Air April 21, 2004

Thank you Gary, and good morning everyone.

After that wind last week and weekend forced us to take a break from pasture burning, I've received a few phone calls asking if it is getting too late for burning. In a short answer NO! As long as you can get a fire to still carry, you can burn well into early May. In fact brush control is going to be enhanced the later you can burn. Earlier burns will encourage more cool season grasses which will certainly cause your pasture to green up sooner, but ultimately lose production in the mid summer period. Later burns will discourage the cool seasons and encourage the warm seasons which, if it rains, will provide superior summer forage production. You won't hear me yelling about early burning anymore, but you will hear me talking about what is your purpose in burning and time your burn to match your purpose. I think we all have a lot to learn yet about this old grass!

I have been looking at a lot of alfalfa in the past few days. A lot of fields have been sprayed and now that the wind has calmed down, there's a whole lot more that need to be sprayed. I know we lost several good days of spraying last week to the wind, but there are a lot of fields now showing some serious weevil damage. It is imperative that we get those fields treated. Some of you by now may be saying, what the heck let them take the first cutting, but the problem is that the weevil not only hurt first cutting production, but they reduce yield the entire summer if not controlled. Get on the list to get those fields sprayed and then resume monitoring of those fields about a week after treatment to make sure a second treatment isn't needed before cutting.

With the little showers and cooler weather we are seeing a lot of leaf diseases showing up in the wheat. And I'll guarantee you that all those south winds were blowing in more than just dust from Oklahoma and Texas. With more precipitation, even just light precipitation in the forecast we are looking at a situation ripe for leaf disease problems. Consider fungicides on high yield potenital or seed fields. And for the record, the chinch bugs are active. If you are planting sorghum, use a seed protectent.

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

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