Air August 30, 2000

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. Yes, it is hot and dry. But it is come on us fairly short term and late in the season. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we may have already lost 50% of our soybean yield. The potential concern lurking on the horizon is wheat planting time. We’re about 5 weeks away, or less, and how much wheat do you want to dust in? A reminder of the Agronomy farm field day, next Thursday, September 7th at the KSU Agronomy farm which is located just north of the K-State Football Stadium. Tours will run from 8:30 to 10:30, there will be many good displays and a $1 lunch. I’ll be there with one of the first tour groups, so I hope to see you there as well.

My big concern right now though is not really the soybeans or wheat planting. There’s not a lot we can do about those anyway. What I am concerned about is the pasture condition. Most pastures that have or had cattle in them this summer are pretty short on grass. A lot of you are already doing some suplemental feeding. I think we’re all familiar with the old saying that a drought has a long tail. Even somewhat short term droughts can have a long string of problems. Given the heat, the lack of rain and the lateness of the season, it is apparent that the native grass is going into fall and winter in a stressed condition and so will come out of winter in a stressed condition. There isn’t much that we can do about the weather. What we will have to do is adjust our management of those pastures. The first thing will be burning. If we have received good precipitation through the fall, winter and spring, plan to burn IF you have enough fuel. Assuming that we do receive some good moisture during the off season, you will still need to reduce stocking rates. Pastures are generally being overstocked right now so we need to redcue stocking rates about 1/3. I would strongly encourage you to look at an average of 10 acres of grass, not just pasture acres, but good grass acres, per cow/calf pair. If you don’t make these adjustments, you will find more and more invasive weeds, undesirable grasses, trees and brush. All of these things are not problems, they are simply symptoms of the bigger problem.

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

Return to Ag Home Page

Return to Radio Home Page