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Agent: Wheat field day set, ag producer input costsBy Miles Dabovich Texas AgriLife Extension agent, agriculture, Wichita County Wheat producers from the Rolling Plains will have an opportunity to attend a Wheat Field Day May 15 at the AgriPro Wheat Breeding Facility in Lockett, Texas. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. Co-sponsors of the field day, Texas AgriLife Extension Service, AgriPro Wheat, Syngenta Crop Protection, DuPont and Estes Chemical, have organized the day around topics of current interest to area producers. Dr. Bill Raun of Oklahoma State University will lead a discussion of the new GreenSeeker technology which is designed to rapidly evaluate crop health and nutrient needs. Dr. Gaylon Morgan from Texas AgriLife Extension Service in College Station will be in the field to inform producers about the economics of leaf rust infection and control. Dr. Todd Baughman, Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Vernon will team with Mr. Rob Borchardt of AgriPro Wheat to introduce producers to the newest wheat and triticale varieties from AgriPor, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and others. Representatives from various crop protection suppliers will offer advice on maximizing crop profitability. Prior to a sponsored lunch, Rachel Myers with The Texas Wheat Producers Board, will explain to producers how their checkoff dollars are reinvested in marketing and research to assist in farm profitability and efficiency. Also, a panel of area producers will share their experiences utilizing anhydrous ammonia as a topdress fertilizer in the spring. Participants will be eligible for 3 C.E.U.'s including one in laws and regulations and two general. For more information call Miles Dabovich at 940-716-8610. Cost of everything Well everyone is talking about the cost of food, gas and so on. Well, the same goes for the agriculture producers. The input cost to operate has just become astronomical and producers today are at more risk than they have ever been--even with high prices for wheat and cattle. Eddie Furderburg of the Noble Foundation gives us some interesting info about spraying and fertilizing pastures. After reading this I hope it makes it easier for you to make decisions. I know decisions are getting harder with all the current input costs we have to deal with. With higher (much, much higher) fertilizer prices and higher herbicide prices, a common question we get involves whether you get a "bigger bang for the buck" from fertilizer or herbicides on introduced pastures. Ideally, you would use both on introduced pastures that have weed problems. But input prices have made this a less than ideal world in pasture management. Let's start with herbicides. Probably the most consistent work seen in agricultural research is that which shows that a pound of weeds killed will result in a pound of grass gained. A moderate to heavy infestation of weeds weighs in the range of 500 to 1,500 pounds of dry matter per acre. While these weeds may be grazed somewhat while they are small, they are obviously not grazed much after that or they wouldn't be thought of as weeds. If you use a herbicide that costs $10 per acre (including application) to control the weeds, you have gained 500 to 1,500 pounds of grass for your money. This equates to a grass value of $13 to $40 per ton of dry matter forage gained for your herbicide cost. Unless you have high wildlife goals, weed control should be a priority in fields that have moderate to heavy weed pressures. If wildlife goals are important, they should be weighed against the grazing value obtained through the herbicide use. Also, if you have desirable legumes, you must decide whether the legume is giving you more than the weeds are taking away before you determine whether or not to spray. To determine if you have enough weeds to spray, scout the fields at the time the weeds are emerging and beginning to grow to determine the species and quantity of weeds in your fields. If you don't have enough weeds to justify spraying, you can save money. It is difficult to describe a moderate to heavy weed infestation. If you're pretty sure weeds are causing you to lose significant grazing, it is probably enough weeds to justify spraying. Does fertilizer pay? Most work in the southern Oklahoma/north central Texas area shows that nitrogen fertilizer will give a yield increase of about 30 pounds of dry matter forage per pound of nitrogen above the amount produced with no nitrogen. If urea is $500 per ton, this means that the cost of nitrogen fertilizer to produce 1 ton of dry matter forage is $37. While this is much higher than in the past, it is still cheaper than buying feed and bringing it in. The above calculation only considers nitrogen (N). Phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) prices have gone up as much or more than nitrogen. If you need to use P and/or K with nitrogen, fertilizer use on pastures becomes unprofitable at current prices. If your soil is low in P and/or K and you do not apply them as fertilizer, nitrogen use efficiency will not be 30 pounds of dry matter forage per pound of nitrogen applied. It will be much less. Therefore, it is not advisable to apply only nitrogen fertilizer to soils that are low in P and K because the yield increase you receive will be unprofitable. One possible way to maximize fertilizer inputs on pastures is to examine your soil tests and use nitrogen fertilizer on the fields that have adequate P and K and only need nitrogen. Do not use nitrogen on the fields that need P and K. If you can get animal manures, apply them only on the fields that need P and K since they have about as much P2O5 and K2O as they do N and will build up the P and K levels in the soil. If you fertilize fields with moderate to heavy weed pressures, you definitely need to use herbicides. Fertilizing without controlling weeds will result in very abundant, large and healthy weeds. In summary, if you have a lot of weeds, it is definitely economically feasible to control them unless you have very strong wildlife goals. It is still economically feasible to fertilize introduced pastures if you only need nitrogen (soil test to find out if fields are sufficient in P and K) or if you can get animal manures delivered and spread at a reasonable price. 5/19/08 Date: 5/15/08
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