Air June 9, 2004

Thank you Gary, and good morning everyone.

Wheat harvest grows ever closer, planting is trying to wind up, brome hay should be done now, if not you really aren't going to like the quality, and prairie hay harvest isn't that far away, but more on that next week!

As wheat harvest gets closer and we spend more time looking at those fields and we realize that we have some problems to deal with. Bindweed is always around and I really hope you'll take advantage of the post harvest fallow period to get some bindweed sprayed in the stubble fields. Roundup, 2-4,D and dicamba are all effective alone or in combination, and if the rotation will let you, let's not forget about our old friend, Tordon. A mid summer treatment followed by a fall treatment can be very effective at knocking down field bindweed. What I really want to talk about this morning is cheat or more accurately the weedy annual bromes. We saw a lot last year and there's more than a little bit of this problem this year as well. We may lump them together as cheat, but the actual species involved may also include Downy Brome and Japanese Brome. It's actually quite important to know which one you have, especially if you are thinking about wheat herbicide options. Rotation is still the best way to deal with the annual bromes. Burning stubble doesn't really do anything and tillage can only help in the fall after the seedlings start coming up. Rotation is very effective at controlling the annual bromes. We do have some herbicides available that will give you some options in continuous wheat. Amber, Finesse and Maverick all give some control or suppression. None of these are going to be perfect and Marverick is probably the best of this group. BUT, be very leery of the recropping restrictions. Some of these may shut you out of several crops for quite some time. One other option is the Clearfield technology with Beyond. Beyond gives very good control of the annual bromes and jointed goatgrass, but you have to use a wheat variety that is resistant to the herbicide. And all current Clearfield wheats are not well adapated to our conditions. These are a couple of years off yet. So, rotate if you can - use Maverick if you are a really in a pickle or wait a couple more years and use Clearfield wheat and Beyond herbicide.

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

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