AIR SEPTEMBER 30, 1998

Thank you Mark and good morning everyone. As hard as it is to imagine, we are at the end of September... already. There’ll be frost on the pumpkin and snow in the air before we know it!

Soybeans seem to be coming off a little later than normal this year. A lot of producers like to follow soybeans with wheat, and at the rate we’re going some of that wheat may get planted late which brings us to the question of how late is too late. Now that may seem like a silly question with wheat planting season just getting started, but if you have to make changes, you may need to make them soon. We know that anytime we plant after October 15th we can start to see yield loss. As a rule of thumb I like to start increasing seeding rate for wheat for plantings that occur much after the 15th of October. Planting from say the 15 to the 25th of October I’d like to see those rates go up about 25% and planting after the 25th of October maybe even 50% more than standard seeding rates. We can even plant after November 15th, but I’d like to see seeding rates up around two bushels per acre if that’s the case. Late seeded crops are usually going into cooler soils so I always like to see 50 to 100 pounds of starter fertilizer go down with those late seeded wheat fields. Late seeded wheat will be more likely to winterkill, hence the need for more plants. The late seeded crops will often also have smaller heads with fewer kernels per head, once again justifying the need for more plants. Spring fertilization and weed control needs to be just like the rest of the wheat crop though. And speaking of fertilizing let’s not cheat that wheat on nitrogen or phosphorus. We’ve had three pretty good years in a row. To produce those types of wheat crops takes a fair amount of fertilizer and you can only get out what you put in!

If you are thinking about grazing stalks this could be a good fall for it. If you’re fencing in some of those milo fields be wary of turning cattle out until we have a frost. We’re getting a lot of new growth in those fields and prussic acid and nitrate always need to be a concern in the fall. If you have questions give me a call and we can discuss management options! That crop residue can be a cheap and valuable feed source, but it can also cause you a lot of problems if it’s not handled right. Corn stalks can be grazed at anytime though as we don’t have the same concerns.

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

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