Air October 22, 2003

Thank you Gary, and good morning everyone. Well, the weather just continues to be a gem, sort of anyway. At least it's helping keep the soil temperature from cooling off quite as quick as last year, even though we could use a hard freeze to help with the harvest. We've sort of had a hodge podge of subjects pop up the last week so let's be dealing with those this morning.

Seeding rates for wheat planting - normally by this time of year I'd be saying plant a solid bushel and a half of seed. But the ground is still fairly warm so that would encourage faster germination and plant establishment. True, however it looks like more seasonable weather will be arriving by the weekend so plant and tiller development will by reduced by that. Hold to tradition and go with a bushel and a half of seed for the immediate future. We can revisit this after November 1st. With the warmer weather and more wheat finally getting planted and out of the ground we are set up for another aphid and greenbug problem in the wheat this fall. Fall aphids bring our worst barley yellow dwarf. What can we do? Well, not much really. IF the greenbugs get bad enough we can spray, but we need to simply be aware that we could see more barley yellow dwarf in the wheat, especially the earliest planted wheat, next spring. If you do have wheat well established, grazing the wheat to reduce the amount of topgrowth is a good option to make it less attractive to aphids. While your fall harvest and wheat planting may be sputtering to get started, this would be a great time to be treating musk thistles in pasture and field bindweed in wheat stubble fields. Both of these nasty weeds are very vulnerable right now and there are many herbicide options that will give you great control with minimal negative side effects. The one caution note is to watch what you use on the bindweed especially if you are going to soybeans next spring. If in doubt, use 2,4-D and dicamba. Good control with few carry over concerns. Lastly just another plea to get cattle moved off pasture and make use of alternative forages and crop residue. These pastures have been nailed hard the past few years and we need to start making plans to get them into better shape soon. Call me if you have questions on this or any of this mornings topics !

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2003.

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