Air June 28, 2000

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. What a difference a couple of weeks or even just ten days can make. At the start of last week, we were all quite concerned about the condition of the row crops, and our biggest concern about the wheat was whether the good yields and good test weight would hold up through the end of harvest. Now we’ve had anywhere from 3 to 6 inches of rain around the county, the row crops are looking pretty darn good, and our concern with the wheat crop has become whether we can get enough drying weather to finish before the 4th of July.

This rain does bring a whole different set of potential problems. We will see a big flush of volunteer wheat in fields already harvested. I wouldn’t rush right out and control it, but try to get it done before mid August. The moisture also makes for a good double crop opportunity. In fact we are out early enough you could even consider milo as a double crop option. If you want to go back to wheat this fall however, I would discourage using milo. I would shoot for a fairly short season hybrid, about as short as you can get. Sunflowers and soybeans are good options also, and are more compatible with replanting to wheat this fall.

Between now and next week’s program we will have celebrated Independence Day. I’m not going to go into my usual have a safe and sane holiday. Any attempt to do so will result in an automatic tune out by you. What I want you to do this coming holiday is to concentrate on the fact that we are not celebrating the 4th of July, we are celebrating Independence Day. We have moved so far away from July 4, 1776 that it becomes easy to forget what was going on. It becomes easy to dismiss, or warp or skew the facts. When was the last time you sat down and read the Delcaration of Independence? I pull it out every year about now and re-read it. It’s a marvelous document that required much courage to sign. What it says and what it doesn’t say, are powerful messages. "When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another.... We hold these truths to be self eveident, that all men are created equal..." I can just picture Thomas Jefferson, writing and re-writing and carefully molding each and every word... It just gives me goose bumps thinking about it. So don’t just celebrate a day off of work to go to a parade or a party or a fireworks exhibition. Celebrate those 56 brave patriots that met on a hot day in July in Virginia to sign a document that would change their and our lives, forever...

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2000.

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