Air December 12, 2001

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. This strange late autumn weather continues, but at least we are getting al ittle closer to normal now! Just a few thoughts about the potential impact of this warm fall on the crops. This big wheat may be headed for problems IF we don’t get some good winter and early spring precipitation. There was a lot of precious subsoil moisture that’s gotten used up in top growth that has no value except for grazing. IF you have big wheat and can put cattle on it, do so. It’s the best thing you could do for it. We’ve also headed a lot of aphid activity late into the season. This usually means that those fields with a lot of top growth are going to be showing a lot of Barley Yellow Dwarf disease symptoms come spring. Look for uneven green color in the wheat come spring and very uneven heading and height. There’s not a darn thing we can do about it when we have a warm late fall. Some of these heavy fall growth fields may also be showing a lot more foliar leaf diseases in the spring. Small amounts of the disease can get going underneath some of that heavy leaf cover and if we have a mild winter or much snow cover, those diseases will survive the winter and be raring to go come spring.

Now that I’ve got everybody depressed, let’s go on and announce an upcoming meeting that I think many of you will find interesting. We will be hosting an Ag Computing Expo here in Junction City on Saturday, January 12th. This is one of three locations in eastern Kansas hosting these in 2002. It runs from 10 in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon. We will have general sessions on purchasing technology, using the web for e-commerce and using PDAs also known as Palm Pilots. Additionally, there will be breakout sessions on Ag Accounting Software, Cow/calf software, GPS mapping and field records, Ag Spreadsheet applications and searching the internet. The best part about these presentations is that you don’t have to listen to me. We have ag computer folks from all over the state helping present these and they will be good. The cost will be $20 early registration and $30 for registration after Christmas. These sessions will all be at the 4-H/Sr. Citizens building at the Geary County Fair Grounds in Junction City. Registration forms and general information are available at the Extension Office.

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

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