AIR APRIL 7, 1999

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. I don’t think we could have asked for a better or more timely rain. And while this rain was certainly good in setting us up for pasture burning, it’s still too early to be burning pastures! I was at a meeting with our friends at the FSA office yesterday and they mentioned a couple of things of some importance. There have been some changes in eligibility for disaster programs and the deadline for applications is this Friday - contact the FSA office for more details. The other item has to do with certifying wheat oats and barley acreages. The deadline for that is still over 6 weeks away, BUT with the recent rains and inability to get field work done why not get in there now and get this stuff taken care of. Is it important - Welllllll if you’re thinking about LDPs and loans and the like it is very important. Once you get rolling with spring planting its going to be very easy to forget so take care of it now.

Alfalfa weevils are getting VERY active and this weather is simply going to be an encouragement. The heavy rains may have knocked a few out but we’ve still got eggs hatching. To make matters worse the mild winter allowed for periodic adult activity and egg laying so we may see an extended hatch period. One of the first clues that you may have a developing problem is if you are seeing a lot of birds in your alfalfa field. High bird activity is often associated with a good food source and in early season alfalfa that’s often alfalfa weevil larvae. The only way to know for sure is to get out there and look. Already last week I was finding stems that were only 2 inches tall with 1 to 2 larvae per. That’s not good. Most of our decision charts start with alfalfa at 4 inches tall. The spray threshold for most of our alfalfa right now is an average of one larvae per stem. We’ve got some fields that are close - one field I was in was at about ¾ of a larvae per stem. This may very well be the year when we have to use two sprays on that first cutting. If I had to spray twice I would start with something like Furadan or Lorsban on the first cutting and then if a second treatment is needed I would go with something that has a much shorter pre-harvest interval like Warrior or Baythroid. But first you need to get out and check your own fields!

This is Chuck Otte, Geary county Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook '99.

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