AIR SEPTEMBER 9, 1998

Thank you Mark and good morning everyone. Finally some September acting weather! Yesterday’s temperatures and todays forecasted temperatures are just about right on the money for what we should have this time of September. Enjoy these days while you can, fall starts in two weeks.

A hodge podge collection of topics this morning. There is still some minor feeding damage going on in later milo and soybean fields. I would pretty well discount most of this given the lateness of the season. If you have small alfalfa coming up, or when you do, keep an eye on that for feeding damage from any number of little caterpillar type insects.

I’m noticing a lot of hay still being put up. This is not very advisable on two fronts. First of all it really hurts the grass by sending it into winter with less than a full tank of food reserves. Continued late haying will do a lovely job of switching a native hay meadow over to cool season annual and perennial grasses. Secondly the hay quality by now is pretty well shot. It will make good bedding and decent mulch hay, but that’s about it. If you don’t have it cut by now you might as well forget it because the fuel you’re going to waste is worth more than the hay you’re getting back!

We’re really getting into crunch time on volunteer wheat control. If you are planning on a herbicide treatment get it done fast. You need to plan on about 3 ½ to 4 weeks from spraying to nearby seeding if you are using Roundup. If you’re using Gramoxone you can cut that back to two weeks. If you are tilling the volunteer wheat under remember two weeks from the time of the tillage to planting in near by fields. If you aren’t worried about wheat curl mites and wheat streak mosaic on your own fields at least put your neighbors minds to rest and control that volunteer wheat.

And finally don’t forget that the Kansas State Fair starts this Friday and runs through the 20th. There’s a new manager this year and some new features. The best way to enjoy the fair is just take a day, go down and wander around. It’s too early to plant wheat and most crops are quite a ways from harvest so take a day off and head to the fair - you’ll be glad you did!

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

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