Airing October 31 - November 4, 2005

Changes in the works

This is Ag Outlook 2005 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. I got to spend a day last week in recertification training for my commercial pesticide applicators license. Which wasn't a bad thing as I got to hear quite a bit of interesting information that I don't normally pick up in my usual agent training sessions. First and foremost, 2, 4-D labels are being rewritten. Make sure you check the mixing rates and precautions next year as they may have changed immensely. The EPA is very concerned about drift issues with 2,4-D and potential cancer risks from 2,4-D. Most applications rates are going to be reduced about 20%. There may be specific buffers you have to give to sensitive crops and greater requirements for personal protective equipment when mixing. I haven't heard of any movement to make 2,4-D a restricted use product, but it wouldn't surprise me if that is next. Also expect more and tigher restrictions on types of nozzles, droplet sizes, pressure, etc. Again, a strong effort to control drift, yet provide effective coverage for control. We're getting some new information on predicting hatch times for Alfalfa Weevil in the spring - I'm working with the researchers on that to try to get timely information out to you to help predict when we need to treat. Hessian Fly problems are continuing to increase, probably because we aren't tilling stubble, and the hessian fly oversummering flax seeds, under. Work is underway to establish some new information on Hessian Fly. The current fly free dates were based on research from 1918 to 1935 and needs to be adjusted for climate changes. These dates are actually only going to protect you about 60% of the time. This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Herbicide Resistance

This is Ag Outlook 2005 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. During my update training last week, got to spend some time visiting about herbicides and herbicide resistance in weeds. What triggererd this discussion was that Roundup Ready alfalfa seed is going to start hitting the market. These new alfalfas are going to change how many producers look at alfalfa production. And while you could literally apply a quart of roundup to each cutting, this brings up a whole new set of issues. A plant doesn't develop herbicide resistance through mutation, usually. It's that we start to destroy all the ones that aren't herbicide, in this case roundup, resistance. Roundup resistance is starting to show up around the country. As close as Missouri we are seeing some of the pigweeds, tall waterhemp I believe, that are resistant. Over a dozen cases of documented glyphosate tolerance in weeds has been reported. In fact some of the chemical companies have even established web sites to help deal with the issue of Roundup tolerant weeds. It's a basic genetic premise. The greater the selection pressure, the more quickly you will find those few individuals that are different. Think about spraying alfalfa 4 or even 2 or 3 times a year with Roundup. That is a big selection pressure. So what we do is we keep rotating chemicals and crops. We use a pre-emerge weed control in our Roundup Ready crops. We include 2,4-D or dicamba in our burn down treatments instead of just straight Roundup. We do whatever we can to reduce the risk that we create more problems than we solve with our technologies. This has been Ag Outlook 2005 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Time to evaluate pastures

This is Ag Outlook 2005 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. I was beginning to think that it wouldn't happen. The warm weather and rain kept the Flint Hills looking pretty un-fall like for quite a while. But ever shorter days and a couple of frosty nights finally have them looking like November. The next several weeks are a great time to evaluate pastures for overall condition as well as utilization and grazing distribution. Start by getting yourself an aerial map of your pasture from the FSA office. Then you can tour your pasture in the pickup, on a 4-wheeler even on horseback to judge it's condition. Ideally, at the end of the growing season, 40 to 60% of the current year's production will have been utilized. Naturally, there are areas where the cattle will gather and consumer closer to 90% and other areas where they will have barely grazed. Note the areas of over and under utilization. If you have a great deal of the pasture marked as over utilized, then maybe we need to talk about stocking rates. I can tell you right now that cattle simply won't use steep slopes to a great extent. I don't know why people are so intent at killing the trees on these slopes. The resulting grass may look good, but it's going to go unused for the most part. You can move cattle around a pasture with the location of the salt and the mineral. Having these right by the water may be convenient, but you may be better served to place them in the other side of the pasture. Also mark areas of thistle infestation or brush that you want to control. Then you can sit down and evaluate all of these factors and get a management plan together for next year or maybe even further. A good plan is essential, and to get a good plan, you 've got to know where you are today! 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.

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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