AIR AUGUST 5, 1998

Thank you Mark and good morning everyone. I’d like to start off this morning with a few thank yous. To all the fine folks here at KJCK who gave us such excellent fair coverage a big thank you. You help make everyone aware of the fine things going on at the fair and that helps to get the public out to the fair. And then to the fair board and all the parents and volunteers that help with all the little details, an extra big thank you - It was a good fair, the weather cooperated, and we’re already working on the 1999 Geary County Free Fair!

All of this rain is creating some real weed problems. It never ceases to amaze me how that much seed can just lay around for so long and then with a little rain and cooler weather there is just an explosion of seedlings. Why doesn’t it ever work like that when I try to get grass started in my lawn. In crop fields with a good stand I don’t expect a lot of problems to develop. Most crops are mature enough to have a good canopy and shade is one of our best weed control measures. Where I am most concerned is in fallow fields and in wheat stubble fields. Volunteer wheat, while probably not as visible as many of our other weeds, causes me the most concern right now and the reason is insect and disease problems. Volunteer wheat harbors Hessian Fly and Wheat Curl Mites. Contrary to popular opinion we are not too far east for either of these problems. Wheat Curl Mites don’t really do that much feeding damage BUT they carry the disease Wheat Streak Mosaic which can cause as much as an 80% yield loss. It is important to control all volunteer wheat within ¼ mile of a newly planted wheat field and to have this volunteer completely dead 2 weeks prior to planting. The idea is to kill the volunteer wheat so that the wheat curl mites don’t have any food and die before they can move to the newly emerging wheat. If you use herbicides to kill the volunteer you have to spray earlier than two weeks so that the wheat is actually dead for two weeks. Some producers ask if grazing the wheat out will do the job and the answer is no. There is still enough plant left for the curl mites to live on and then they can blow into the new wheat. As to all the other sunflowers and other large weeds out there you may want to consider spraying or rotary mowing to get the material drying down before attempting any kind of tillage operation.

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

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