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The following information was prepared by Kevin Wanner (MSU Extension Entomologist). Emerging winter wheat can be particularly vulnerable to damage by grasshoppers. The larger adult stage grasshoppers are more difficult to control and can move into emerging winter wheat fields from surrounding grassy areas. Treatment thresholds for emerging winter wheat are lower, 3-7 per square yard within the field, or 11-20 per square yard around the margin probably requires treatment. Border treatments applied as insecticidal sprays or seed treatments are...
According to Laurie Kerzicnik (Montana State University Entomologist), grasshoppers continue to be an issue for several areas in Montana. Grasshopper infestations will continue to extend into the fall. High grasshopper populations this year could be due to a couple of factors including an abundance of a yellow sweet clover in 2019 and a cold, wet spring in 2019 where grass was abundant and rising grasshopper populations were tolerated and mostly not managed. Most grasshoppers overwinter in the egg stage in the soil. After egg hatch in mid to la...
The 2020 Chouteau County 4-H and FFA livestock carcass contest took place at Pioneer Meats in Big Timber. A total of 58 Chouteau County 4-H animals were evaluated for carcass quality by Mark King (MSU Extension Sweet Grass County). The purpose of the carcass contest is to teach 4-H youth how to correctly select, feed and finish livestock based on carcass data. If carcass criteria are met, youth can be confident they are producing a quality product that is safe, nutritious and good tasting to the consumer. Out of 36 market swine entered at the...
Rejuvra™, active ingredient indaziflam, has received approval by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use on rangeland, CRP land, and natural areas, including grazed areas on these sites. Indaziflam was previously marketed as Esplanade™; the new label for Esplanade™ will restrict its use to industrial vegetation management. Rejuvra™ is a pre-emergent herbicide used for control of annual grasses like cheatgrass, Japanese brome, ventenata and medusahead. It reduces emergence of seedlings through inhibition of cellulose biosynt...
The 2020 MSU Pest Management Tour is a last chance opportunity for private applicators in Northcentral Montana to obtain recertification credits before the December 31, 2020 private applicator expiration date. Three credits will be offered for each session. Attendees may attend both sessions to accumulate six recertification credits. Onsite programming will be offered at county locations within PAT district 3 on October 6th. Commercial and government applicator credits will also be offered. Onsite virtual programs will be available on October...
Information for this article was taken from a Kansas State University Press Release. The entire article is located at www.ag.ksu.edu. Producers often wait several weeks after harvest before making their first herbicide application to control volunteer wheat,” said Dallas Peterson, K-State Research and Extension weed management specialist. “This allows as much volunteer as possible to emerge before spraying it or tilling it the first time. Often, a second application or tillage operation will be needed later in the summer to eliminate the green...
• Water trees three times a month in addition to watering your lawn. • Deep watering to a depth of 12” inches below the soil surface is recommended. Saturate the soil around the tree within the “dripline” (the outer edges of the tree’s branches) to disperse water down toward the roots. • For evergreens, water 3’-5’ beyond the dripline on all sides of the tree. • The objective is to water slowly, dispersing the flow of water to get the water deep down to the trees roots. Watering for short periods of time only encourages shallow rooting whi...
4-H, the nation’s largest youth development organization, grows confident young people who are empowered for life today and prepared for career tomorrow. 4-H programs empower nearly six million young people across the U.S. through experiences that develop critical life skills. 4-H is the youth development program of our nation’s Cooperative Extension System and USDA, and serves every county and parish in the U.S. through a network of 110 public universities and more than 3000 local Extension offices. Globally, 4-H collaborates with ind...
MSU Agriculture research centers have three test plots for winter wheat in Chouteau County. Research plots are managed by MSU Western Triangle Agricultural Research Center (WTARC) south of the Knees, MSU Northern Agricultural Research Center (NARC) north of Loma and MSU Central Agricultural Research Center (CARC) west of Geraldine. A special thanks to John Miller (WTARC agronomist), Peggy Lamb (NARC agronomist) and Jed Eberly (CARC agronomist) for establishing and maintaining the Chouteau County test plots. The Extension office would also like...
I hope our Chouteau County gardeners have had a productive year growing vegetables, flowers, trees and shrubs. Below are a few tips for the month of August. • Renovate strawberries by mowing a minimum of every three years. Some people mow their strawberries every year following fruit production. Be sure to set the mower high enough to mow the leaves. Mowing to low may damage the crowns and kill the plant. • Topdress strawberries after harvest with a complete fertilizer like 16-16-16. • Pinch the tops of indeterminate tomatoes and reduce water...
Summer pneumonia in nursing beef calves is not uncommon, but occurs with low frequency. A wide variety of risk factors for summer pneumonia exist including relative success of colostrum antibody transfer, commingling of groups, weather changes, nutrition changes or deficiencies, pathogen exposure, handling stress, calving difficulty, and operation-specific risk factors like lack of labor. The immunity a calf receives through colostrum is called passive immunity, and is the major source of immune function in the newborn. If calves receive only...
Bobcat is a high yielding solid stem hard red winter wheat with improved yield potential relative to other solid stem varieties. The variety will be available for non-certified seed producers in fall of 2020. The variety was developed by Phil Bruckner and Jim Berg from the Montana State University winter wheat breeding program. Bobcat is a selection from a composite cross of two unreleased Montana solid-stemmed experimental lines and an unreleased Montana hollow-stemmed line. Bobcat is awned, white-glumed, semi-dwarf wheat with medium to late...
What is up with all of the ash trees not leafing out around the County? What we are seeing is a case of fall freeze damage. The green ash trees were actively growing in the fall until late September and early October when temperatures dropped into the low 20s or high teens. Many of the ash trees froze and dropped green leaves to the ground during this time period. Damage occurs before the plant becomes dormant as evidenced by development of fall leaf color and normal leaf drop. It is recommended that trees not be trimmed or cut down until July...
Jane Mangold (MSU Extension Weed Specialist) has been getting quite a few calls about the efficacy of a bacteria used for cheatgrass control in rangeland. Below is an abbreviated version of the study and results. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is one of the most widespread invasive plants in the western U.S. Because cheatgrass can form large infestations of hundreds to thousands of acres, often in remote and inaccessible locations, biological control is an attractive option. Various strains of the soil bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens (e.g. D7,...
MSU Agronomists (Richard Engel, Clain Jones, and Simon Fordyce) have put together a document on Soil Acidification Management. The document is available online at the following URL: http://landresources.montana.edu/fertilizerfacts/html/FF79.html. Paper copies are available at the Chouteau County Extension office. The study concluded that adding 90 pounds of seed-placed fertilizer-phosphorus (0-45-0) can mitigate aluminum toxicity and increase growth and grain yield of cereal crops in acid-affected soils. In addition, responses to...
Laurie Kerzicnik (MSU Entomologist) wrote the article below to help Montanans prepare for the upcoming wasp and hornet season. Except for the Western yellowjacket, social wasps are typically not aggressive unless their nest is disturbed. Most are beneficial and feed on a lot of garden pests. The most common wasps are bald-faced hornets, aerial yellowjackets, Western yellowjackets, and paper wasps. They live in colonies, which include workers, queens, and drones. They all feed on insects. The western yellowjacket is a scavenger, feeding on...
The Master Gardener program provides research based information for gardeners. Below are a few notes taken from the turf management portion of the program. • Rough bluegrass is probably the best grass in Montana for shady areas. • Kentucky bluegrass is the best grass for open sunny areas with well-drained soil. • Annual ryegrass can be used as a cover crop following vegetable production. • The standard lawn mix is 60% Kentucky bluegrass, 30% creeping red fescue and 10% annual ryegrass. • Zoysiagrass does not grow well in Montana. Montana s...
Information for this article was compiled by Dr. Kevin Wanner (MSU Extension Entomologist) and Dr. Emily Glunk (Previous MSU Extension Forage Specialist). Alfalfa weevil is the key insect pest of alfalfa, causing variable levels of economic damage across Montana. Females lay eggs in alfalfa stems. Larvae hatch and crawl up to developing terminal buds where they chew small “pin” holes in the leaves. Larvae develop through four instar stages. Larger 3rd and 4th instar larvae feed openly on unfurled leaves and cause the largest economic loss. Sev...
Below are a few notes I have compiled on biology and management of the stripe rust fungus. • Fungal spores attack wheat consuming the nutrients synthesized by the host plant. • Spread by green bridge and wind dispersal. Community disease like WSMV with multiple infection cycles. • Spores on the ground are dead because they need living plant tissue to survive. Spores will over-winter on volunteer plants. Wet weather in the fall will promote stripe rust survival. • Do not spray fungicides past the flowering stage. • Check labels to make sure you...
Its Tick Season in Montana The following article was prepared by Laurie Kerzinik (MSU Entomologist). The common ticks in Montana this time of the year are the Rocky Mountain wood tick, Dermacentor andersoni, and the American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis. The two species look very similar. We don’t have either of the two species of black-legged ticks (formerly deer ticks) that vector Lyme disease in Montana. The Rocky Mountain wood tick is very common in the Rocky Mountain region and is found on livestock, companion animals, and humans in th...
Grass tetany is a metabolic disease of cattle associated with grazing lush, green pasture. The condition is caused by low blood concentrations of magnesium, which is a required mineral for cattle. When pastures are growing rapidly in the spring, grass may not contain adequate amounts of magnesium to meet requirements. High potassium and crude protein concentrations found in rapidly growing forage complicate the grass tetany issue by interfering with the absorption of magnesium from the rumen. Magnesium requirements increase during lactation, so...
The Chouteau County Extension office has compiled notes per communications and workshops from Extension professionals. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact our office at 622-3751. • Testing seed for Ascochyta blight will cost $200.00. It takes ten days to develop the fungus on a plate. In addition, the $200 will test for 8 other diseases. Please contact the Extension office for additional testing information or google the Montana State Seed Lab. • Use viable inoculant distributed uniformly with seed and promptly pla...
• Will removing half the vegetable plant leaves when transplanting reduce transpiration and wilting? According to Illinois Extension, pruning transplants to reduce water loss is not a recommended practice. Although pruning may reduce the extent of wilting after setting out, it will also reduce the rate of new root growth. When a plant is transplanted, food energy stored in the old, large leaves will be transported downward to promote root growth. If these leaves are removed, root growth is delayed. Plants will almost always wilt somewhat a...
The Chouteau County Soil Moisture Survey was started by Judee Wargo in 1993 to assist farmers with determining recropping potential on cereal grain stubble. After 27 years, the Chouteau County Extension Office continues to compile data for determining recropping potential and providing the state drought committee with soil moisture information. Testing for soil moisture took place in Chouteau County on March 24-26. All winter wheat locations exceeded 3.5 feet of stored soil moisture, which is equivalent to approximately 5.25 inches of...
New Montguide Available for Bull Buyers Kari Lewis and Wendy Becker (MSU Extension Agents from Glacier County and Fort Peck Reservation) have developed a resource for the bull buying season. The Montguide is available at the Chouteau County Extension office or online at https://store.msuextension.org/Products/Bull-Selection-Using-Expected-Progeny-Differences-(EPDs)-MT202001AG__MT202001AG.aspx. Bull selection is one of the most important management decisions a producer can make. Bulls are assessed phenotypically (appearance), genotypically (thei...