Published: May 10, 2008 11:18 pm            

Area wheat tour scheduled for Friday

Lahoma Wheat Tour will be Friday. Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service (OCES) and Oklahoma Agriculture Experi-ment Station (OAES) are inviting producers for a morning of demonstrations and opportunities to enhance wheat production and marketing skills.

The tour site will be at the North Central Research Station, one mile west of Lahoma on U.S. 412. Regis-tration for the tour will be 9 a.m. There will be five time slots with an option of five topics of discussion or demonstration for producers to attend. The trailers will leave for the first tour stop at 9:20 a.m.

For producers interested in wheat production, there will be several stops. At one fertility site, producers will hear from Bill Raun, OAES professor, and Brian Arnall, OCES soil fertility specialist. Their demonstration will focus on getting the right nitrogen rate for the environmental conditions. Producers do not know for sure what establishment conditions will present themselves for the production year or what moisture patterns will develop for the year. The second fertilizer demonstration will be the use of lime strips to determine if a producer needs to improve his soil by the use of liming. Hailin Zhang will look at lime strips to help producers understand the chemistry involved with liming and the results producers will see.

Other production demonstrations will include Tom Peeper, OAES professor, discussing new weed control products and management strategies to improve grain yields and the quality of grain delivered to the elevators. Tom Royer, OCES entomologist, will address insect pests of wheat and where producers can help themselves by timing of plant protection products and economic thresholds.

There are different stops for producers to determine what wheat variety to choose. Jeff Edwards, OCES small grain extension specialist, will review current wheat varieties available for producers. Edwards will review the strengths and weaknesses of the varieties. He will address varieties that will work in grain only and dual-purpose production systems. For producers looking down the road several years for varieties that will improve their production, Brett Carver, OAES wheat breeder, will review the wheat breeding program.

Crop rotations have advantages to improving wheat yields and reducing pest problems in production systems. Often, there might be other crops that might provide a higher market value as well. Producers looking for these options have stops to assist their management skill. Crop rotation offerings include Mark Boyles, OCES canola specialist, offering production assistance with canola and particularly with stand establishment into no-till fields. Chad Godsey, OCES oil seed specialist, will review soybeans in rotations with wheat. Rick Kochenower, OCES northwest area agronomist, will address crop rotations.

Dr. Kim Anderson, OCES wheat marketing specialist, will review wheat price increases and see what the markets will be offering at harvest and beyond for the wheat marketing year. J.C. Hobbs, northwest area extension farm management specialist, has been working through the wheat budgets for producers who are concerned about the price of fertilizer materials for the remainder of this year and for next year. Hobbs is going to try to identify which fertilizer options are the most economical.

Other presentations are in response to questions that are being faced by producers. Farm Credit of Enid will serve lunch Those planning to attend must call 237-7677 by Tuesday so arrangements can be made.