Air September 27, 2000

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. The weather took a nice turn over the weekend. Maybe not so nice if you had outdoor activities planned, but the cooler temperatures and rainfall was certainly welcome. This weekend assured us of two things. We will not end up September with the hottest or the driest September on record. WE’ll still be in the top ten of both but not number 1. For me, the best news is that the stagnant weather pattern finally appears to be breaking loose which would be an important indicator of things to come.

It looks like most of the area will end up with at least a half inch of nice slow soaking rains. So what does this mean? A half inch of rain is going to soak up the top 2 to 4 inches of soil, depending on what kind of soil you have of course. This will probably create a major flush of weeds in wheat stubble fields, or almost anywhere to tell you the truth. If you dusted in Alfalfa, then this was probably enough to get it up and going. The question will be for how long, and will we get enough rain in the near future to get it going. Hopefully this will have also melted a few clouds down making wheat seed bed preparation a little easier. I would not get in an overly big hurry to get out there and start seeding wheat. We’re still in September and I strongly feel that we need to getinto October. It’s too late to plant wheat and expect to get much forage out of it, so don’t invite other problems by getting in too big of a hurry. Remember what happened to the early planted wheat last year! We do have a lot of milo that has been cut. The cooler weather and rain, followed by warmer weather through the week is probably going to start a lot of it sending up tillers. These tillers are liable to be loaded with both prussic acid and nitrates. I still feel that you are better off to wait to graze milo stubble until after a hard freeze. That’ll take care of the prussic acid, but nitrates can still be of concern. If you are harvesting the stubble and baling it then prussic acid is not a concern, but nitrates still will be. Most of the nitrate tests that are being run are coming back in the safe level. But now with regrowth liable to come on we need to be checking everything again. I can do a quick screening here at the office, but a quantitative test will need to be sent into the lab. Call me for details on nitrate testing.

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

Return to Ag Home Page

Return to Radio Home Page