Air July 4 -8, 2005

This is Ag Outlook on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. With wheat harvest just over or just wrapping up for most producers it's hard to get the mind gearing up already for things like planting alfalfa. But you've only got about 5 or 6 weeks until we'd normally be planting alfalfa. Which means, that in that short period of time we need to be getting seed secured and soil tested and other preparations made. If you are serious about your alfalfa production then you need to be buying a named variety from a certified seed dealer. If you are growing alfalfa for one year, any old seed will work fine - but for a stand you want to keep productive for 5 or 6 years, get a good named variety. We do have variety performance test bulletins here at the extension office if you are interested. Next, let's get a soil test done. Take a good representative sample and bring it in. We're going to be looking at pH level and phosphorus. We need to straighten out any acid soil situations ahead of planting and we have to have good phosphorus levels to get that stand established. It works really good to plant into wheat stubble with a no till drill IF your choice of wheat herbicides will let you. There's always the question of do we dust the seed in if it is dry or wait until it rains. Maybe this year we won't have a question, but my feeling is that we get it planted between August 15th and September 1st one way or another. We don't normally need a herbicide treatment with fall planting - we may have some weeds come on, but the alfalfa seems to be pretty competitive with that fall planting so I say herbicide is optional. Finally, plant a decent rate. If you're getting good seed then 12 to 15 pounds of pure live seed per acre will be more than adequate. This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

This is Ag Outlook on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. Making quality hay, whether it's alfalfa, brome, fescue or native all depends on timely cutting. I think that most producers would agree that quality is the number one consideration when making hay, buying hay or feeding hay. Unfortunately, our practices don't always line up with our actions. Either making prairie hay is secondary to whatever else needs to be done around the farm, or we get greedy and hope for a couple hundred more pounds of forage. The irony of all this is that by waiting until well into August, we can actually wind up harvesting fewer pounds of protein per acre. So let's remember a couple of key items - first of all, harvest for protein, so harvest early. Shoot for a harvest date of early July and try to be done by the 20th of July. This is going to give you far better protein and overall quality then a harvest date that stretches into August. Once we start to switch those plants from vegetative stage to reproductive stage, the quality, especially the protein, start to drop in a hurry. Seed stalks and seed heads may give you a little more tonnage, but they really take away protein in a hurry. Second, and here is where we get into some of the finer long term consideratios of native haying, you will place less stress on the native grass stand. IN all reality, in most years, that stand of grass starts to shut down in early September. The nights are getting longer, the weather is cooling off and those plants just quit growing and get ready for winter. In most years, after being cut for hay, the grass plant is going to start to regrow. This pulls food reserves out of the roots. On average it is going to take about 6 to 8 weeks of normal summer growing conditions for those plants to put on enough growth to produce enough food to replace those root reserves. So what you need to be doing real soon, is start cutting that prairie hay! This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

This is Ag Outlook on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. Native hay meadow management, unfortunately is a hit and miss sort of situation. To be right honest, other than spraying and occasionally burning, most producers don't give their hay meadows much of a thought. So here are some considerations for hay meadows. Time that cutting to be during July. It's better quality hay and better for the health of the grass. You don't gain enough tonnage by waiting until August to make it worthwhile plus your quality of hay and the health of the grass stand goes down. When you are mowing or swathing that hay, don't treat it like alfalfa, mowing it as low as possible. There should be 3 to 4 inches of stubble left, 5 to 6 inches if you are in a dry spell. This protects the crowns of the plant, leaves some leaf area there to make food for the plant, it protects the soil and keeps the soil shaded so you don't have as much chance for weeds and weedy grasses to move in during the fall. A lot of producers don't think about burning there hay meadows and we certainly don't need to do that every year, but once every 3 - 5 years will sure give some long term benefits and probably increase production. If you are brave, you can fertilize annualy with 30 pounds of nitrogen and then burn every 2 years. This can increase production and control invasive cool season grasses at the same time. Without the every other year burning though, fertilizing native hay will enourage bromegrass and bluegrass to take it over. Another benefit to mid-July harvesting is that it often helps to control many annual weeds by greatly reducing seed production. We often don't think of spraying brush in hay meadows, because we're mowing it off every year. But take a little time to spot spray those clumps of brush that are showing up every year. And never, ever hay and graze the same meadow in the same year. Hay meadows can be very productive and an essential part of the ranching operation if you take care of them. This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

This is Ag Outlook on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. July always seems to start the summer field day season. Wheat harvest is done and it's time to catch our breath and figure out where we are. So get out your pencil and paper and let's get some of these dates written down - if you need more information, call the Extension Office and we'll give you that additional info or at least give you a phone number where you can get more information. Wheat producers, mark July 21st down on your calendar. The Kansas Wheat Conference, what was formerly known as the Fall Cereal Grain conference, is going to be here in Junction City this year at the Convention Center. In fact having the convention center here in town is bringing a lot of these kinds of production meetings into our own backyard. This is a top notch meeting that anyone who is serious about wheat production should attend. The conference will start at 2 p.m. And will include discussions on wheat quality, weather outlook, insect and disease updates variety performance report and breaking news on new variety releases both public and private. The cost is $40 and if you need the phone number to register, call the office at 238-4161. Quickly now a couple of other upcoming meetings. The day after the Kansa wheat conference we'll have the agronomy field day in Manhattan, that's July 22nd. I should have more information out on that in coming days. There are also field days at just about all the experiment fields around the state. Most of those are in August, stay tuned for dates of those. And finally the K-State Risk and Profit Conference. This two day conference has become an annual event every August at K-State and is scheduled this year for August 11 and 12. There are some great topics in the breakout sessions by Ag economists at Kansas State. This year's topics include business transitioning, labor management, thinking about the next farm bill, notill economics and Canadian Beef Issues. Call me for details. This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

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