Air April 14, 2004

Thank you Gary, and good morning everyone.

After the cool tempeatures of the past several days we really need to be keeping a close eye on our alfalfa weevil situation with the warmer weather that's arriving today. There have been a lot of fields sprayed and a lot of fields are going to need to be sprayed. If you haven't sprayed, and you walk out through your field start looking closely at the stem tips. If you are seeing damage and live weevil larvae in every stem tip, then you better be thinking about spraying. If you have sprayed, don't think you're home free. Start 7 to 10 days after treatment and start checking again for reinfestation. There could be late hatching eggs OR we have been seeing adult females still out laying eggs. With the early warm weather getting the weevil started so soon, this could be the year that two treatments on the first cutting are required. Let's monitor this situation closely!

With soaring crude oil prices, or at least the current high price of crude oil, most of the critical inputs in crop production are going to remain high, namely chemicals, fertilizer, and fuel. So as a producer you are doing the prudent management practice of trying to minimize your expenses. Whenever possible you buy generic herbicides. You soil test and try not to over apply fertilizers. The natural tendency is to want to cut back on fertilizer whenever possible. And the question invariably arises as to how much the rising price of nitrogen fertilizer reduces optimum fertilizer rates. The truth is that optimum nitrogen fertilizer rates are price insensitive. In other words, it doesn't matter. At first that doesn't make sense so let me explain. When you are analyzing for optimum fertilizer application rates you are looking at the lowest cost per bushel produced. It doesn't matter what the price of the fertilizer is. If the cost of nitrogen fertilizer doubles, then sure, the total cost of production, per bushel, goes up. But the minimum cost per bushel is still the same application rate. So by cutting back on fertilizer application, below the recommended amount, can end up costing you profit as your cost of production, per unit produced, will start to go up, even though you are spending less on fertilizer. Still confused, come in and sit down with me and I'll prove it. Don't skimp on what you need, skimp on what you don't need!

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

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