August News

2008 Farm Bill Offers Ag Disaster Assistance

A significant new provision of the 2008 farm bill is the agricultural disaster relief trust fund and supplemental agricultural disaster assistance program.

The 2008 Farm Bill, officially titled The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, was completed by Congress and signed by the president in June.

As is often the case with farm bills, this one contains many of the same provisions as the previous bill.

“However, a significant new provision of the 2008 farm bill is the agricultural disaster relief trust fund and supplemental agricultural disaster assistance program,” says Dwight Aakre, North Dakota State University Extension farm management specialist. “The trust fund is used to make payments under five new disaster assistance programs. These programs make up what has commonly been referred to as the permanent disaster program. The intent of the permanent disaster program was to put in place a support mechanism that, in the event of a disaster, passage of ad hoc disaster legislation would not be necessary.”

The new disaster programs are the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE), Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP), Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), Tree Assistance Program (TAP) and Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees and Farm-raised Fish (EALHF).

The SURE program covers quantity and/or quality crop losses, TAP covers tree losses and EALHF covers adverse weather events affecting livestock producers. To be eligible for benefits from any of these three programs, a producer must carry crop insurance on all insurable crops and Noninsured Crop Assistance Program (NAP) coverage on all noninsurable crops on all acreage in all counties. This includes pasture and hay land. 

Since the enrollment deadline for both crop insurance and NAP for 2008 crops has passed, a waiver has been authorized in the 2008 farm bill to allow producers to pay a buy-in fee for 2008 eligibility for SURE. The deadline to sign up and pay the buy-in fee is Sept. 16. Buy-in does not provide crop insurance or NAP coverage, but it does make the producer eligible for any payment under the SURE program for 2008. The drought conditions in western North Dakota may result in some producers being eligible for SURE payments, but only if they are fully covered by crop insurance and NAP.

Farmers wishing to participate in the 2008 direct and counter-cyclical payment program must sign up by Sept. 30. It could be easy to overlook program enrollment this year because many producers already have reported their crop acres to the Farm Service Agency. Most years, sign-up would have been completed in the spring, followed by reporting acres in June.

“Farm program legislation tends to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary,” Aakre says. “It has been difficult to pass farm program legislation that charts a different course from the previous program. Of recent farm bills, the one attempt at revolutionizing farm programs came in the 1995 Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act, which became widely unpopular within two years of its enactment.”

Nitrate and Prussic Acid Poisoning

I’m sure you are all aware that drought conditions are favorable for the accumulation of nitrates and prussic acid (Cyanide) in forage crops.  So far the samples that I have sent in this year have all been returned in the safe range.  However, this does not mean that the possibility for high levels is not there.  I would like to include a list of crops that are especially susceptible to nitrates and cyanide for you.  I would also recommend carefully watching and testing any crop regrowth that you may plan to graze.

These crops are known as nitrate accumulators, oats as hay, straw or stubble, corn as silage or stalks that are grazed, immature barley, wheat as pasture or hay, pearl or proso millets,  flax and the sudan-sorghum complex of forages. T he forage crops know to cause prussic acid poisoning includes sudangrass, forage sorghum-sudans, and sorghum varieties or hybrids and crosses.  The sorghum hybrids have the greatest potential for possible poisoning problems.

Preharvest Intervals for Small Grain Fungicides

Marcia McMullen, NDSU Extension Plant Pathologist

A recent temporary embargo of some Kansas wheat occurred because the fields had been treated with Quilt fungicide beyond the appropriate preharvest interval (PHI) for that product (45 days). Products recommended by NDSU for heading or flowering application for Fusarium head blight suppression all have 30 day PHIs in wheat (32 days for Proline in barley), a duration that should allow ample time

in ND for maturity before swathing or harvest. Producers and applicators need to take heed of these PHIs, as what happened in Kansas is a very strong reminder that labels are the law and must be followed.

The following preharvest intervals are indicated on our currently registered small grain fungicides:

Product                 PHI

Headline*

Feekes                  10.5 (~ 40 days PHI)

Quadris                 45 days

Caramba               30 days

Folicur**              30 days

Proline                  30 days wheat, 32 days barley

Tilt**                    40 days

Quilt                     45 days

Stratego                35 days

* Headline is the only product that doesn’t specify number of days in their PHI. Feekes 10.5 is approximately 40 days before harvest in ND, depending on air temperatures.  Hot temperatures push the crop to flowering, Feekes 10.51, more quickly.

** Additional tebuconazoles such as Orius, etc., or additional propiconazoles, such as Propimax, etc., have ND state supplemental labels that specify the same PHIs as the original registered products.

Using Glyphosate and Other Herbicides Pre-harvest in Small Grains

Joel Ransom , NDSU Extension Agronomist - Cereal Crops

With winter wheat in the middle of grain-filling and other small grains not that far behind, it is now time to think about harvesting. If green weeds in the crop will hinder the harvesting process there are several herbicides labeled for pre-harvest weed control (refer to the 2008Weed Control Guide and the labels of approved products for additional details). Weed control with pre-harvest herbicides, however, is generally disappointing as weeds at this time are tall, nearing maturity and slow growing. Furthermore, green weeds can take a week or more to dry down even with an effective treatment.

Glyphosate, in addition to controlling weeds, is labeled for use in aiding the dry down of the crop itself (as opposed to controlling and drying down weeds in the crop).

Glyphosate is a systemic herbicide and takes from 7 to 10 days to effectively  kill the

growing parts of the crop, consequently an increased rate in dry down is not immediately visible. Traditionally, fields that had excessive green material were swathed. Swathing enables faster dry down than pre-harvest glyphosate if significant levels of green material are present in the crop. A standing crop that has been treated with glyphosate, however, will dry faster than a swathed field after a rain. When using glyphosate pre-harvest observe the following guidelines:

1. Apply glyphosate only after the crop has reached physiological maturity. For most varieties this occurs at a grain moisture content of about 30%. At this moisture content the grain is in the hard dough stage; if you run your thumb nail across the kernel, the indentation will remain. Applying glyphosate before physiological maturity can reduce yield, test weight and seed germination.

2. Because germination can be affected when applied too early, glyphosate should not be used in fields that will be used for seed or on barley intended for malt.

3. Pre-harvest applications of glyphosate must be made at least 7 days before harvest.

As with all agricultural chemicals, read and follow the label when using herbicides pre-harvest in small grains.

Impact of Drought Stress on Corn - 2008

Joel Ransom, Extension Agronomist - Cereal Crops

More than half of the state is now rated abnormally dry or drier by the US Drought Monitor (http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/DM_highplains.htm) and nearly a third of the state is under severe drought. Corn is one of the most water efficient crops grown in North Dakota. Nevertheless, it has a high water requirement because of its high yield potential and can be significantly impacted by drought. The impact of drought on corn growth and yield varies considerably depending on its timing and severity. Research has shown that there is little impact of drought on corn growth during early vegetative stages. During late vegetative development, however, short periods of drought stress (four days of sufficient stress to cause leaves to curl) during this growth stage can reduce yields by 5-10%. Currently most of the corn in North Dakota is in the 8 to 12 leaf stage. Kernels per cob are being set during this stage until just before silking, so drought stress now can impact the size of the cob. Drought stress during tassel emergence has the potential to reduce yields by 10 to 25%. The most sensitive period for drought stress in corn is during the period between silk emergence and the blister stage where yield losses between 40-50% can occur. Corn is most sensitive to drought during this stage because the male and female flowers are separated by a considerable distance and pollen and silks are sensitive to hot and dry conditions. When corn is severely stressed prior to flowering, silk growth is delayed and pollen shed will occur before the silks have emerged, resulting in barrenness. Silks can also dry before they are pollinated resulting in poor fertilization and missing kernels. Abortion of developing kernels is common, particularly towards the tip of the ears, with drought stress during early grain fill. Since the corn plant has the capacity to store considerable reserves in the stem, yield losses when drought stress is delayed until the dough stage usually are in the 20-30% range. These yield losses discussed above can be additive if stress occurs at more than one growth stage. With about half the growing season still ahead of us, the potential for yield losses due to drought appear to be quite high for a large part of the state unless we get some timely rains.

How is yield affected by late season drought stress?

During the first stage of stress, the upper leaves curl or roll towards the midrib during the hottest part of the day (see attached photo). If stress continues, premature leaf death begins at the bottom of the plant and proceeds upward. Leaf death is the first sign of permanent damage to the plant. With severe stress, the upper leaves roll so tightly that they appear like “onion leaves”. With less leaf area capable of photosynthesis, grain filling is slowed even while maturing at an accelerated pace.

Carbohydrates that had been stored in the stem earlier in the season are moved to the developing ear. Not surprisingly, drought stressed crops are more prone to lodging because of poor stalk health. There may be some kernel abortion in the tips of the ears, but for the most part, kernel numbers are not reduced significantly with late season drought. Yield losses will largely be due to reduced kernel size and reduction in test weight. The amount of reduction will be related to the amount of stress prior to harvest.

Additional Cost of Field Operations

Dwight Aakre, NDSU Extension Farm Management Specialist

Below is the updated the fuel cost spreadsheet. This spreadsheet calculates the additional cost of fuel for various field operations that should be added to the average custom rates. The last survey was 2007 and the approximate fuel price during that survey was $2.75 per gallon. The fuel price per gallon is a user input so if the prices listed don't go high enough, please visit the website listed and enter your fuel cost in one of the yellow highlighted columns.   The spreadsheet can be found at the bottom on the farm management web page at: www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/aginfo/farmmgmt/farmmgmt.htm