Air June 23, 2004

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone.

Well, I think for once we were glad that we missed anymore heavy rainfall for the last week. It gave the water a chance to get away and helped to minimize the damage to crops, although there was still plenty! And if we could just get a few more days of dry weather so we could get some wheat out, I think everyone would feel better about things!

Several of you were asking me about the "new" wheat disease that was hitting the press a couple of weeks ago. Ironically, most of us county agents had no more idea about this than all of you, our only source of information was what was in the press. We do have some details on this now. The new disease is a virus and appears to be a variant of a known disease called High Plains Virus. High Plains Virus was isolated in 1993 in much of the high plains. A lot isn't known about it yet other than that it can cause yield loss, it infects both wheat and corn, it has a life cycle apparently very similar to wheat streak mosaic meaning that it survives in volunteer wheat and weedy grasses and is transmitted by mites or other insects. There is no known resistance and actual yield losses have been hard to estimate. Control would be like Wheat streak mosaic. Control volunteer and avoid planting before the Hessian fly free date. And most of the pathologists feel it is more a novelty than a serious threat right now, but we will monitor this and keep everyone posted!

I know everyone is more concerned with getting wheat harvested now than putting up prairie hay, but the time is fast approaching for putting up prairie hay. The best mix of yield and quality is going to come from a harvest in early July. This also allows plenty of time for the grasses to restore root reserves before fall dormancy. Good prairie hay should be 8 to 9% crude protein, but all too often it gets harvested late and it ends up at 5 to 6% crude protein. If you depend on prairie hay for something other than bedding and mulch, plan on having it cut by the 15th of July at the latest!

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

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