Air May 18, 2005

Thank you Jerry, and good morning everyone. All that talk of a million dollar rain sure seems to apply to last weeks rain. Naturally the fields hammered by the cold couldn't benefit much from it, but the remaining wheat showed some great perking up within a few days. Even in fields with minor damage, the rain will certainly help later tillers and secondary heads to come on and pick up the slack. There are certainly some fields that will continue to be hayed, ensiled or worked under for a secondary crop and some on the borderline between the two will be the subject of endless discussion.

For right now, let's concentrate on those fields that were so badly damaged that we have some way removed what was left of the wheat crop and are now going in with a secondary crop, probably soybeans or grain sorghum. That decision may actually come very easily for you and it will depend on the answer to, what herbicide did you use on your wheat. If you used something like the good old stand by of 2,4-D and Dicamba, you can go back with almost anything you wanted to plant. However, very few folks use the phenoxy herbicides in wheat anymore. If you happened to use Finesse, the herbicide of choice for many producers, then your choices are quickly minimized. Milo is out. You need 14 months of time and 25 inches of precipitation following your finesse application before it's safe to go with milo. Standard soybeans are also out of the question, which very quickly brings you down to STS soybeans. The STS tolerance in the soybeans will provide you with protection from the residual finesse. You do need to wait four months after application before planting the soybeans or you can still expect the possibility of some damage to the seedlings. If you have used some other herbicide, then please give me a call as some of them can have some pretty restrictive re-cropping intervals. Let's close out with alfalfa this morning. Just an encouragement to get out in the fields and check out the regrowth at the base of the plants. I'm afraid that because many of these fields aren't going to react normally because of the cold and the weevil that we may get a late jump on that first cutting and then we'll have problems with that regrowth for the 2nd cutting which is going to come on strong now that it's rained!

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

Return to Radio Home Page

Return to Ag Home Page