Ag Radio programs for September 6 - 12, 2007

Dealing with annual bromes

This is Ag Outlook 2007 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. Cheat, downy brome, and Japanese brome are all common winter annual bromes that we lump together under the heading of cheat. These weedy grasses can be a significant problem in continuous wheat, especially in reduced-till or no-till situations. The best control option for all of these grasses, along with feral rye, Italian ryegrass, and jointed goatgrass, is crop rotation. Deep tillage can also be effective. But these practices are not always possible. Herbicides can be used effectively where crop rotation and deep tillage are not being used. The main herbicides available for control of one or more of these grasses are Beyond and Clearmax (on Clearfield wheat only), Finesse Grass and Broadleaf, Maverick, Olympus, and Olympus Flex. Each of these herbicides is most effective when applied early postemergence in the fall. Although some of these herbicides are labeled for use prior to tillering, it is probably best to wait until the wheat has started to tiller to optimize crop safety and allow adequate time for grass emergence. We are yet to have a good Clearfield wheat with soil borne mosaic resistance for our area, so that tosses those options out. Most of the remaining products are going to work pretty good on true cheat and Japanese brome, and downy brome is going to be the hardest to control. If you don't know which one of the three you have, you may want to give me a call once the wheat and the grasses start coming up this fall so we can try to sort them out. Timing is going to be critical as will using the right adjuvants and the right herbicide. This has been Ag Outlook 2007 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Wheat Fertility

This is Ag Outlook 2007 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. I've head a lot of producers grumbling about the cost of fertilizer. It doesn't seem to matter whether it is for wheat, brome, milo or corn, nobody is happy about it. Yet fertilizer, even in the legume crops, is one of those necessary evils that we're going to have to use every year and the price probably isn't going to go down. Soil testing is one of the quickest, cheapest and easiest ways to know just how much fertilizer you are going to need. And the better job you do in taking the soil sample, the more value the soil test results will have. Given the price of fertilizer now days, it doesn't take much reduction to pay for the test in a hurry. We're coming up on wheat planting time in a month or a little less. Remember, you shouldn't be planting wheat until October 6th and probably after the 10th might be better. If you think that we can go back to the days of 50 lbs of 18-46-0 and another 50 or 60 lbs of nitrogen in the spring, then you are really missing the boat on what these wheat genetics now have as potential. You wouldn't think of growing 100 bushel corn on only 50 or 60 pounds of nitrogen would you? So why should you expect the same from the wheat plant, and yes the genetics are there for 100 bushel wheat. Start with a good soil test. Make it a profile sample so we can get a handle on residual nitrate that's present. Let's get some phosphorus and maybe some chloride down at or ahead of planting. Let's come back in and apply the amount of nitrogen we need in the late winter. We can evaluate the stand coming out of winter and adjust our N, but let's make sure that we have the information that we need so we can make a sound decision, not a knee jerk reaction. This has been Ag Outlook 2007 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Seed Treatments for Wheat

This is Ag Outlook 2007 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. How many of you routinely use a seed treatment on your wheat seed, regardless of if it is new seed or bin run? If you aren't, then you are missing one of the surest returns on your dollar out there! We had everything under the sun happen to that wheat crop earlier this year, and that wheat crop is going to be the source of most of our seed wheat next month. Time doesn't allow me to detail every disease impacting the 2007 crop that may end up reducing germination. Then you have all those seedling diseases, or diseases that infect the plant in the seedling stage that might not show up until later like smut and bunt. If you are buying new seed wheat, insist that it be treated. If you are using some of your own wheat, then it absolutely needs to be treated as well as cleaned to try to raise the test weight. Basic fungicidal seed treatments are only going to cost a couple bucks an acre and what fraction of a bushel of wheat is that now days? It doesn't take long at all to pay for that. But I'm even going to suggest you go one step further. We know that seed treatments like Cruiser and Gaucho also have some pretty good effectiveness against many of those early season insect pests like Hessian Fly and aphids, those nasty aphids that carry barley yellow dwarf virus. Both of these are problems that have been increasing in severity the past few years. For a few dollars more than regular seed treatment you can get one of these and provide some extra protection against those early fall pests. Granted, if we have a late warm fall, we're going to have insect pests continue on well past the protection period, but the later the time of infection, the less damage can be done. This has been Ag Outlook 2007 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

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