Air May 24 - 30, 2006

Continue Monitoring Alfalfa Fields

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 in several alfalfa fields lately and haven't liked what I've been seeing. In every alfalfa field I was in I was finding quite a few adult alfalfa weevils and more than just a little indication of damage. There's a little bit of a trick to inspecting alfalfa stubble. The first thing is to get out there first thing in the morning. Most of these insect pests are going to be most active in the cooler time of the morning. When it gets into the heat of the afternoon, they are going to be hiding down under leaf litter and debris. Carefully start sweeping away at any litter that is around the plant crowns. You are looking for a small brown bug. It is about the color of coffee with cream and then will usually have a darker brown stripe down the middle of it's back from it's snout to it's tail. It should be pretty easy to tell that it's a weevil because the snout is rather obvious. Next I want you to be looking around at the crown of the plant. You should be able to see new little green shoots coming up. Ideally by 7 to 10 days post harvest you should have shoots of about a half inch or so in length. If you are just finding little green nubbins look a little closer to see if these are being chewed on. If they are it'll look like you've just been cutting the tops off of them with a ragged knife. Here's the dilemma. As long as the adults stay in the field they will be feeding on the new growth keeping it from coming on. BUT, with this warm weather the adults should be leaving the field and heading to the timber. If you are still finding a lot of adults with feeding damage - it probably would be best to go ahead and treat the stubble so you can get that next cutting growing right! This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

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. The advent of glyphosate tolerant soybean varieties - you know, Roundup Ready, has really changed the way many producers grow soybeans. While a lot of us so called experts still encourage a preplant or pre emerge herbicide treatment to reduce early season weed competition, many producers are just trying to do it with post emerge glyphosate only. The reason being, to save cost. The problem is, that if you are going to go with glyphosate only, you really need to do two treatments. The really neat thing about glyphosate tolerant crops is that you can have a solid green field, spray it with your glyphosate and about ten days later all you see are a bunch of dead weeds and the resistant crop just growing along in fine shape. This year we are at a truly elevated risk, and it is a double threat at that. Soil moisture seems to be at a premium. A heavy flush of early season weed growth is going to take a bunch of moisture. We can't afford to let that happen. The preplant/preemerge program helps reduce or eliminate that early flush of weeds. The second problem is that soybeans, more so than corn or grain sorghum, are very sensitive to early weed competition. Sure, you can clean up a field in a hurry with one glyphosate application, but at what yield penalty. I've seen some of these fields get 5, 6, 7 inch high weeds before the first glyphosate application has gone on. You could easily have already lost 10% of your yield potential, or MORE. If you are using a glyphosate only program, get the first application on when weeds are two inches tall or less. And just plan that a second treamtment will be needed. This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Wheat Variety Test Results - use 2006 data with caution!!!!!

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. The other day we were at our wheat variety plot tour down at the AgriPro research farm. We were commenting on how little leaf and stripe rust we were seeing this year. It was the last week of May and you just about could not find a rust pustule out there. There was a plot of Turkey Red and it didn't even have any rust - what more do I need to say? And it's that way across most of Kansas. So when variety performance test results come out in August, you are going to see some very interesting results. I'll start preaching it now and you'll continue to hear it on through the summer and into wheat planting time. DO NOT make any decisions of what variety to plant based only on 2006 yield data. We have some older varieties that are going to yield very well because there wasn't any rust. 2137 is pretty susceptible to leaf and stripe rust. It was looking really really good in the observation plots. But if you plant a lot of 2137 this fall, I can guarantee that it will get hammered with rust next year - hammered to the point that it may only yield half of a new variety with better rust resistance. Take a look at multiple years worth of yield data and at several locations. Then start looking at disease resistance charts - those are usually included with the results of the yield trials. Do like we should do every year - don't base your choices on sentimentality or favorites, base it on solid numbers. And then spread your risk around - pick the best from a couple of different sources, private and public and then put out 3 or 4 or even 5 different varieties. See how the best of the best stack up. It's going to be an interest harvest and the data to follow will deserve some scrutiny! This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

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