Field Crop News

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

September 15, 2009    Vol. 09:27

IN THIS ISSUE:

• Weather Outlook
• On—Farm Cover Crop Demonstration Plots
• Great Year for White Clover
• Small Grain Planting Considerations
• Please Keep an Eye Out for Western Bean Cutworm Injury
• Harvest This Fall with Residue Management in Mind
• Upcoming Events

Weather Outlook — Paul Knight, Pennsylvania State Climatologist

A shallow flow of cooler air from the northeast will combine with a developing disturbance over the Northeast to produce an unsettled period of weather in the eastern two—thirds of the state late Wednesday into early Friday. Clouds will dominate and several hours of showers will affect most sections, though rainfall will average a quarter of an inch. A surge of chilly, drier air will arrive in time for the weekend with plenty of sunshine returning on Friday and Saturday. The nights will be chilly. Sunday should turn warmer with increasing clouds, mainly in the western half of the state. A flow of warmer, more humid air is expected on Monday ahead of a significant cold front. The first showers in a couple of weeks are expected in sections of western and northern Pennsylvania. The front should push across the region on Tuesday and be followed by blustery, cool conditions at mid—week with plenty of clouds in northwestern sections.

The very cool spell is likely to begin on September 22–23 and should the winds and clouds diminish, it could bring an unusually early end to the growing season in the northern counties. However, the first half of October is expected to average above normal and then it should turn much colder during the second half of October. There are increasing signs that November will be rather mild in this region. The development of a moderate El Nino in the Pacific portends a wetter winter (and probably snowier) in the state with the period December—February expected to average below normal temperatures.

2009–10 Cover Crop Field Demonstrations — Sjoerd Duiker, Soil Management Specialist and Ron Hoover, On—Farm Research Coordinator

Penn State’s on—farm research program is doing an evaluation of 12 different cover crops used either alone or in mixtures. Trials have been planted on local farms by Ron Hoover, Penn State’s On—Farm Research Coordinator and county agronomy extension educators. The first planting was seeded in early September in the following counties: Jefferson (Reynoldsville), Westmoreland (Crabtree), Union (Milton), Dauphin (Gratz), Lancaster (Manheim), Franklin (Chambersburg), York (Loganville), Berks (Fleetwood), Northampton (Pen Argyl), Montgomery (Royersford), and Bradford (Canton). A second planting is planned later this month. The cover crop plantings and seeding rates are:

• Aroostock cereal rye (2 bu/A)
• Aroostock cereal rye (1 bu/A) with tillage radish (5 lbs/A)
• Tillage radish (10 lbs/A)
• Oats (1 bu/A) with tillage radish (5 lbs/A)
• Oats (3 bu/A)
• Oats (1 bu/A) with crimson clover (15 lbs/A)
• Annual ryegrass (10 lbs/A) and crimson clover (15 lbs/A)
• Annual ryegrass (15 lbs/A)
• Wheat (2 bu/A)
• Triticale (2 bu/A)
• Annual ryegrass (10 lbs/A) with Austrian winter pea (40 lbs/A)
• Tillage radish (3 lbs/A) with oats (1 bu/A) and Austrian winter pea (40 lbs/A)
• Hairy vetch (15 lbs/A) and oats (1 bu/A)
• Hairy vetch (15 lbs/A) and cereal rye (1 bu/A)
• Red clover (10 lbs/A)
• Persian clover (4 lbs/A)
• Phacelia (4 lbs/A)
• Sun hemp (10 lbs/A)

Phacelia, sunhemp, and persian clover are new cover crops in our program. Phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia) is an annual broadleaf that is a native of semi—arid U.S. and Mexico. It has been used in Europe and is now being re—introduced as a cover crop in the U.S. Phacelia is not a legume, but is plant with beautiful purple flowers, which attract insects. Phacelia is a long—day plant, flowering only when days are longer than 13 hours (May—Sept). It germinates at temperatures above 37F and winterkills at 18F. It produces large amounts of biomass, but little of this residue will likely remain in the spring because phacelia residue degrades quickly. Sunhemp (Crotelaria juncea) is a tropical legume originally from India. It is known for its rapid growth: When grown as a summer annual, sunhemp can produce over 5,000 pounds of biomass and 100 pounds of nitrogen per acre. It can produce this amount within 60 to 90 days, so it has the potential to build organic matter levels and sequester carbon in the soil. It is known to suppress nematodes. It is a short—day plant, producing yellow flowers. Persian clover (Trifolium resupinatum) is a winter annual legume that has been evaluated as a forage in the southern U.S. It is adapted to poorly drained soils, but is sensitive to weed competition. As a forage, it can be grazed or harvested although bloat can be a problem. Persian clover dies in late spring/early summer after it has produced small purplish/pink flowers and seed. The idea is that it will reseed itself. It is not likely to survive if temperatures decrease below 10F. Ask your county agronomy educator if you are interested in seeing the trials.

Great Year for White Clover — Marvin Hall, Forage Specialist

The moist and cool summer has been great for white clover and I’ve been getting reports of the clover dominating in pastures to the point of “crowding out the grass”. At this point in the season there isn’t much that can be done but check the actual grass population (get on your hands and knees look closely) and wait. If the grass population is sufficient then next spring your field should look like a grass field again. Cold winter weather usually “knocks the socks off” of clover so that it doesn’t come back in the spring as soon as grass. This will allow the grass to again dominate the stand. However, if you can’t find sufficient grass plants now then you might want to think about no—tilling some grass back into the field early next spring.

Small Grain Planting Considerations — Del Voight, Extension Associate, Grain Crops

Over the past several weeks I have received numerous questions regarding small grain seeding this fall. There are five areas that I think need to be focused on to ensure planting success.

1. Burn down— Burndown products such as glyphosate or paraquat are essential to ensuring the small grains have the competitive edge to outgrow weedy pests. This is vital to weed management. I realize that sometimes the field seems to lack weed pressure. However, most times the winter annuals that are just germinating go unchecked and lead to early season competition.
2. Seeding Rate— The drill is only as effective as the operator. The seeding rate should be based on seeds per acre. Strive to plant 1.5 million plants per acre. This requires the seeds per pound that is viewed on the bag and dividing that number into the plants per acre to achieve the desired rate out of the drill. The goal is to plant enough seed to establish 25 plants per square foot. Often it takes 35 plants per square foot out of the planter to achieve this density. In no till I would increase seeding rates by 15% t0 compensate for establishment challenges. If a custom operator is hired to plant it is wise to inspect that the plant job is done correctly. Too many times operators pushed for time will end up going too fast for field conditions and feedout may be affected as well as seeding depth may vary.
3. Seeding Depth— In my experience seeding depth is often overlooked at planting time. Worn openers are often an issue. High rates of plant speed also affect the seed depth. Check this high wear item and replace if necessary. Inspecting the planting is essential. Do not count surface residue in the depth of seeding. One should measure the distance the seed is in the soil. Shallow planting leads to poor germination, susceptibility to heaving and above all exposed roots. The roots that are exposed can lead to complications with herbicide applications and resulting injury.
4. Ensure protection against disease— Numerous seed treatments are available to protect against seedling disease as shown in the following table. The weather this fall is looking to remain cool and wet this might relate to better stands with seed treatments. (See Table.)
5. Seeding date— the date for proper seeding is rapidly approaching. Seeding date does impact the overwintering capability of the crop. For proper seeding dates the agronomy guide details those dates depending on your farms location in the state. IF THE PLANTING IS LATER THAN THE IDEAL BE SURE TO INCREASE SEEDING RATES 30% TO COMPENSATE FOR LOSSES DUE TO LATE PLANTINGS.

Seed winter wheat between September 20 and October 3 in Area 1, between September 25 and October 8 in Area 2, and between October 1 and October 15 in Area 3 (Figure 1.7-1).

Trade Name	Active Ingredient	Loose Smut	Com- mon Bunt	Stago- nospora nodorum	Fusarium Head Scab	Pythium damping off	Price per gallon or quart
Source: Ohio State University, adapted for PA by Del Voight. Prices subject to change. a Efficacy based on labeled rates of active ingredient for each product. b Efficacy rating scale: E=Excellent, G=Good, F=Fair, P=Poor and N=No activity.
Allegiance / DynaShield Metalaxyl	Metalaxyl	N	N	N	N	E	$384/gal
Apron XL	Mefanoxam	N	N	N	N	E
Dividend XL	Difenoconazol+ Mefanoxam	E	E	E	G	E	$67.50/gal
LSP Flowable Fungicide	TBZ	N	G	P	G	N	??
Maxim 4FS	Fludioxonil	N	N	N	G	N	$504.65/qt
Raxil-Thiram	Tebuconazole Metalaxyl	E	E	E	G	F	$68.75/gal
Raxil MD	Tebuconazole Metalaxyl	E	E	E	G	E	$80.25/gal
Raxil XT / DynaShield Small Grains	Tebuconazole Metalaxyl	E	E	E	G	E	$55.85/gal
RTU-Vitavax-Thiram	Carboxin, Thiram	G	G	F	G	F	??
Vitamax-200	Carboxin, Thiram	G	G	F	G	F	??
Cruiser Maxx Cereals - (insect protection as well	Thiamethoxam, Mefenoxam and difenoconazole	E	E	E	G	E	$94.55 / gal

Please Keep an Eye Out for Western Bean Cutworm Injury — John Tooker, Entomology Specialist

As we have been reporting in recent newsletters, our trapping network detected a larger—than—expected population of western bean cutworm (WBC) already dispersed across Pennsylvania. As an update, we have recently learned of moths captured in three more counties: Crawford, Somerset, and Lehigh. The next step is determining whether we have any injury that results from these moths. Remember that our traps captured male moths that were attracted to a synthetic version of the female sex pheromone; therefore, trapping moths does not equate to finding damage. For damage to occur, female moths need to be present and lay eggs on corn, and then hungry caterpillars would have to start feeding.

As growers start to cut into their corn fields for harvest, we are asking for help in detecting fields with potential WBC infestations. Finding damage would appear most likely in the northwestern part of Pennsylvania, particularly in Erie County, because that is where we found the great majority of our moths. Please take notice of any unusual infestations of corn ears. Corn earworm caterpillars are regular occupants of ears, but typically occur only as single caterpillars per ear because they are cannibalistic. Western bean cutworm caterpillars, however, do not eat each other, and many can occur in a single ear. You can distinguish WBC caterpillars from others caterpillar species by looking just behind the head, where WBC has three distinct light—colored stripes on a black background (see this webpage for images: http://www.ent.iastate.edu/trap/westernbeancutworm/wbcimages). Corn earworm and other caterpillars you might encounter do not have similar stripes. You may also find sap beetle larvae in ears, and multiple sap beetle larvae can occur per ear, but these are small, dull—colored larvae with no distinct stripe behind their heads (see this website for an image: http://ento.psu.edu/extension/insect-image-gallery/all-images/sap-beetle-on-corn-larvae-on-corn-kernels.jpg/view).

If you suspect that you have a field with infested ears, please contact your county extension educators or me directly. For more details on western bean cutworm, please see this Department of Entomology webpage: http://ento.psu.edu/extension/field-crops/corn/western-bean-cutworm.

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

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. 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 found in our series of no—till management videos. http://cmeg.psu.edu/video/notill3/notill3.cfm

Upcoming Events

Keystone Crops and Soils Conference — October 27 & 28, Holiday Inn, Grantville

Contributors: Extension Educators: Mena Hautau (Berks), Mark Madden (Sullivan), Jonathan Rotz (Franklin), Del Voight (Lebanon), Bill Waltman (Potter) University Park: Sjoerd Duiker (Soils), Marvin Hall (Forages), Greg Roth (Grain Crops), John Tooker (Entomology)

Editor: John Rowehl, York County

Upcoming Events

Real time pest and heat unit activity: http://agsci.psu.edu/news/spotlight/pa-pipe

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

If you have any questions or would like to suggest a topic, please contact your local Extension Educator.

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