Airing September 13 - 16, 2005

Let's go to the fair!

This is Ag Outlook 2005 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. As I usually do on the Friday following Labor Day, I was at the Kansas State Fair. Unlike most years, I just didn't do my task on Friday and leave, I went back on Saturday and took the time to work my way through all the buildings not just the 4-H Exhibition building. I need to do that more often, and all of you need to do it too. We've still got several days this week and all the weekend to visit the fair. Sure, the price of gas is high, but get your neighbors to go along and share the expense, plus it was over a dime a gallon cheaper in Hutchinson! Why should you go to the fair? It's a good chance to visit with a lot of vendors of agricultural equipment and supplies. You can see some of the things you've been reading about and ask some of the really hard questions to the equipment dealers. I'm always learning something new or at least finding out that something I was interested in has a dealer closer than I realized. I will admit that I don't need all those kitchen gadgets that are being offered for sale, so I just ignore those folks. I enjoy looking at the 4-Hers handiwork whether that's a woodworking project, which happens to be my area of responsibility on opening day, or the photographs and even the rockets and cooking. I enjoy seeing the field crops and the garden crops, both the 4-Hers and the open class. Of course you can't go to the fair and not check out the butter sculpture. This year's is a boy with two pigs and as always, it's amazing. Naturally there's the livestock to check out, and by then, the day's about over and it's time to come home. Take a well deserved day off this week and go to the state fair in Hutchinson! This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Bromegrass Management

This is Ag Outlook 2005 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. The bromegrass, for the most part, is probably looking the best that it has in years. But there are some challenges and considerations for keeping that stand going. A problem that we rarely see, but is popping up this year for some reason is grubs in bromegrass. We've already had confirmed reports of large patches just turning brown and dying. The real challenge here, is that there doesn't appear to be much we can do about it! There aren't a lot of products labeled for use. Those that are labeled need to be watered into the soil to get down where the grubs are, and this time of year the grubs are starting to already go deeper for the winter and they would be very hard to kill. Over time, the bromegrass will fill this area back in, but if you are seeing this in your bromegrass, you may want to spot drill some seed into those spots to hurry the process along, otherwise it'll be a weed patch for a couple of years. If you cut your brome for hay this spring, you probably shouldn't be grazing it right now. The plants need to store up food in the roots. Once we get into Novemer and December you can graze it if you wish, but keep the cattle off for now. If its a stand of brome that all you do is graze it, and assuming you didn't grub it done earlier in the year, then you can graze it now, but maybe give it about 30 or 40 pounds of nitrogen and an equal dose of phosphorus now. Heavy brome fertilization should be done in November or December for optimum results. Unless you have a soil test result indicating otherwise, I'd look at 100 -120 pounds of N and about 30 to 40 pounds of phosphorus per year, and maybe 15 to 20 pounds of sulfur as well! This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Saving dollars on fertilizer

This is Ag Outlook 2005 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. Let's do another installment of maximizing your dollar return when you fertilize. Specifically, let's talk about banding fertilizer as well as sufficiency vs soil building application rates. I've fielded several calls about banding fertilizer to reduce rates and save dollars. Unfortunately, this isn't very effective. If you have a crop that needs 20 pounds of phosphorus and 100 pounds of nitrogen, that is a recommendation based on knowing how much of those nutrients are in the soil and what your crop, with the desired yield level, will need or remove from the soil. It doesn't matter whether it is banded or broadcast, you still need the same amount. Banding will help get it closer to the seed and in some cases you may even see some faster results and visual differences early in the year, but in most cases these visual differences do not translate into significant yield differences. You can reduce vaporization loss from nitrogen fertilizer sources by incorporating or placing the product directly beneath the surface, and you may see some yield increases in no till by making sure that the products get beneath the residue, but banding fertilizer is not a way to reduce cost. Sufficiency applications may save you a little bit of money for one or two years, compared to soil building levels, but eventually you have to make up the difference. So the question to be asked is, will it cost more to apply a little more now, or should I apply a little more now because it'll just cost more later. If you want the crop, you gotta give it the inputs. You can pay now, or you can pay later. This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Sorghum and Soybean insects

This is Ag Outlook 2005 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. Gosh what a year and we thought our big soybean threat this year was going to be rust! We are continuing to see a lot of activity from soybean insects, primarily right now it's green cloverworm. Serious defoliation can easily be happening in just a matter of days, and some of that funny yellow color we are seeing in fields is as much from insect damage now as it is from normal leaf drop. The damage we are seeing is quite honestly all over the board. Some fields had been treated early for bean leaf beetles and stopped a problem from developing, others have been sprayed for green cloverworms and others are still in limbo. Here's a quick and dirty way to analyze your field. Are most of the beans full size and some pods starting to turn brown? If so then treatment now would probably be more for revenge than saving yield. If you have late developing beans OR double crop, and you are noticing a lot of damage, then treatment is easily justifiable. One caveat here - it the cloverworms start clipping pods, rescue treatments may need to be applied. We are honestly into new territory here with infestation levels of green cloverworms this high. It does appear that natural disease controls are starting to increase around the state so hopefully we are about through with this mess. Quickly on corn earworm in sorghum. Most of the fields should be far enough mature that this isn't a problem. If you have do have a field that has recently finished blooming, I wouldn't worry about corn earworm because in all honesty, there probably isn't time for the field to mature before a killing frost anyway! This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

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