Air October 3, 2001

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. Well, the calendar has moved us into October, the last quarter of the year and a time when a hard freeze, or at least a good frost can’t be too far away. Wheat planting and fall harvest are both getting into high gear, as the weather permits.

We sometimes get so busy with all those fall planting and harvest chores, that other good management items get left behind. If you don’t feel like you have enough to do right now, let me make you feel a little guilty with everything else that there is to do. Right now we have been seeing areas with damaging levels of fall armyworms. Keep an eye on new alfalfa and seedling wheat. If you start to see less green instead of more, that’s not a good sign. Call me! I’ve been in a lot of established alfalfa fields the past week. And I have seen a lot of small broadleaf weeds, primarily henbit, coming on strong. I would strongly encourage you to consider a dormant season application of Sencor in November or December. You can also get 40 pounds of phosphorus applied at the same time. We’ll also need to keep an eye on the foxtail situation next year as well. While the Sencor MIGHT give a little control, we may need to consider some other options as the 2002 crop year move along. This would also be a good fall to get some field bindweed spots controlled. Several products are available for fall treatment all depending on what your crop sequence is. Tordon, Roundup, 2,4-D and dicamba, alone or in combinations can be very effective and get a good start on bindweed control. Speaking of fall spraying, think musk thistle also. Fall applications of Tordon in areas of heavy infestation are far superior to any spring treatment you can do. It’ll also mean a lot less chopping and digging next year when they start to bolt and bloom! Finally, stop by the office, borrow our bale probe and start getting some hay samples to send in for analysis. Year after year I see cattle performance suffering because hay quality isn’t what’s anticipated, or cattle doing real well, too well, because more supplements are being fed than needed. Feed is going to be at a premium, especially if the winter turns off cold. Let’s know what we have so we can plan accordingly and not waste feed or have substandard animal performance.

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

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