Ag Report : Washington County Ag Report July 29, 2003

Washington County Ag Report
July 29, 2003

Contributors are Sandy Buxton, Colleen Converse, Aaron Gabriel, Mandy Hulett, and Laura McDermott. If you would like to be removed from the mailing list or know of someone that should receive it, please let us know.

Quote
"If you can walk, you can dance; if you can talk, you can sing. - African Proverb

Announcements
FIELD CROP SCOUTING, COME EARN A PESTICIDE RECERTIFICATION CREDIT BY SCOUTING WITH ME FOR ONE HOUR:
Tuesday, August 5, at 10 am, Gettyvue Farm, Rte 31 in Hebron
August 5 - 7- Empire Farm Days, Rodman Lott & Son Farms, Seneca Falls. Contact Melanie Wickham at 877-697-7837 or visit www.empirefarmdays.com.

August 7-11, 2003 Summer Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) conference at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. contact Julie Rawson at (978) 355-2853 or julie@nofamass.org, or visit the NOFA/Mass web site at www.nofamass.org.
Friday, August 8th, 10 AM - Noon: Southern Adirondack Beekeeper Assoc. summer workshop at the Theron McFee farm in East Amsterdam. Topics will include tips on taking off honey, applying miticides, how to sell honey and much more. Bring a bag lunch and a veil. There is no charge and all are welcome. Directions: From the corner of Rtes. 147 & 29, take 29 west for about 1 mile to the 2nd right.(Fishhouse Rd.) You will see a HONEY sign and a roadside stand on your left. Raindate is Aug 16th. Call Betsy LaClair at 377-9317 to register.
Tuesday, August 12th at 5:00 p.m. - Biodegradable Plastic and Greenhouse Meeting: The meeting will start at Moses' Farm in Eagle Bridge, NY to evaluate a new biodegradable plastic product Rich and Kathy used this season. Then we will caravan up to Hayes' Produce on Rte 22 in Cambridge to see the Hayes' new greenhouse with a plastic bench system next to the stand.
Tues., Aug. 12. Self-guided Art and Agriculture Tour in and around Salem, (Washington County), NY. Art work, demonstrations, free samples. Ruth Sauer, Arts 220 Gallery and Studio, 518/854-3406 or Meg Southerland, Gardenworks, 854.3250.
Thursday, August 14, 7:30 pm - Outsourcing Feed and Fieldwork - Adam Liddle farm, Tripp Rd, Argyle. Discussion about dairies which buy all their feed and hire out fieldwork operations. How do you successfully develop these business relationships? Can a small dairy really be profitable without raising their own feed? Are there opportunities to sell feed from your dairy or to become a custom operator? Light refreshments. Call Aaron for more information and to give us a head count. 800-548-0881.

Weather Data - 2003 and average of 1999 - 2002

Midwest Commodity Prices - from the Wall Street Journal
Corn per bushel $2.075/bu
Cotton Seed Meal per ton $145/ton
Soybean per bushel 5.61/bu
Corn Gluten Feed 55/ton
Hominy Feed per ton 38/ton
Wheat, soft white 3.66/bu
48% Soybean meal per ton 179.5/ton
Tallow per pound .18/lb
These prices are provided only to show where the general market trends are moving and to help you determine appropriate ration ingredients. Local prices will vary due to shipping, processing, and discounts.

WEATHER: If you have access to the web, you can get weather radar information for your town. I found doppler weather loops right from the link on the Netscape homepage and also at the following web site: http://radar.wunderground.com/data/nids/ENX19_anim.gif

FARM BUSINESS MANAGEMENT: On Saturday (7/26), I took part in a NYS Beef Producers meeting that CCE helped with at Brookefield Farm in Hartford, NY. Barry and Ami Goldstein, with their herd manager Rob Fanning, showed off a nice operation on the tour segment. What was really interesting to me with my limited beef experience was the discussion and interest in A.I. for the beef cows, something that makes tremendous sense from the perspective of achieving genetic gains and limiting contact with live bulls. Kathy Kaufman also did a great presentation on injection site tissue damage. Frequently the beef guys get the blame, but the reality is that everyone associated with the animal industry needs to understand the implications and the techniques needed to reduce this problem. Give all shots in the neck area and mostly subcutaneously was the message. We have a Beef Cattle Quality Assurance manual if you would like to stop into the office, look at it and see if you might want one of your own.

CROPS
Soil Quality: As the field corn tassels, notice how uniformly (or unevenly) it tassels throughout each field. Not only is corn development influenced by heat and day length, but also moisture and fertility. Notice the patterns in each field and see if you can determine the reason for variability. Is it the soil? Is the elevation of the field affecting crop maturity? Is the soil more productive in one area than another? Are the compacted headlands maturing more slowly than non-compacted areas? Use this information to address problems that have a reasonable solution.

Alfalfa: Today we looked at a field that was over threshold for potato leafhopper, but we could not see any of the typical leafhopper injury symptoms. Perhaps the field was planted to a PLH resistant variety. Second and third cutting is underway, so check your fields and harvest those with high populations of PLH first to prevent injury. If you can not harvest within a few days, then apply an insecticide to alfalfa varieties susceptible to PLH. It is time for summer seedings. The window for summer alfalfa (and red clover) seedings extends from the end of July to mid-August. Trefoil needs a little more time to get established before winter (seed before August). Last year there was little moisture; it looks like we may have better weather this year. Prepare a firm seedbed so that moisture can "wick up" from the deeper soil to the surface. If you plan on rotating fields into alfalfa next spring, take soil samples to determine what lime applications you need this fall. Actually, this should have been done in the fall of 2002 for lime applications in 2003, to seed alfalfa in 2004. However, milk prices or a million other things may have been a hurdle; you can still give it a shot. Do not seed alfalfa into fields that are presently growing alfalfa. The decaying alfalfa plants from the old stand will prevent the growth of newly seeded alfalfa. How much alfalfa do you need to cause this "autotoxicity"? Do not expect any alfalfa to grow within about one foot of any old alfalfa plant (that is just my experience, not a research based guideline). Plowing may spread out the dead plants a bit and increase the dead zone.

Field Corn: Western and Northern Corn Rootworm Adults are now emerging. There is nothing to do for the corn this year. These adults will be laying eggs that will hatch next year and damage the corn growing in the field next year. So, we monitor the adult CRW's this year, to decide if a particular field should be rotated out of corn, or planted to corn with some sort of control measure taken (soil insecticide at planting, or one of the new seed treatments for moderate CRW infestations, or transgenic corn). The "action threshold" is the pest population at which we need to take some sort of action to reduce damage. It is one western CRW per plant or two northern CRW per plant. Westerns are twice the size and have twice the appetite as northerns. (Images are from the ISU Entomological Image Gallery.)

Western CRW - yellow w/black stripes Northern CRW- pale green

Also notice how even (or uneven) tasseling is progressing in your fields. I suspect that the same
pattern of maturity will also occur at harvest. Some fields are very uneven and you should consider this (and sample fields accordingly) at harvest time to get an accurate measure of whole-plant moisture.

Grasses: I have not received any more calls about our interesting orchardgrass disease and whether is it causing yield or quality losses in your fields. Maybe I need to offer a reward? You can also summer seed grasses. Reed canarygrass is the most feeble of the grass seedlings and like trefoil, should be seeded before August. The other grasses can be seeded before mid-August.

Pasture: We have had some moisture to keep pastures growing. Graze to no less than 3 inches tall for timothy, orchardgrass, bromegrass, and reed canarygrass. Bluegrass can be grazed down to 2 inches tall. Regrowth is faster if there is a decent amount of green tissue left on the plant.

Edited from John Mishanec's Pest Status Report 7/23/03:
Sweet Corn
The storm that swept through the region on Monday came from the south and carried with it corn ear worms (CEW). Most locations showed low numbers of CEW the day after the storm. CEW is the most serious insect for corn because it lays it's eggs directly on silks. The eggs hatch and then the larvae move directly into the tip of the ear. There is very little "window" for catching the larvae and preventing damage to the ear.
A grower asked me "Since I will be harvesting this field within the week, do I still have the spray against ear worm? This is a good question. Dick Straub, at the Hudson Valley Lab looked at how long the silk was desirable to the CEW. Once the silks are dry, we recommend not spraying any more. Dick found even if there was a small percentage of green silk, CEW could deposit eggs. The other things that needs to be taken into consideration is how long it will take the eggs to hatch after deposition and how big is the population of CEW. Generally eggs will hatch 3 to 6 days depending on temperatures. If it's hot, quicker and if it's cooler, longer. The number of CEW we caught in the traps is not terribly high. (8 in the trap after the storm) A high population of CEW is over 15 per night. I told the grower what I know about CEW and he had to make the decision. Look at your fields. If you are harvesting soon and the corn silks are pretty dry, than you probably can get away without spraying. If there is a lot of green silk on your ears, and you will not be harvesting for a while, than a spray might be needed.
The question is Are CEW here to stay? Or is this just a bunch of them carried on the storm and numbers will drop off next week? Only time will tell. Till then, a spray on any corn with fresh silk is called for.
There are still a lot of european corn borer (ECB) in fields.
Vine crops
With the southern storms, also be on the lookout for downy mildew. This is a very serious disease for vine crops. Look for large, irregular dark green spots on the leaf. The spots are the size of a quarter and are angled by the veins in the leaf. If you see this, make an application of Quadris, Alliette or Ridomil. These are all systemic fungicides and will protect the crop from downy mildew. If you are unlucky and have downy mildew, after four or five days, a field will look like it has been frosted with the leaves limp and only the stems poking up in the air. This is a rare disease. It comes around about every 5 or 6 years. Spores are carried up on southern storms so the best advice is to go out and scout your fields looking for the problem .
About the only thing we are seeing on vine crops is angular leaf spot on old leaves from earlier in the season. The older leaves have white and brown small irregular spots on the leaf. As the spots get older, the center of the spot falls out and the leaf appears tattered. This is a bacterial disease that occurs when there are wet conditions. Earlier in the season it was wet. The probably now is with more rain, the disease could blow up again. A copper spray is a good protection measure on fields where you find the problem.
Potatoes
Potato leaf hoppers PLF are pretty much in every field I've looked at. If you have more than one variety, you will notice they are selective for the variety they like. In some varieties, you can scare up a mess of leaf hoppers when you walk through the field. In other varieties, it is hard to find them.
Tomatoes and Peppers
Most plants have good leaf structures shading the fruit from sun scald. Last year, we had lots of sun burn on fruit because the wet spring kept tops thin. This year, I do not feel we will have the same problem.

Legumes: The potential for both gray mold and white mold development is currently high because of wet field conditions. Scouting must be vigilant for the next several weeks. Some differences in fungal development should be considered in disease management. Spores of Botrytis gray mold are everywhere in the environment as Botrytis infects numerous other plant species. On the other hand, the white mold fungus overwinters as hard, black structures called sclerotia. In the spring and summer whenever the soil becomes wet, a mushroom-like structure (apothecia) grows out of the sclerotia. Generally, it takes 10 or more days of wet soils for this to occur. Sometimes apothecia can be found on soils under dense plant canopies even though the soil between the rows is quite dry. The Cornell Fact Sheet on White Mold in Beans has a photo of the apothecia. The apothecia produce the spores that start new infections. White mold is usually worst in fields that have a history of this disease (and thus lots of sclerotia in the soil) however, there is a potential for spores to blow in from nearby fields that contain apothecia. Infection primarily occurs when the plants are blossoming and when there is water on the plants to stimulate germination of spores and subsequent invasion of the plant. Details on scouting and forecasting white mold can be found in Snap Bean Pest Management: A Guide to Regular Field Monitoring in New York, IPM Publication 105b available from IPM www.nysipm.cornell.edu. Ronilan EG, Topsin M, and Rovral are all labelled for white and gray mold. However, many NY isolates of Botrytis gray mold are resistant to Topsin M. It is important with any of the fungicides to direct the sprays at the blossoms. (OWYS Weekly Vegetable Update)

Solanaceae: From D. Gilrein, CCE, Suffolk Co. - More on Potato Leafhopper: In a recent discussion with Dr. Ted Radcliffe at Univ. of Minnesota, he confirmed that they continue to recommend low rates of dimethoate or pyrethroids for potato leafhopper control in potatoes. Using higher rates may extend the residual control period but this is probably not necessary. He stated they have not been able to show that adult leafhoppers are really causing much injury; larger nymphs are really the main cause of yield loss. Although weekly applications can be used and might be practical in some situations, a 10-day or 2-week interval should suffice unless there are coverage or control problems. Check under foliage for the nymphs a day or two following treatment. In potatoes, examine five middle or lower leaves from ten sites around the field. Treatment is suggested if over 25 nymphs are found. Dr Radcliffe also noted that hopperburn was not a good indicator of yield loss, since some cultivars (e.g. Russet Burbank) do not show symptoms readily.

Ornamentals: Several Regional newsletters have mentioned that European corn borer has been found as a problem for flower and vegetable plants (other than corn). This may be especially true of plants being grown near cornfields. The stems will be tunneled into and you may see the insect's frass, which resembles sawdust. Although I haven't seen this pest here, we certainly have plenty of corn borer in the area. According to Chris Logue, CCE Schenectady County the following plants can be damaged by corn borer: tomato, eggplant, pepper, chrysanthemum, dahlia, aster, cosmos, strawflower, gladiolus, hollyhock and zinnia to name a few.

European corn borer is the larva of a small moth. The first generation larvae hatch in the early summer and begin to feed on leaves and then to bore into the stalks of the host plants. The larvae are described as gray in color with rows of brown spots. When fully developed they are about ¾ inch in length. The adult is a yellowish to reddish brown moth that is about one inch in length. The eggs are scale-like and laid in masses on the bottoms of the leaf. To control the European corn borer one can handpick the egg cases or handpick the caterpillars when they are feeding on the foliage. Alternatively there are several insecticides that can be used in a commercial growing operation.

The product Bacillus thuringiensis subsp.kurstaki may be used for control, but because the caterpillar must eat the plant to ingest the product, thorough coverage is important for successful control. There are a number of other products registered for the control of caterpillars on ornamentals, check pesticide labeling for detailed information on specific species controlled and crop plants that products are labeled for.

Another traditional pest of vegetables that is found on ornamentals is the cabbage looper, which is a problem for ornamental basils.

Black Spot on roses is a perennial concern but the recent high humidity and warm temperatures really promotes the disease. Black spot is easily recognizable to most rose growers from the irregularly shaped circular black spots on the leaves. Early defoliation is often a real problem. To control, make sure to continue to prune out infected tissue when the plant is dry. Discard all leaf litter on which the fungus could overwinter. Chuck Schmidt from Albany County CCE has provided us with a handy chart of resistant varieties.

Table 1. Rose varieties reported to have resistance to black spot.
Resistant hybrid teas:
Carla
Cayenne
Charlotte Armstrong
Chrysler Imperial
Duet
Electron
First Prize
Forty Niner
Granada
Miss All-American Beauty
Mister Lincoln
Olympiad
Pascali
Peace
Pink Peace
Portriat
Pristine
Proud Land
Smooth Lady
Sutters Gold
Tiffany
Tropicana Resistant floribundas/grandifloras:
Angel Face
Betty Prior
Carousel
Cathedral
Europeana
Fashion
First Edition
Gene Boerner
Goldilocks Impatient
Ivory Fashion
Love
Mirandy
Montezuma
Pink Parfait
Prominent
Queen Elizabeth
Razzle Dazzle
Red Gold
Rose Parade
Sonia
Sunsprite Resistant shrub roses:
All that Jazz
Carefree Wonder

Resistant miniatures:
Baby Betsy McCall
Gourmet Popcorn
Little Artist
Rainbow's End
Rose Gilardi

Resistant Rugosa hybrid:
F. J. Grookendorst
Polyantha
The Fairy

Daylily streak caused by Aurerobasidium microstrictum has been noted on single flowering daylily species in the mid-Atlantic region. This disease, which is confused with heat scorch, rust and another fungal streak disease, was found on double varieties in May. For more information re: Daylily problems here are a few good websites: http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/daylily%20rust/daylilyrust.htm
http://www.ncf.ca/~ah748/rust.html

Sincerely,

Aaron D. Gabriel
Extension Resource Educator
Crops and Soils