Air September 29, 2004

Thank you Jerry, and good morning everyone.

Have you ever noticed that the folks that could use the rain can't seem to get it and where they don't need anymore, the keep getting it. I was in Orlando, Florida in mid July and got to travel around the area a little bit looking at the crops that they grow there. After three hurricanes, all that rain and all that wind, my heart just goes out to the farmers in those areas!

Well, it is still a little early, by about a week, but I started seeing some wheat going into the ground. No lectures, you know you're early and hopefully you're planting now to get some fall pasture and that will help reduce potential problems. I was into some wheat stubble fields in the western part of the county last week looking at volunteer wheat. There was a lot of volunteer wheat in these fields and it was all loaded with leaf rust. But that's not what I was looking for. I was more interested in looking for leaves of wheat plants that were rolled over at the edge - the classic feeding sign of wheat curl mites, the principle vector of wheat streak mosaic virus. I did find some evidence of feeding, but no mites. I'm sure they are out there though and this field is next to a field that's obviously going into wheat this fall. I don't know whether there is hope of using the volunteer for grazing, but it sure would be nice if that field of volunteer would be destroyed. Anyway, planting rates continue to be a subject of debate. Is a bushel and a peck enough, should we be planting more? A lot of the recommendations right now are for heavier seeding rates, but at the start of the season, in this part of Kansas I see no reason to be planting more than 70 to 80 pounds of seed. That is going to give you more than enough plants population density that given the right fertility and the right spring weather, we can see 60 to 80 bushel wheat yields. However, once we move past October 15th or heaven forbid after November 1st, then we really need to start kicking the seeding rate up OR if you are planting no till into milo stubble, then two bushels per acre is probably going to be necessary. But in traditional settings or notilling into bean stubble, let's start at that 70 to 80 pounds per acre and after October 1st we can bump it up to 80 to 90 and higher if necessary on down the line!

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

Return to Radio Home Page

Return to Ag Home Page