out to one side, it was going to be windy; if his tail was wet, it’s raining, and if Carl was suddenly gone, there was probably a tornado and we’d just have to get another Carl. After all, we’ve got plenty of them! Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].

There are two programs that are coming up in February I wanted to highlight this week. Registration deadlines are coming up fast, so call 620-793-1910 or email me at [email protected] if you would like to attend either program or both.

Winter Ranch Management

Kansas State University will host a series of meetings to help beef producers focus on management and profit strategies for the new year.

Bob Weaber, a K-State Research and Extension cow-calf specialist, said this year’s Winter Ranch Management series is titled “Production strategies to mitigate environmental factors impacting conception and pregnancy.”  The meetings will be held at four sites in Kansas and will feature presentations and comments by extension educators on profit-enhancing strategies.

The meetings will also feature a popular ‘town-hall’ style question-and-answer session between Kansas’ cattle producers and extension specialists. Weaber said the series has a history of being a successful stretch of meetings.

Weaber, along with other state, district and local extension staff, will take part in the series to help answer producers’ questions. The specialists will answer a wide range of questions on beef cattle issues including animal health, nutrition, management, and reproduction.

Meeting topics include forage quality and availability impacts on beef cow-nutrition during late gestation and pre-breeding and also environmental factors affecting conception rates.

There will be a meeting on February 19^th at the Township hall, 220 Union Street in Rush Center starting with registration at 5:30. Participants are asked to RSVP by either calling the Great Bend office of the Cottonwood District at 620-793-1910 or the Lacrosse office of the Walnut Creek District at 785-222-2710.

Burn Workshop

The past several years we have received a better than average amount of precipitation in the fall creating a large amount of grasses late in the season. These forages are now dry and have the ability to create the perfect storm for a wildfire. Prescribed burnings can reduce the amount of fuel that a fire has access to and help mitigate a massive wildfire.

K-State Research and Extension, the Midway District and the Cottonwood District are hosting a burn workshop on February 20th at Dole-Specter Conference Center, 1430 South Fossil in Russell, Kansas to help educate producers on burning. The program will begin with registration at 9 and will run until 2:30.

Participants will learn the basics of burning, and be able to run through scenarios to gain experience and confidence for creating their own burn plan to implement on their land. 

This workshop is designed to help with the understanding of the nature and behavior of fire. Some of the topics that will be covered are reasons for burning, wildlife and prescribed burning, local and state regulations, fire weather, safety, liability, use of burn contractors, planning and conducting a burn. The workshop is designed to either prepare the participants to begin using prescribed burning or to update their knowledge and abilities.

To enroll for this workshop or for more information, please contact either the Midway District at 785-483-3157 or email Clint Laflin at [email protected] or the Cottonwood District at 620-793-1910 or email Alicia Boor at [email protected].

Alicia Boor is an Agriculture and Natural Resources agent in the Cottonwood District (which includes Barton and Ellis counties) for K-State Research and Extension. You can contact her by e-mail at [email protected] or calling 620-793-1910