Air June 6, 2001

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. It looks like the biggest challenge right now is getting things dried out enough so that we can finish getting beans and milo planted. I guess we really shouldn’t complain about the rain, I think we’d just like to see it spaced out a little bit better over a month.

With this rain, we should be seeing alfalfa really greening up. If it isn’t, or it’s very spotty then you need to get out there and see if we are still seeing adult weevil or cutworm damage. We’ve been seeing both around the area and we can’t rule out a stubble treatment. I’m also a little concerned that we are now going to start to see a lot of weeds start coming in some wheat fields. The wheat progress has slowed down substantially in the past two weeks. This is probably a good thing for the wheat yield and quality. We’ve lost a lot of leaves the past two weeks so many of those plants are going to finish filling from the stem. For that to be most effective, we need cool moist weather. Guess we got that. But cool wet weather will also start to bring along a few, or a lot, of weeds as we start moving that wheat harvest date back later and later. This may mean a pre harvest herbicide treatment in worst case scenerios. There are a couple of considerations for preharvest herbicide treatments. First of all, most all of the options have a 7 to 14 day waiting period after application until harvest. Naturally, it would probably take about that long to dry the weeds down enough for the treatment to be of much benefit. Secondly, the straw can not be harvested for use with livestock. If you wanted to use it for mulch you’d be okay, but not for livestock bedding. Additionally, if you use one of the treatments containing roundup, you shouldn’t keep the seed back for planting. There isn’t an exact exculsion, BUT it does say that roundup treatments are not recommended for wheat being harvested for seed. There are four basic choices for preharvest herbicides. 2, 4-D by itself, 2, 4-D with dicamba (either banvel or clairty), 2, 4-D with Ally or 2,4-D with roundup. While 2,4-D by itself may be okay, if you’re going to the expense of having it flown on, I’d just as soon have you add something to it for a little more kick. Let’s hope you don’t have to treat weeds before harvest, but if the situation arises, there are options!

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

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