Air August 29, 2001

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. Once again, almost in the nick of time, we had some good rains late last week. The rain certainly helped a lot of things and now brings up numerous questions. To those in a moment. Remember that next Thursday, September 6th is the Agronomy farm field day in Manhattan. The Agronomy farm is located just north across the street from the football stadium. Tours will start from 8:30 to 10:30 in the morning. It’ll be a good tour so plan to attend.

If you have pastures that are quite bare, get the cattle out and let this rain bring on some regrowth so the recovery process can start. You will be seeing a lot of annual Broomweed in the pastures. This is the result of a couple of dry falls. Don’t let anyone talk you into spraying for the Broomweed. It won’t do any good and more normal weather will take care of it in coming years. There is volunteer wheat coming on strong. Make sure it is dead two weeks prior to planting. If you don’t have your new alfalfa planted - get to it. We have a great window of opportunity here so take advantage of it. Once it starts to come up though, check it daily. We have webworms that could be a problem, we have grasshoppers that could be a problem, we have army cutworms that can show up at anytime. If you start to see some activity, give me a call so we can make sure it is sprayed in time. We are still over a month away from wheat planting, or should be if you know what I mean, but I’d be getting my seed lined up. Make sure you are planting seed of known origin, that is treated with a fungicide and if possible, tested for Karnal bunt. I’m getting more questions than normal on blends of two or more wheat varieties. I’m not especially sold on blends, but trials have shown it won’t hurt you too bad and may be a good way of dealing with risk, especially if you have multiple landlords! The blends that I would consider would be Jagger and 2137 and if you want a third, consider Karl 92 or Dominator. But remember, that blends have to be terminal. Don’t try to keep any of that seed back for planting purposes. If you have more questions on blends, give me a call. Don’t forget fertility. Get that phosphorus and maybe sulfur and chloride down at planting and then consider 75 pounds of total nitrogen as the minimum on your good soils!

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

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