AIR SEPTEMBER 2, 1998

Thank you Mark and good morning everyone. Well, if averages pan out then by the end of this month we should have daily highs of 75 and overnight lows in the upper 40’s... I can’t wait!

By the end of the month we will have seen quite a bit of wheat go into the ground, much to my distress. I really discourage September wheat planting unless you are trying to get some cattle pasture and even then I don’t like to see wheat planted before the 20th. If you are planting wheat early for pasture use a Hessian fly resistant variety if at all possible. I’ve also spoken to several farmers who are almost panic stricken because they have neighbors upwind who haven’t done a thing with their volunteer wheat yet. These producers are very concerned, and rightly so, that wheat curl mites could be building up in these fields and then they will blow into their own fields brining with them wheat streak mosaic. Some folks think that we are too far east for wheat streak mosaic. Unfortunately this is simply not true and I have seen wheat fields in central Geary county in past years get obliterated by wheat streak mosaic. I don’t care if you do or don’t get along with your neighbor, get that volunteer wheat controlled soon. Grazing it off with cattle won’t get the job done and if you are going to spray it with herbicide this needs to be done real soon. We need a good two weeks between the plant being killed or completely dead and wheat emergence in nearby fields. We’ve got to run those little mites out of food and it takes about two weeks for them to starve to death. Remember the old saying, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

I’ve heard a few rumblings from farmers wondering about storing their own grain on the ground. I would consider this to be a very last ditch approach to dealing with the storage and transportation problems we are facing for this fall. I would rather see you use flat storage under any kind of roof before placing it out in the open. I simply wouldn’t even consider putting soybeans on the ground and make sure that your milo or corn is good and dry. Corn needs to be about 15% for ground storage and milo about 14%. Blade the loose soil off the top first, make sure it is an area that will drain off not drain to, and then use an auger to make the pile and then leave the pile alone to maximize moisture shedding. It’s going to be a tough situation this fall, lets not make it worse!

This is Chuck Otte, County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook '98

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