Texas Agricultural Extension Service
Texas A&M University System

June 30, 2001

Wheat

Karnal Bunt

Karnal Bunt has been found in four counties in District 3 and the impact of this problem is still to be determined. If your wanting to know more about this problem and to prepare in answering producer questions refer to an excellent site developed by Todd Baughman the Agronomist at Vernon. The URLs for Karnal Bunt information are:

http://juniper.tamu.edu/taes/Agronomy/Hottopics.html
http://juniper.tamu.edu/taex/kblinks.htm

Additional Notes from Todd:

There may be some confusion about the karnal bunt quarantine. It is allowable to plant wheat back into the regulated area this fall. It is also allowable to plant wheat back into confirmed infested fields. While this may not seem wise it is the rules as they are written today.

Also here is some additional information on how wheat seed must be handled within the regulated area:

• All wheat harvested for planting seed within the regulated counties must be tested by APHIS for karnal bunt spores and determined to be free of any bunted kernels or karnal bunt spores before it can be planted this fall. Wheat seed that was grown and purchased outside the regulated area does not have to be tested. All wheat seed, both that grown outside or inside the regulated area, must be treated with an approved fungicide (one of which is PCNB, APHIS is supposed to send a list of protocols). Wheat seed that was grown inside the regulated area cannot be planted outside the 4 county region, even if it is determined that it does not contain any bunted kernels or karnal bunt spores.
• Two problems with the seed testing at this time: 1) APHIS will not conduct tests on planting seed for producers outside the regulated area. We currently do not have a local lab setup to run these tests. 2) The current information indicates that APHIS will not set up a seed lab at Olney. The lab at San Saba can only run 6 seed samples in an 8 hour day (18 if they run 24 hours a day). Even if they send samples to Arizona and California, this is not enough to run all the samples for the 4 county area--especially considering that some of the producers will start sowing wheat in 60 days or so.

Currently scheduled Karnal Bunt Educational Meetings:

July 12, Olney High School Auditorium, starting at 8:30 a.m.

July 12, San Saba County Courthouse Courtroom, starting at 7:00 p.m.

July 13, McCulloch Co. Farm Bureau Office (1200 N Bridge), starting at 9:30 a.m.

Small Grain Yield Results From Result Demonstration Tests

Below are links to the result demonstration summaries from Coleman County and Concho County.

• 2000-2001 Coleman County Small Grain Result Demonstration
  
• Coleman County Multi-Year Summary from Small Grain Variety Tests
  
• 2000-2001 Concho County Small Grain Result Demonstration
  
• Concho County Multi-Year Summary from Small Grain Variety Tests
  

An updated wheat variety information sheet on disease and insects ratings can be obtained from the following URL: http://sanangelo.tamu.edu/agronomy/wheat/wht2001.htm.

Cotton

I have had Extension Agents and producers indicate that in several plots where Roundup had been applied the control of weeds was less than expected. That reduction in control is primarily due to environmental conditions that existed at the time the chemical was applied or the development stage of the weeds. Weeds that are impacted by heat and moisture stress, reduce moisture loss by developing thick waxy cuticles. The same protection that keeps moisture from being lost, reduces the amount of herbicide solution being absorbed which reduces the level of weed control. If the herbicide being applied allows for a crop oil concentrate to be used, that would be a better choice than a surfactant due to the improved penetration through the cuticle. Early morning applications of herbicides are also important because wind speeds are lower and relative humidity is higher. Try to complete herbicide applications before the temperature gets above 80 degrees F and the relative humidity drops below 30 percent. Due to the hard water in our region it is important to use ammonium sulphate in the tankmix. About 8 to 17 pounds of ammonium sulphate per 100 gallons of water is recommended. Generally, applying a herbicide to weeds that are moisture stressed or mature will result in a poor level of control, so it should be avoided. This combination of steps should improve the level of weed control achieved by producers.

In some areas where insect pressure resulted in the loss of fruit set, the energy of the plant is high and in situations where adequate soil moisture levels exist the application of a plant growth regulator (such as Pix) may be needed. You can measure the combined length of the upper 5 nodes of the cotton plant and determine if an application is needed.

Weeds and Weed ID

Shown are six weeds that are developing in cropland and barditches at this time.

Buffalo Gourd Cucurbita foetidissima	Field Sandbur Cenchrus incertus	Giant Ragweed Ambrosia trifida
Horseweed Conyza canadensis	Lizardtail Gaura Gaura parviflora	Woolly Croton Croton capitatus

Shown below are some pictures of young plants and what they looked like as mature plants.

Common Sunflower Helianthus_annuus	Common Sunflower Helianthus_annuus
Devilsclaw Proboscidea louisianica	Devilsclaw Proboscidea louisianica	Devilsclaw Proboscidea louisianica
Russian Thistle Salsola iberica	Russian Thistle Salsola iberica	Russian Thistle Salsola iberica

Grain Sorghum and Forages

I was reviewing some information that was posted on the San Angelo website last year and found that a number of the links had changed for the companies referenced. The updated version (http://sanangelo.tamu.edu/agronomy/sorghum/gsplant.htm) should allow you and producers the opportunity of finding out needed information on planting seed being selected.

Twain Butler, the Agronomist at Stephenville, is putting together a useful website on forage. The URL for the front page is http://stephenville.tamu.edu/~butler/foragesoftexas/index.html. I think you will find this site worth bookmarking.

Watch out for Prussic Acid and Nitrate Poisioning

The lack of rainfall has caused the forage sorghum to stress severely and that will be of concern to livestock producers. The two primary concerns is Prussic Acid and Nitrate Poisioning which can kill livestock eating the forage or hay. Please refer to the following publication for additional information.

Prussic Acid Poisioning:

• Nebraska-- http://www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/Range/g775.htm
• Oklahoma-- http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/exten/beef/f-2904.pdf
• Texas-- http://agpublications.tamu.edu/pubs/scs/l5231.pdf

Nitrate Poisioning:

• Nebraska-- http://www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/beef/g170.htm
• Texas-- http://agpublications.tamu.edu/pubs/scs/l5231.pdf

Pesticide Recertification Training

On Monday, July 9, there will be a training conducted at Abilene for producers needing to obtain a Private Applicators License. For more details and to register for the meeting call Gary Bomar at (915) 672-6048.

If you have a training where CEUs are offered, please let me know.

Monthly Calendar

July

July 2, Mason County, Turnrow Meeting

July 4, Holiday

July 9, Runnels County, Conservation Tillage Tour

July 10, District Office, Teleconference

July 11, Fisher County, Turnrow Meeting

July 12, San Saba County, Karnal Bunt Education Meeting

July 13, McCulloch County, Karnal Bunt Education Meeting

July 19 & 20, Dallas County, 4-H Foundation Board Meeting

July 22 - 24, Nueces County, TAEXSA State Meeting

July 25, District Office, Employee Benefit Meeting

July 29 - 31, Taylor County, TCAAA State Meeting

August

August 6, District Office, Office Conference

August 8, Fisher County, Turnrow Meeting

August 13 - 17, Brazos County, State Staff Conference

August 21, Brown County, Forage Production Meeting and Hay Show

August 22, Borden and Scurry Counties, Cotton and Forage Field Day

	Sincerely, Billy E. Warrick Extension Agronomist Texas Agricultural Extension Service Texas A&M University System