Air April 5 - April 11, 2006

Alfalfa Weevil Alert

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. One thing that this warmer than average winter and spring, so far, has done for us, is to get the alfalfa weevil hatched and rolling along. I was out a few days ago looking at fields and was actually somewhat surprised to find some many little weevil larvae. One field that I was in already had one active weevil, not just damage mind you, but an actual weevil. Granted, many of these were small, probably just a day or two old, but they were there. And spring layed eggs will be hatching out any day now. What this means is that you NEED to be out scouting your fields. Much of this alfalfa is quite small, just really getting started growing. What you need to be doing is getting out in your fields about every other day and start walking. Take 10 paces into your field, pluck up 3 or 4 stems and look for weevil activity. See how many you can knock into your hand. Then take another 20 paces and do the same thing. Try to cover the entire width or length of the field stopping at least a half dozen times. For most of the alfalfa that we have right now, if you are getting two larvae out of every stem, then you need to spray. If it's less than 2 larvae, then come back in two days. So what this means is that most fields will probably need to be sprayed twice, since we have so much early acitivity, which really changes some of our management plans. I would look towards the newer synthetic pyrethroids and for the first treatment go with the lightest rate you can. Sure, this may shorten how long the product is effective, but then it gives you more latitutde for retreatment. And pay close attention on the second or later treatment to the post harvest waiting interval. This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Weed Control

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. I've been seeing a lot of fields lately that are turning all sorts of pretty colors. These are all stubble fields - meaning they aren't in wheat, they are in whatever crop residue was left after last year, and there's nothing planted yet, but it's probably getting close. Some of these fields are turning purple, some are green and some a mixture of these and more. In days gone by this probably wouldn't have happened, because everyone would have worked their fields at least once by now. But with many producers switching to no-till, we have a lot more pre-cropping weeds to deal with. Of course, weeds use moisture and in some cases they can keep the soil temperature cooler and the resulting mass of vegetation and roots can be a real problem to planting. Many producers try to ignore these weeds saying that they are going to plant a roundup ready crop and they'll take care of that stuff with a burn down near planting. Welllll why not use a burn down now and add a short residual herbicide as well. That way you not only take care of what's out there taking up moisture right now, but you're also preventing most weeds from getting started in the next few weeks and then protecting the small seedlings from early season weed competition, which is really critical with soybeans. It also delays how soon you'll probably need that first over the top glyphosate treatment. If you are planting corn, then atrazine is going to be the most commonly used and cheapest product and this will probably be mixed with glyphosate or possibly a bromoxynil or dicamba product. In soybeans you have a lot of glyphosate tank mix options to do the same thing. And if you are more than two weeks from bean planting, don't rule out a little 2,4-D to enhance broad leaf control. This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Brush Control in Pastures

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. A couple of weeks ago I was talking about pasture management and pasture planning. A lot of this was in response to the dry weather and that we may not be burning. Since then we've had a couple inches of rain and things are looking a whole lot better for burning, but it still doesn't mean you can forget planning. Two things we have found out over the last 40 years of pasture burning and brush control research. If you have a really bad brush problem, fire won't take care of it. And if you have to spray brush, don't do it the same year that we burn. For some reason, that I don't hink anyone's really pinned down yet, we find that trying to treat brush with a herbicide the same year that we burn it results in very poor control of the brush. IN fact many times producers are reporting a 40 to 60% reduction in efficacy. So you have to take a hard look at your pasture and determine what's the biggest problem. If you have a lot of brush, you may be better off to forego burning it this year and work on spraying the brush. In fact if you have a lot of brush, you may want to spray two years in a row. However, if you find that cedars and old mulch are your biggest problems, then please, find a good day and burn it. We can work on the other brush next year. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how, when it looks like a brush patch has killed all the grass, we end up with so much grass right away if we control that brush. Take two years of spraying, we then have lots of grass in around those dead brush stems and you can get a good fire to burn right through and burn up all that old dead wood. For all around brush spraying, think the last week in May or the first week of June, and definitely have it done by the first of July. This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

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