Air May 16, 2001

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. With recent weather being far more July like than May like, I think we are all getting just a little bit nervous about what the summer will hold. Maybe early dry heat will give way to milder wet weather.... Or not.

If there’s a good side to this weather, it’s that we have some good alfalfa first cutting weather. A virtual unheard of in eastern Kansas in most years. It also means that we shouldn’t expect much problem with adult alfalfa weevils feeding on the alfalfa regrowth. BUT, if you don’t see that regrowth coming along in a timely manner please get out there and check it. Call me if you aren’t sure what’s going on! The warm windy weather has also kept the wheat leaf disease at bay. Fields that I’ve been looking at are showing very good health on not only the flag leaf, but the 2nd leaf down and in many cases the 3rd leaf as well. This is great news when the plant is flowering. I’ve been seeing a little some black cutworm damage in corn. For the most part I think we are past the serious damage period, but we may have to make some replant decisions in some locations. There are no rules of thumb here, it’s a field by field evaluation scenerio. I’ve noticed a lot of little weeds and grasses coming up in some of these no till fields. Remember, it it’s roundup ready soybeans, those bean plants do not like early season competition. Milo and corn aren’t quite as sensitive and you could hold off treating a little bit longer. I’ve been getting quite a few calls from folks wondering how close we were to cutting bromegrass for hay. I’ve been spending a fair amount of time on this issue in recent years and feel that we have been cutting bromegrass a little bit too late. Our intentions may be good to get high quality hay, but either we get greedy and want more tonnage or the weatherman gets in our way! I think we need to be getting ready to cut when bromegrass is in the boot stage so we can be rolling by early heading. A lot of years we wait until it starts to bloom, the dusting or smoke stage, and I htink that by then we may be too late and have last too much quality. Bottom line, start cutting bromegrass as soon as possible!

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

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