Airing August 2 - 8, 2005

This is Ag Outlook 2005 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. Making silage may be one of the most time sensitive operations that we do on the farm. Moisture of the plant is crucial to making good silage. Too much moisture and it becomes a weepy wilted mess with water running out of the silo. Too dry and it doesn't seal up well and you have silage that is heating, spoiling or even catching fire. To make good silage you need to be cutting when the whole plant is around 60 to 65% moisture, but certainly not over about 70% moisture. For corn this is going to be full dent, for sorghum, it is usually going to be soft dough stage, just ahead of black layer.. Of course, you are probably going to start when it's just barely dry enough and finishing up when it is getting almost too dry. So speed is critical. Make sure that all your equipment is checked over and ready for the task. The whole purpose of ensiling is to create an oxygen free packing that will allow the desired anaerobic organisms to do their thing. Most silage around our area is done in a bunker so quick filling and packing is essential. For the best pack you need a fine chop. One fourth to one half inch length is ideal. Keeping in mind that the smaller the chop the more power it is going to take and the more time it is going to take. My recommendation for corn and sorghum is to aim for 3/8 to ½ inch chop and then sharpen the knives daily to keep you going as fast as possible. You want to make sure that everything is set right so you don't end up with lots of long pieces that won't pack or ensile as well. Timing and management, two priceless commodities when making silage.

This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

This is Ag Outlook 2005 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. What wheat should I plant is, or should be the key question going through many producers heads right now. First of all, 2005 was a funny year. We had about every bad thing happen to the crop that I can think of. So don't make any rash decisions based on your own yields this year. This year it becomes even more critical to look at what happened at the wheat variety test locations around the state. For the purposes of this discussion, I'm looking at the tests at Manhattan and Belleville. These are probably the two that are most applicable to our area. For public varieties, a couple that I see right towards the top are 2145 and Jagger. They were both over 100% of the test average at both locations. Others that were over 100% of average were Wesley - its week spot might be leaf rust resistance but one to consider, Wahoo - forget this one it's a Nebraska variety susceptible to soil borne mosaic, and Hallam, one that I know nothing about, but given the name I'm going to guess a Nebraska wheat without soil borne resistance. Private varieties that did good included Agripro's Jagalene and Cutter, and one to keep an eye on, Agseco's Santa Fe. There are several other wheats that you are going to be hearing quite a bit about that might sound enticing. But before you buy 50 bags of anything new, always start with the question of does it have soil borne and spindle streak mosaic resistance. If not, forget it. If it does, then you can move on to the other questions. So what are the varieties to start moving away from? Karl/Karl 92. This old standby is getting old enough to vote and needs to be let go. It was good in it's day, but it just doesn't have the leaf disease resistance to hang in there anymore. Likewise, 2137's disease resistance has become so compromised that it is too much of a gamble to plant it. This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

This is Ag Outlook 2005 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. When talking about wheat varieties, one thing that has been gaining more and more popularity in recent years, is blends. The idea of a blend is to spread your risk out. You are going to plant a mixture of 2 or 3 varieties that have significant differences in disease resistance or winter hardiness, etc. You do want them to have about the same maturity, but find 2 or 3 that compliment each other, but not mirror each other. For example, Jagger and Overly are similar enough that you wouldn't want just these two in a blend. One or the other, but not both. 2137 and 2145 are in the same boat. But a blend of Jagger or Overly AND 2137 or 2145 would be good, especially when matched up with something like Dominator or Wesley. So what's the purpose of a blend - well as I said earlier, it is risk management. If one variety gets taken out by leaf rust, maybe the other one will hang in there. If you have a dry year, the more drought tolerant one will come through for you. Wheat has an amazing ability to compensate for competition. If one variety gets hammered by something, the other one or two will produce more. Now, if we knew exactly what kind of a year we were going to have we could do just that variety. But we don't and that's a problem. So the solution is to spread your risk out. One real advantage is for the producer that has a lot of different land lords on a lot of different fields. Using blends you reduce the risk of Landlord A having a bumper crop while Landlord B has an average or below average crop. We all know that landlords talk to each other and you don't want to be put behind the 8 ball. I'm still not completely sold on blends, but I can certainly see where they have their place! This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

This is Ag Outlook 2005 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent.

This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

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