Ag Weather Impacts-Wheat

Ag Weather Impacts-Wheat

With temperatures holding closer to normal for early to mid March, wheat is finally going to show some good development after it got stopped in late February. Earlier this week, I talked about the wheat crop with Aaron Esser, Adams County extension director based in Ritzville. I asked him about winter damage and disease pressure going into spring.

Mr. Esser: I think early on we were kind of concerned about the wheat and how it was holding up...over the last couple days, I think some of that worry has been eased. You know at first when we talk about diseases we have to be concerned about stripe rust. I think the stripe rust forecast is actually looking pretty favorable...the pressure looks fairly low...and the potential for eyespot foot-rot might be a little bit greater than in the past...and one of the other diseases they're already seeing down in Oregon...northeastern Oregon is soil borne mosaic virus.

He added that this is a good time for top dressing if your crop is short on nitrogen.

Mr. Esser: Farmers historically light to put it on now, but they're still hoping to get some of these springs rains to push it down into the soil profile. I got a call from a producer down by Walla Walla where they were already top dressing today.

Mr Esser also encouraged farmer looking to seed spring grains to time it ahead of warming trends.

Mr. Esser: If the soil temperature is 45 and the trend is for it to go up, I like to be seeding in a scenario like that.

My thanks to WSU's Aaron Esser for joining me on todays ag weather impacts.

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