Air February 7, 2001

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. January was good to us, from a weather point of view. Let’s hope that February is every bit as considerate. Next Monday is the Revenue Management meeting in Leonardville. It starts at noon with a soup and sandwich luncheon and runs 'til 4 p.m. You can be home in time to do chores before dark. Call me if you want to go so I can turn in a reservation for your meal. Meal cost will be around $5. Then on the 14th there will be a grain storage school in Marysville. I won’t be going to that one, but if you are interested give me a call so I can call in your reservation. It runs from 9:30 'til 1 PM.

February can be that in between month. It can be really slow, other than chores and calving, or it can be really busy if it is warm enough and dry enough. Right now it’s really neither, but we’ve got three months left. Let’s do a quick review of what may be coming up this month. Wheat fertilization and herbicide application can certainly occur now IF you can get on the ground and it isn’t frozen. If you are going with the old traditional 2,4-D and/or dicamba, remember that we need temperatures above 50 degrees. As we move on into spring also remember that we don’t want that stuff going on too late or we’ll see problems with the wheat. There may well be better choices than 2,4-D and dicamba now days, not necessarily cheaper, but better. If you haven’t gotten bromegrass or alfalfa fertilized yet, you can also do that anytime, and the sooner the better, soil conditions allowing. If you have a lot of weeds or grass in your alfalfa we can probably still get a dormant herbicide application on. Contact me for details on this. And of course there’s always oats to plant. While not a high dollar crop, oats can have a real good place in the rotation or for specialty needs. I’ve always felt that oats need to be planted between Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day to get a decent crop. Too often we’ve set ourselves up to fail with our oats crops. Call me if you are thinking about giving oats a try this spring. Finally, I periodically receive calls about burning bromegrass or alfalfa in the spring. If you are wanting to do this, and there’s nothing wrong with it, time it so that the brome or alfalfa is just coming out of winter dormancy. That can be anywhere from late February to late March. If you aren’t sure, give me a call and we’ll take a look at it together!

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

Return to Radio Home Page

Return to Ag Home Page