9_1_2006

September 1, 2006

At last a rainy day to get the web page updated! I want to thank my summer help, Kyle and Wally for all the work they did. Now that they are back to school, it is a lot more difficult to keep up my tasks.

The wheat harvest went well. If you like, click on the buttons above to view the plot yields. Overall I am happy, as most people who had wheat in this year are. It appears the late seeded wheat in this area did not do as well as the early. Most of the winter wheat ran well also. I have heard several comments about winter wheat that suffered large amounts of winter kill producing exceptionally well. As you look at our plots yields you will notice a lot of variation. The main factors were wetness, and weed control. The easy one will be wild oats. We previously had not had problems. With the extreme wet conditions during corn planting, wheat scouting took a back burner, and as you can guess the wild oats did not get taken care of. The tough one will be the foxtail barley. A gentleman on our crop tour commented the foxtail barley was something that only grew on sour ground. With the wet weather of late, it has invaded a lot of good ground as well. It seems about the only thing to do is to use a burndown as late in the fall as possible. There are some other options if you are going to stay with wheat. You can visit with Roger Knapp or Blake Vander Vorst for some herbicide options but be aware of the carry over into other crops.

The soybeans are looking pretty nice as the rains have been adequate enough to allow pod fill. Some of the corn plots were hurt by the drought, but some were not and will do well. Planting dates are from May 18 to June 1 so we are not quite ready for a frost. I noticed some corn borers in our late sweet corn that was treated with Warrior Aug 3, so there must be some late flights this year.

have a good week.

Kelly Cooper- farm manager