Air April 16, 2003

Thank you Gary, and good morning everyone. The weather is certainly the topic of discussion right now and a couple of weather related topics coming up. But first I want you to mark your calendar for Tuesday, May 27th. The KSU Agronomy Farm is having a field day at their Ashland Farm south of Manhattan along the river. It’ll run from 9:30 AM until noon. Lots of good topics and I’ll tell you more about that as the date gets closer.

First of all this morning alfalfa weevils. They are out in just about every field. Some fields have already been sprayed, some probably needed it, others may have been premature. Regardless of if you sprayed or not additional scouting is going to be real critical. I was seeing, and getting many reports of real spotty infestations in fields. A lot of these fields will need to be sprayed sometime soon, but timing may be critical. As the weather cools off again it gives us an advantage in that the weevils feed slower. We need to be looking at an average of 1 to 2 larvae per stem to spray. Remember, this isn’t 1 to 2 larvae in every stem, but an average of 1 to 2. So if you have one with 4 and one with 0 you’ve still got an average of 2 and you need to spray. Call me if you are uncertain!

If you’ll pardon the pun, pasture burning has become a hot topic in the past few days. The commissioners passed a 7 day burning ban on Monday. The weather will dictate if that expires or continues. I am concerned enough about the soil moisture condition that even if we do get a bunch of rain over the next few days, I don’t know if I would want to burn this year. We are still a little ahead of when we should be burning by the way, in spite of all the smoke you’ve been seeing. So if we get 6 to 10 inches of rain over the next 10 days and a lot of it soaks into the ground, you might be able to convince me that we can burn this year. But my basic feeling is to back off on the burning for this year for the sake of the grass. And of course, keep an ear to the radio to find out about the burning ban status. But always remember, that if you do start a burn, it is your responsibility to stay with the burn until it is totally extinguished and you are liable for what happens!

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

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