|
|
Fall Weather Making Harvest, Wheat Planting Difficult
By
Laura Skillman
PRINCETON, Ky., (Nov. 1, 2006) - Autumn rains and cool
temperatures are making the soybean harvest and winter wheat
planting particularly challenging for Kentucky's farmers.
“These guys are really ready to get this fall behind them,” said
Clint Hardy, Daviess County Extension agent for agriculture and
natural resources with the University of Kentucky Cooperative
Extension Service.
Despite exceptionally good planting and growing conditions
earlier in the year, the weather turned against farmers in
September with heavy rains that flooded a number of crop fields.
October’s weather also seemed to work against farmers, slowing
the soybean harvest to a crawl. September was the second wettest
on record in Kentucky, said Erik Kabela, UK agricultural
meteorologist. October has also been a wet one ranking as the
11th wettest as of last week.
There’s still a tremendous amount of soybeans left to be
harvested, said Jim Herbek, UK Extension grain crops specialist.
The longer the crop remains in the field the more likely the
beans are to lose quality and to shatter from the pods, causing
some yield loss.
The optimum time to plant wheat in Kentucky is from Oct. 1 to
Oct. 30, Herbek said. With some exceptions, late-planted wheat
will produce less fall tillers, which can lower yield potential.
The plants are also more susceptible to heaving from the ground
during freezing and thawing because of minimal root growth.
“We’ve still got a lot of late-planted soybeans to harvest,”
Hardy said. “Everybody slowed on beans and switched to planting
wheat right at the first of October and managed to get about two
weeks to plant. We still have about 15 to 20 percent of the
wheat that farmers intend to plant, yet to be planted.”
Farmers now are concentrating on getting their soybeans out of
the field and if the weather cooperates will plant additional
wheat, he said. Not all the beans will be harvested.
In Daviess County about 6,000 to 7,000 acres of soybeans were
flooded by the September storm and 2,000 to 4,000 acres of those
may be too damaged for harvest. Other western Kentucky counties
also sustained flooding losses due to the heavy rains of late
September
.
In Christian County, farmers are farther behind on harvesting
soybeans than anything else, said Jay Stone, the county’s
Extension agent for agriculture and natural resources. When
farmers finished their corn harvest, soybeans weren’t ready for
harvest so most producers began planting wheat. Christian County
is among the top wheat-producing counties in Kentucky.
“A lot of guys started in the third week of September planting
wheat, which I don’t recommend, but it’s an added risk you take
when you have a lot of acres,” Stone said. “We’re probably 85 to
90 percent done.”
Planting wheat too early can lead to increased insect and
disease problems, and too much fall growth that can sustain
winter and spring freeze damage, Herbek said.
Farmers will likely push their wheat planting into the middle of
November, if they can get the weather to cooperate, Stone said.
And farmers there are accustomed to harvesting into late
November. But the farther into the fall it gets, the more likely
moisture from dews or fogs are going to limit the hours for
soybean harvest.
“We’re certainly not in any dire straights yet,” he said. |
Contact: Clint Hardy, 270-685-8480
Jim
Herbek, 270-365-7541, ext. 205
Jay
Stone, 270-886-6328 |
|
The UK College
of Agriculture, through its land-grant mission, reaches across
the commonwealth with teaching, research and extension
to enhance the lives of Kentuckians. |
Questions/Comments,
e-mail the
webmaster
Copyright © 2001-2006 University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture,
Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service |
News Home
Other Headlines This Week
More
News
RSS Now Available
for those
using news aggregation programs
College News
|
