Air May 11, 2005

Thank you Jerry, and good morning everyone. Cold weather seems to remain a popular topic so I guess we will start with that again this week. Then we'll finish up with a little bit about alfalfa management.

Almost daily we are seeing more damage show up in both corn and wheat fields. The amount of damage in the wheat is all over the board. Some fields look like nothing has happened, others like like parts of the field were sprayed with roundup! The range is everything in between. If you have questions about your wheat, grab some of the good looking and bad looking and bring it in to my office. I don't think I have enough time to make a visit to every field. I've probably looked at as much wheat that still looks good as what looks bad so the crop isn't a total bust.... yet, but we do need rain! If you have multi-peril crop insurance and you think you may have some damage, contact the adjuster before you even begin to think about doing anything else. It'll be critical to have them involved every step of the way. I've also been looking at some corn. I was in one field that showed frost damage but everything was coming along fine - I was in another field that had less than 1/3 of the stand left. Start walking your fields - if there are green leaves growing above ground, with some frost damage on them, then I wouldn't worry too much. BUT, if you have plants that are brown to the ground and little or no green showing, start digging these plants up and breaking them open. You'll probably find that the dead tissue is extending down almost to the roots and there isn't much there. If you have more than 1/3 of the plants that look like this, call me as we may have to do some pencil pushing to see if we are going to need to replant. Again, if you have multi-peril crop insurance, contact your adjuster so they can be a part of every decision. Not much time left for alfalfa, but let's get going. Due to the weevil and the frost, it may not work to judge harvest by amount of blossom. So get down on your hands and knees and check the crown for regrowth. If you are seeing new growth from the base, start cutting. With all this damage, new growth could easily be coming sooner than you have planned on and even though it may not be a great cutting, let's get it put up right to preserve what quality we have left!

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2005.

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