Air February 11, 2004

Thank you Gary, and good morning everyone.

If you think we've got a mess with the snow, slush, ice and all, trust me, we've got it good. I was in Omaha last weekend where they've had nearly 30 inches of snow. They have mountains of snow everywhere and I don't want to be around when it starts to melt!!

In case you missed the news last week, the 2003 county wheat yield estimates are out and Geary County came in tied for second highest yield in the state at 71 bushels per acre. Nemaha county also had 71 bushels per acre and Brown had 80 bushels per acre. So now every wheat producer is wondering if this was a fluke or are we going to be able to do it again. First of all, mother nature is going to have to cooperate and give us normal precipitation during March thru May and then also give us normal March and April temperatures, slightly below normal May and June temperatures and no real hot dry windy periods. In other words, we need English weather from late April thru early June. Next, we need to fertilize adequately to give the plant the food that it needs to produce those kind of yields. I took a look at the soil samples that have been coming through the office the past couple of months and we really don't see large amounts of residual nitrogen. I feel that one of the reasons we had such good yields last year was because we had higher than normal residual nitrate levels in the soil. This year we don't see that. Using some fairly average soil nitrate levels I punched the data into our fertilizer recommendation spreadsheet and with a 70 bushel yield level, you'd need 100 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer. If you want to shoot for 85 bushels per acre, up that about 30 to 130 pounds per acre. You can't continue to fertilize for a 40 or 50 bushel yield and expect 70 or 80 bushels. Whatever you put in is what you'll get out. And if you get out more than you put in, it probably means you didn't get it all out last year. Now, while you're at it, don't skimp on the phosphorus. If you have soil test levels over 20 ppm you probably don't need to add phosphorus, but you can't tell that without a soil test. And if you're shooting for those kind of levels, you probably need to be checking for chloride as well, or just putting on 15 to 20 pounds of chloride just in case!

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2004.

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