Air February 26 - March 3, 2006

Soybean 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. One of the things that has changed in soybean weed control in recent years is the often total move away from preplant/pre-emerge herbicides to the Roundup Ready technology. While the glyphosate technology ultimately leads to very clean fields, it has caused many producers to tolerate early season heavy weed prerssure as they hold off applying that first application of Roundup. This becomes a beauty and a beast situation. The beauty is that once the roundup is applied, the weeds die down very quickly and the field soon looks great. The beastin all of this, though, is that soybeans are very sensitive to early season weed pressure. During those couple of early weeks, when the small beans are competing with those rapidly growing weeds, the plants are losing growth potential and ulitmately yield. Is it a lot of yield? It's starting to appear that it can easily be in excess of five bushels per acre. What I really encourage soybean producers to do, is continue to use the new Roundup Ready technology, but don't abandon all of the traditional preplant or pre-emerge herbicide technology. Go ahead and use a low rate, fairly inexpensive herbicide at or ahead of planting. You aren't planning on this providing all your weed control, you just want to suppress and hold back that early season flush of weeds, think 3 to 5 weeks of control. This the way beans aren't competing with those early season weeds, hurting your yield. And once you are further on down the road, when the soil applied herbicide is losing effectiveness, you can go in with a shot of glyphosate to clean up the rest. And you also help reduce the risk of rapidly building up a roundup resistant weed. New technology is often good, but don't forget some of those long proven production tricks! This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Cow-Calf Care

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. Just a reminder that Cattleman's Day is this Friday, March 3 at Weber Arena on the K-State campus - gathering time is between 8 and 10 with the program getting under way at 10. Lots of good speakers as always so plan to attend. Whether we want to think about it or not, the summer grazing season is just around the corner. With the open weather we've been having, this should be a great opportunity to be working on your cow herd management, facilities and pastures. After the cows have calved, take some time each day to observe how that cow and calf are doing. If a cow is not being a good mother, make note of it and put her on the cull consideration list. Make sure that those cows aren't lowing conditions as they are milking - the calves need that milk for a good start and if a cow is coming up short, find out if it's nutrition or just a low milking cow that might also need to be culled. You don't want those cows fat when you turn them out to grass, but the better condition they are in, the better they'll rebreed. Take some time to walk the fences in your summer pastures. Start making repairs now and look for fenceposts that may need to be replaced, or that are likely to if we do get a chance to burn this spring. If you have just a few cedars, cut them out now - you don't necessarily need to burn a whole pasture if all you've got is a dozen trees per acre! And even though the trees will be growing before long, you can still cut hedge and locust - just be sure to treat the fresh cut stump with Tordon, Crossbow or Remedy as soon as you cut. Then be sure to walk those areas and treat any stump or root sprouts in June. The nice weather has given us an opportunity, so let's use it! This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Management Following Wildfire

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. With the dry weather conditions, come dry range land conditions and with dry range land conditions come unplanned fires. So everyone needs to be thinking all the more cautiously about fire risk. In the past we have had some very interesting thoughts about management following wildfire. We used to talk about reduced stocking rates from reduced forage production and be sure to burn the rest of the pasture to avoid patch grazing, etc., etc., etc. But I think we need to rethink a lot of these suggestions. Burning in March and early April does not reduce forage production like we once thought. Sure, the areas that are burned will be grazed more than those areas not burned, that much is right. But if there was enough fuel to provide a good burn, then those areas may not have been grazed much last year anyway. If you have the opportunity, I would burn the rest of the pasture, and you could do that any time that appropriate conditions exist. But if it stays dry, then you would be better off not to burn the rest of the pasture. As for stocking rates on those pastures hit by unplanned wildfire, I wold continue to stock at a normal rate IF your normal rate was 8 to 9 acres of grass per cow/calf pair. One of the ongoing problems that I see in our Flint Hills pastures is overstocking. Today's cow calf pair needs between 7.5 and 8.5 acres of good grass. But often, the acres of good grass is being well over estimated. It usually is not the same as the acres in the pasture. And with the extra size of the modern era cow and calf, they do need more forage than those pairs we were putting out there in 1971. This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

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