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About Us
County Impact Statements - Logan County
Quick Response Program Treats Pests Before They Damage Crops
In 1999, wheat yields crashed. What happened was typical of the Arkansas
River Valley. Early maturing varieties planted the first week of October were
caught by heavy rains in April, which prevented good pollination. The solution
turned out to plant medium to late instead of early maturing varieties. The 34
bushel difference between early and late varieties would have added $238,680 to
wheat sales in 1999.
In 2000, striped rust was a major disease outbreak in wheat. It was an
intense 18 days of scouting and treatment. In the end, 2200 acres of wheat were
treated with Tilt Fungicide, 500 acres were not. Untreated acres suffered a 50%
yield loss. Treated acres came out $70.65 ahead of non treated acres. The total
value of wheat saved was $182,563.
The drought of 1998 set up the potential for aflatoxin in corn. Elevators
were testing and refusing to purchase suspect corn. Contaminated corn fell from
$2.19 a bushel to $1 a bushel. Abe Willems secured Elisa test for aflatoxin from
the State Farm Bureau office. Extension Agent, Larry Campbell, screened corn
samples for producers at Farmers Coop in Subiaco. Any positive test samples were
then sent to the State Plant Board lab in Little Rock for further testing. As a
result, all the corn was proven safe and able to be marketed through normal
channels at full market price. This program avoided $70,000 in possible price
discount.
Extension Wheat Specialist, William Johnson checks the progress
of the current wheat crop with Mike and Kenny Schluterman.
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Impacts
- High yield wheat varieties were selected for later maturity.
- In the last 4 years, we’ve treated wheat for army worms twice.
- Garden web worms destroyed 600 acres of full season soybeans before
spraying stopped further losses.
- Lesser corn stalk borers in double cropped soybeans caused producers to
change field production practices.
- The Quick Response program allows producers to adjust quickly to
problems and maintain high yields.
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