Air October 27 - November 2, 2006

Fall Scouting of Wheat Fields

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. Before we move into wheat, a quick note that the date of the rice meeting has been changed to November 29^th. Details are still being worked out so you need to pay attention in case we have to change it again. Well we have certainly had a very different fall than recent years have given us. It's been cooler than average and all of a sudden it seems to be turning into a wet fall - but that can change in a hurry. Over the next few weeks, wheat producers should be out checking on stands and field conditions. Obviously with the recent rains things are looking a whole lot better than they were even two weeks ago. If you find areas that where the wheat is thin or stunted we need to start digging around to try to find the problem. Look at the roots of the small plants. If there is poor root development, we need to figure out why. We can't rule out waterlogged soils, but if the field is no till, there's something else to consider. Look at where the crown of the plant is. If it is less than 1/4 inch below ground, or even above the ground, then we didn't get the seed planted deep enough. I've seen this in no-till fields with lots of residue - the seed ends up growing in the residue or the residue prevents the drill from getting it deep enough in the soil. We should have a very low risk, so far, of aphids and hopefully a lower risk of Hessian fly and wheat curl mite. Be checking fields for weed pressure also. The weeds that cost us the most yield are, primarily, winter annuals, so they will be sprouting and we can quickly determine how much potential weeds pressure we have to deal with. This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Fall Cowherd management tips

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. There are several things that cow herd managers should be tending to with their spring calving cows, once the calves are weaned. Take note and be working on items not yet done in the coming weeks. First and foremost, if not already done, preg check the cows. If they are open, mark them for culling unless you have a really good excuse for not culling. For those cows marked for culling, consider putting them on feed making use of inexpensive feedstuffs. You don't want these cull cows fat going to market, but if they are on the thin side you know you'll get docked at sale time. It's been long shown that using inexpensive feed stuffs to put weight on cull cows usually returns you some decent dollars in the end. As I talked about a few weeks ago - if you've got some cows in the herd that are thin, get them on some extra feed now to get them back up to a body condition score 5 by the time they calve. It's easier to get that weight on now and keep it on than try to do it in January and February. Make use of crop residues. Decent corn or sorghum residue can usually support average body condition score cows at the rate of 1 to 2 acres per head for about 30 days. After that time you'll need to move them to ungrazed residue or start to supplement them. If you've got cows on dry grass, you may want to be start supplementing them by Thanksgiving time with 1½ to 2 pounds of a 40% crude protein supplement, or 3 to 4 pounds per day of a 20% supplement of ten pounds of a good non-legume hay. Also make sure that you have some mineral and vitamin out there for them as feeds will probably be Vitamin A deficient at this time of year. This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Start getting records together now

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. I know we are still two months out from the end of the year, but now would be a good time to start getting all those farm financial and production records caught up and ready for year end. As harvest get's wrapped up and wheat planting winds down or as calves get weaned and either sold or moved into a backgrounding program it brings some natural termination into play so we can start getting those records in order. There are several advantages to doing it now. You can work on it a little bit at a time, thus eliminating that dreaded post January 1 rush to pull everything together. Come January 1^st, you'll just have a few items for November and December to deal with, rather than, potentially, the whole year. You can wrap up production figures and cost/return figures so you've got that information fresh as you start sitting down with your landlords in the coming weeks to talk about the coming year. The more information you go into that meeting with, the more questions you can answer and the fewer surprises there may be. By getting these figures together now, that also gives you time to sit down with your accountant to determine potential year end tax liabilities while you have plenty of time to possibly do something about it. By summarizing your production records you can see what worked for you this year, and what left you with some questions. This also gives you lots of time to start making some plans of what spring planted crops you are going to grow and what varieties and hybrids you want to try to lock in as soon as possible. Sure, year end records are something that few folks look forward to, but why not get the jump on it and use it to your advantage? This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

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