Air August 22, 2001

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. I am back from vacation. If you have been trying to get a hold of me can get in line at the Extension Office. Mark Thursday, September 6th down on your calendars. That’s the date for the 2001 K-State Agronomy farm field day. Field tours will run from 8:30 to 10:30, there will be lots of exhibits and a great lunch. The location is at the Agronomy farm which is just north of the football stadium in Manhattan. Numerous great topics on the agenda including multiple tour stops or seminars on alternative crops, environmental issues and cropping systems and soil management. And for you cattle producers, a little further on into September we have the beef stocker profitability conference. Friday, September 21st is the date, Manhattan is the location. Contact me for more information.

A lot of questions since I’ve gotten back about garden webworms in alfalfa. This is a very unusual situation and one that is made more difficult to evaluate because of the hot dry weather we’ve been having. Even without the webworms, we’d have greatly reduced alfalfa growth. The webworms are just making it look even worse. Two big questions that I’ve been asked: Will it kill the alfalfa and should I go ahead and plant that new alfalfa I was thinking about? In and of themselves, the webworms will not kill an alfalfa stand. Coupled with the dry weather we are going to see problems and you can flip a coin to decide which did what damage. If we don’t get enough rain to get 4 to 6 weeks of good regrowth before frost, the alfalfa will go into winter with depleted carbohydrate reserves. It will be more susceptible to winter damage and it certainly will not have good growth and vigor next spring. Fall fertilization and possibly even herbicide treatments will be needed, regardless. Spraying won’t do any good right now, what we need is rain. Should you plant that new stand? I would. The webworms are not likely to move from an existing field into a new stand. The moths may come and lay eggs in the new stand, but we can treat for that. We’re in the critical alfalfa planting period for another 3 to 4 weeks. I think it is more important to get it planted timely and hope for rain. If it comes up and we start to get webworms, we can treat. And if you have additional questions on this, give me a call!

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

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