AIR August 25, 1999

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. A couple of real quick meeting announcements - you still have time to get on over to Manhattan this morning for the K-State Agronomy farm tour. Tours will be leaving every 15 minutes from 8:30 to 10:30 - lunch will be available for a dollar and you’ll find lots of informative stops on the tour and in the browsing shed. A special afternoon session on Precision Ag should not be missed either. Cattle producers are also invited to a summer cattle tour in eastern Clay and western Riley counties this Sunday evening. Need to have reservations in to the Riley County Extension Office by Friday so call me if you are interested in this.

You have probably started to hear about a new wheat herbicide called Maverick. I saw a huge two page full color add in one of the ag weekly news magazines this week. Mavericks claim to fame is that it controls cheat in wheat. It can be applied pre emerge, fall post-emerge or spring post-emerge. K-State has had this product under evaluation for a couple of years and here is their take on the product. Best control was in fall post-emerge. It has one application rate, 2/3 of an ounce per acre. In the fall post-emerge application, it gave near complete cheatgrass control, BUT keep in mind that this was the true cheatgrass. There is also Downy Brome, Japanese Brome and Hairy Chess that are also sometimes called cheat. It is weaker on downy brome than it is on true cheat. It will give control of pennycress and most mustards, but only suppression on henbit. Spring treatments will only have suppression on the annual bromes. K-State recommends applying fall post-emerge after wheat is in the two leaf stage or some stunting may occur. You’ll also want to watch the crop rotation carefully. Double cropping of anything is not allowed and only rotation to some other crop at least 12 months after application and then preferably after a bioassay. Corn and soybeans will probably be the best option and planting an STS Soybean or Imi corn would be good. Sorghum and sunflowers are very susceptible to Maverick residues. High pH soils and dry weather will increase the possibility of carryover damage. Rotation is still the best way to deal with cheat - but we may have a herbicide that will give us a chance against cheat now. Oh - early cost estimates are in the $10 - $12/acre range.

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

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