Field Crop News

Website Address: http://fcn.agronomy.psu.edu/

September 16, 2008    Vol. 08:28

IN THIS ISSUE:

• Weather Outlook
• Wild Cherry Poisoning
• Testing Seed for Cover Crops
• Harvest This Fall with Residue Management in Mind
• Time to Get a Handle on Plant Food in the Soil
• Green June Beetle and Sod Webworm Larvae in Pastures and Forage Grasses
• Celebrate National Farm Safety and Health Week

Weather Outlook — Paul Knight, Pennsylvania State Climatologist

Another prolonged dry spell is beginning for much of the state. There will be no significant rainfall (more than a few hundredths) from Wednesday through Saturday and odds favor that it will stay dry well into next week (through Sept 25). There is a possibility of a rainstorm in the eastern half of the state later in the weekend, but the chances are less than 35%. Skies will be partly to mostly sunny much of the time with valley fog becoming more frequent during the weekend and again later next week. Temperatures will average near seasonal levels with two pushes of cool air expected. The first surge of Canadian air will arrive on Thursday with an active breeze. Friday morning will bring readings in the 40’s in the mountains and the usual 30’s in the northern tier.

Another surge of even cooler air is expected around next Tuesday with pockets of frost in the northern valleys. A steady warming trend is likely during the second half of next week — perhaps resulting in a brief hot and humid spell and ending with some showers or thunderstorms.

Odds still favor a warmer than average October followed by a chilly November and this may translate into a later than usual frost in the southern half of the state plus an early and vigorous start to the lake effect snow season in the northwest and Laurel highlands.

Check out the predicted Growing Degree Days (base 55) for Pennsylvania for the next two weeks at: http://climate.met.psu.edu/data/regional_gdd.php

Wild Cherry Poisoning — Paul H. Craig, Dauphin County Educator

Recent remnants of Hurricane Ike passed across western PA on Sunday and Monday prompting concerns about leaves from wild cherry trees that were blown into pasture areas. In some cases reports were made about trees being blown down across fences. Each year cattle, sheep and horse producers, across the United States, lose animals to poisoning from these trees.

Easily identified the members of the “wild cherry” family include Wild Black, Choke and Pin Cherry. These trees can grow 15 to 20 feet tall and are commonly found in fencerows, roadsides and open woods. Fruits are true cherries and are small (does anyone remember peashooters?) and have a darkened red to black color. Leaves are positioned alternately along the shoots and are elliptical in shape with a point. All plant parts of the cherry tree family contain the poisonous compound but damage to or wilting of the leaves results in highest poisoning incidences. Damage can result from frost, trampling, drought and wilting as a result of storm damage.

Cherry leaves contain a compound called glycoside. When damaged or stressed the glycoside breaks down into cyanide and sugar. The cyanide is the poison compound and the sugar makes the leaves more palatable to the animal. Small amounts of healthy plant parts can be consumed safely but only small amounts, 2 ounces or a few handfuls of damaged leaves can be deadly.

Cyanide prevents the animal from being able to utilize oxygen in the blood at the cellular level. Animals will breathe normally but the cells and tissue will suffocate. Signs of poisoning rapidly appear. Animals will tend to breathe more rapidly and deeply. Later trembling and in coordination lead to collapse. Blood and mucous areas of the mouth will be bright red in color. Violent death results from respiratory and/or cardiac arrest, usually within moments to an hour. If animals survive for 2–3 hours their chance of survival is good.

Do not try to handle downed animals. Additional stress leads to additional complications and handlers have been injured by kicking animals. Intravenous solutions of sodium nitrate or sodium thiosulfate have proven successful but timeliness is urgent.

Best control for reducing wild cherry poisoning is to identify and remove all cherry trees from areas close to grazing livestock. Treat stumps with herbicides to prevent resprouting. Note that if you treat growing plants with herbicides prior to leaf drop these treated leaves can also result in poisoning. (sources: PSU Veterinary Sciences, VA Cooperative Extension.)

Testing Seed for Cover Crops — John Rowehl, York County Educator

The EQIP cover crop program guidelines require that cover crop seed conforms with the Pennsylvania seed law. If it is homegrown seed, it must be tested by a recognized laboratory for germination, purity and be free of noxious weeds. The Department of Agriculture Seed Testing Lab offers seed testing services for this and in general for other farmers that use their own seed and want to know the germination and purity of it before they plant it. The current fee for a combined purity and germination test for barley, wheat or rye is $15.00; oats is $16.00. This also includes the analysis for noxious weeds. A one and a half pound sample is needed. A statement must accompany the seed stating the kind of test desired and should also include your name, address and telephone number. The fee may accompany the sample, or can be billed. Checks should be made payable to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Samples must be enclosed in sturdy containers addressed to:
Seed Laboratory
PA Department of Agriculture
2301 North Cameron St.
Harrisburg, PA 17110–9408

Turnaround time from when the lab receives the sample is about ten days. Call the seed lab (717–787–4894) for other questions on submitting and testing samples.

Harvest This Fall with Residue Management in Mind — John Rowehl, York County Educator

Getting fields set up for planting next year begins with the management of crop residue when you harvest. This is especially important for fields in which the next crop will be planted by the no—till method. Even emergence of the crop is important and is dependent on:

• even soil temperatures and that starts with even distribution of residue
• even seed depth and that starts with even distribution of residue

Soil erosion control is dependent on soil cover and that… starts with even distribution of residue.

The wider the head on the combine is, the greater the likelihood of having a problem with concentration of material. Concentrated crop residues not only cause variation in the soil temperature, they can interfere with seed-to-soil contact, and simply make it tougher to plant in the spring.

Take time to set the combine so that straw and chaff spreaders or choppers operate properly and the combine distributes residue evenly. Most corn heads do a good job of chewing up the stalks and dropping them back in place. The challenge is greater during soybean harvest, where essentially the whole plant goes through the combine.

Soybeans are an excellent crop to precede wheat seeding and wheat is an excellent crop to seed after soybeans. Evenly distributed soybean residue is easy to plant into and wheat serves to provide valuable coverage of the soil. No-till seeding reduces the amount of residue incorporated. For that reason and because planting date itself is becoming more critical, no-till as a planting method with its associated time savings becomes more valuable as the season gets late.

Planting small grains into corn stalks is more difficult and uniformity of residue cover is even more critical. Residue distribution should come from the combine, not shredding stalks in a subsequent trip. Shredding stalks tends to cause more problems with no—till drills plugging up than if they were just left alone. For no-till seeding, increase the seeding rate by 10–15 %.

Check out some advice on residue management from some experienced no-till farmers in the latest in our series of no-till management videos.

Time to Get a Handle on Plant Food in the Soil — Del Voight, Interim Grain Crop Specialist and Dr. Doug Beegle, PSU Soil Fertility Specialistr

Yields are variable in the State due to spotty rains this summer. With high yields the plant food contained in the soil is depleted (200 bu corn crop pulls (80lbs of P and 60lbs of K)and it is important to get a bench mark as to what is left. I was in numerous fields where potassium deficiency was evident. Most of the cases were due to compaction or drought related, however, in many, potassium was deficient in the soil. Further we have seen record levels of fertilizer costs. Wasting manure this year could be a tremendous mistake and soil testing allows for proper manure management. Soil test kits available at the local Extension Office for 9 dollars are the best way to indicate the relative amounts of food available for the plants. Volume discounts are available. Contact the Ag Analytical Service Lab at 814–863–0841 for more information. A kit is nothing more than a bag and paper. I have seen yellow corn, beans, stalk rot and mycotoxins from low K, purple corn from low pH and low P and numerous ear malformations from lack of fertility that could be avoided with a simple test!

Here are some soil testing ideas

1. Getting the sample now.
   1. You need to ensure that the 10–15 acres that one bag is designed to represent does just that represent the soil profile in that field. Following are some key things to remember:
      1. Make sure the sample is representative of the area being sampled by taking at least 15 to 20 cores randomly across the field and mixing them to get a sample to send to the lab.
      2. Avoid non—uniform areas such as starter fertilizer bands, old fence rows, manure or limestone stacking sites, near gravel roads, etc. If these areas are big enough to manage separately, take separate samples, otherwise keep out of them.
      3. Sample to a uniform depth usually the plow layer. This is especially critical in reduced and no—tillage systems.
      4. Completely and accurately fill out the soil sample information form to get the most useful recommendations.
   2. By and large the plant food (fertilizer) industry has offered the service of pulling the soil test but it is still up to you to ensure that the sample comes from the correct field. It must represent the soil type and the field may need to be split into small parcels correctly. A typical 200 acre farm would cost about 180 bucks in testing fees and take about a half a day to gather samples. If that is too much then do part of the farm each year.
   3. Take samples yourself. Order enough kits to cover the fields that are due for testing. Why not work with your dealer and pull the samples and have them pay for the testing?
   4. Plan a day to gather the samples. When I was working in this area I could get 400 acres sampled by noon. Frozen soil slows the process down. With ATV’s and riding horses etc. It should be a fairly speedy process. Label the bags first get them in a box in order and then go get them!
2. Overall planning
   1. Have a plan! Determine a method for your farm that allows for timely three year testing or shorter. Avoid “rented ground syndrome” where some farmers (turned miners) forget the building blocks for maintaining yields. Soil test, work with landowners, find solutions to providing the needs and not mining the soil. By the way, research indicates that depleted soils may take much more money to bring back fertility than adequately maintained soils.
   2. Plan to sample by rotations. Many growers I work with will soil sample soybeans then fertilize (p and K) either from manure or commercial source in the fall for both a corn and soybean crop. Thus in the crop season only N requirements are needed and it eliminates the following year application. Remember P and K will remain available in the soil and thus this can be a management suggestion.
3. pH issues
   1. Lime ¼ to 1/3 of your farm each year. This eliminates the tremendous bill and ensures that pH is maintained for the whole farm. Maintaining pH is critical. It can be very difficult, especially in established forages or in no—till systems, to correct a low pH. Research has shown that it can take 5 to 10 years to increase the pH in the whole plow layer of a low pH soil with surface applications of limestone. If soils are limed on a regular basis so that the pH never get too low, no special management is needed and you avoid this problem completely.
   2. On no till ground, turf areas, pastures, and alfalfa if the normal soil sample calls for limestone put it on, however if the normal soil sample does not call for lime or is marginal and limestone has not been applied recently, take a 1–2 inch soil sample and test for pH. This can be done with at home testing kits. I recommend the Cornell PH test kit. This might be the most important aspect of your fertility plan.

It’s that time of year to gather the tests. Get a plan, get the kits and get it done.

Green June Beetle and Sod Webworm Larvae in Pastures and Forage Grasses — John Tooker, PSU Entomology Specialist

This is the time of year when some insect damage to pasture and forage grasses can become evident. One of the more common insect pests whose damage is evident about now is green June beetle. Larvae of this pest are the most damaging stage and among larvae of several beetle species that are referred to as white grubs, including Japanese beetles and June beetles, that tend to infest pastures, forage grasses, alfalfa, turf grass and lawns. Green June beetles have one generation a year with adults emerging from the soil in late spring and early summer. Adults lay eggs in grass-covered soil and by late summer grubs are second or third instars. These larvae are a little different because the travel at night on their backs with their legs in the air. They feed on organic matter and can be most troublesome in fields or pastures with an accumulation plant residue or manure. The damage they cause tends to be most evident in September and results from tunneling of larvae, which disrupts root systems. Scouting for larvae now is wise because then controls can be applied before the damage becomes too extensive. Treating pastures or forage grasses may be impractical, but fortunately in most years natural enemies (wasps and fungal pathogens among others) keep green June beetle populations in check; however, should economic thresholds (one larva per square foot for fall-planted forages) be reached, carbaryl (Sevin XLR among other products) is one of the few options and spot treatments might be most efficient. To be used effectively, pastures or fields should be closely grazed or mowed prior to application so that the insecticide contacts tunneling larvae. Good weed control can help decrease the incidence of this pest because adults appear attracted to broad-leaf weeds.

Another potential pest to know is sod webworm, which is one of the main pests of turf grass and lawns, but also can infest pasture and forage grasses. The most evident stage of this insect pest is the adult, which flies low to the ground and often scatters when disturbed. A large population of adults is often an indicator of an infestation. Larvae are active in the evening and cut off grass blades that they consume inside silk-lined tunnels. The damage they cause can be mistaken for heat or drought stress. Natural enemies (birds, wasps, pathogens) appear capable of controlling this species when populations are low. Economic thresholds have been developed for turf grass and lawns, but of course these would not be appropriate for pastures. It is not clear how often sod webworm are a problem in PA forage crops and pasture; perhaps this mention will prompt more people to investigate potential problems and let us know if sod webworm are discovered.

Celebrate National Farm Safety and Health Week

The National Safety Council (NSC) marks the 65^th year of its annual fall focus on agricultural safety. This year, National Farm Safety & Health Week is September 21–27. The 2008 theme is “Farm Safely — Protect YOUr Investment,” which highlights the value of the safety and wellness of agricultural producers and the importance of protecting their hearing, lung function, vision, skin, and musculoskeletal system.

Agriculture continues to rank as one of the most dangerous industries in North America and across the world. In 2007, there were 715 work related deaths and 80,000 work-related disabling injuries attributed to agriculture. In Pennsylvania, there were 29 fatalities related to farms and agriculture during the same year.

National Farm Safety & Health Week is an annual promotion of the NSC and commemorates the work ethic and sacrifices of farmers and ranchers. The National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS) is a partnership between the NSC and Northeast Iowa Community College and is an active member of the National Institute for Farm Safety.

NECAS provides PSAs, articles and other resources for this special week. For more information, contact NECAS at (888) 844–6322 or at http://www.nsc.org/necas

Upcoming Events — use the link to Calendar of Events (below) for contact information

October 21–22, 2008: Keystone Crop and Soils Conference, Location: Holiday Inn, Grantville, PA
October 22–23, 2008: PA Project Grass Statewide Grazing Conference, Location: Pantal Hotel, Punxsutawney, PA http://community-2.webtv.net/PAProjectGrass/BrochureStateWide/

Contributors: Extension Educators: Paul Craig (Dauphin), Andrew Frankenfield (Montgomery), Kevin Fry (Armstrong), Joel Hunter (Crawford), Mark Madden (Sullivan), Jonathan Rotz (Cumberland), Del Voight (Lebanon), Mena Hautau (Berks), John Rowehl (York), H. Grant Troop (Lebanon), Susan Alexander (Jefferson). Department of Crop & Soil Sciences: Marvin Hall, Sjoerd Duiker. Department of Entomology: John Tooker

Editor: Susan Alexander, Jefferson County

Upcoming Events

Real time pest and heat unit activity: http://psu.zedxinc.com/cgi-bin/site.cgi?location=2&user=psu#

Calendar of Events: http://www.events.psu.edu/cgi-bin/cal/webevent.cgi?cmd=opencal&cal=cal209&

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