Air April 4, 2001

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. We’re starting to get a little bit more warm weather. Soil temperatures are slowly starting to warm up, but we’re still a ways behind normal! Average highs for early April are in the low 60s and average overnight lows are in the mid to upper 30s. We’re not too far off that. Where we are lagging is in all those accumulated heat units. Remember, February was five degrees below normal and March was 4 degrees below normal. We’re going to have a late and slow developing spring. What a few of you want to know, is if it is okay to start planting corn now. I’d say that as soon as the ground is dry enough, go ahead and plant your corn.

Naturally, I’ve also started getting a few calls about chinch bugs. Are they going to be a problem this year? Do I need to use Gaucho seed treatment or some other planting time treatment? Well, as I’ve stated in past years, the State Dept of Ag no longer does the overwintering chinch bug survey. They feel that chinch bugs aren’t enough of a problem to justify the time and money they used to spend on that survey. With that said, we simply don’t know what the overwintering numbers are, but here’s my best educated guess. Winter weather doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on chinch bugs. And when we have a long cold winter, that is even better for the chinch bugs. We historically know that chinch bug development is favored by hot and dry weather. Well, we certainly had that! So I would guess that we have a better than average chance of having high numbers of chinch bugs going into winter. Therefore, I would just plan on treating for chinch bugs. Where are we going to see our highest risk? Milo planted next to thin wheat or barley or near native grass fields and waterways. Milo is normally planted well after chinch bugs move out of wintering bunch grass locations and into wheat fields. But we know we also see more damage next to grassy areas. I’d say it isn’t worth the risk, use a planting time treatment. In closing this morning I’d like to say farewell to Larry Lay. I met Larry my first week on the job in 1982. Since then he’s been a good supporter of Extension programs and the Extension office, a pleasure to work with and a good friend. I wish you well in your new endeavors Larry!

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2001.

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