Management considerations for excess rain

Wet Hay

Producers Chrissy Cook, Judith Basin County Extension Agent has put together some good thumb rules on wet hay and hay stacks.  It is crucial to check your hay stacks at this time. Stacks of large squares followed by small squares, and then rounds stacked in a pyramid formation at the highest risk. Removal of top bales may be necessary as well as moving stacks away from buildings and barns. When checking the stacks if you smell a tobacco/caramel smell, your hay is heating up, you will need to monitor the temperature. A simple probe can be made with a pipe a string and a thermometer.  Do not walk on top of the hay mass directly, place boards or planks on top and use a safety line, should the hay surface collapse into what is likely a fire pocket. A temperature above 175 degrees mean fire is imminent, do not move the bales and call the fire department.

Wet Grain

With the continued damp conditions, reports of sprouted grain have occurred. The closer the grain was to ripe, the easier it is to sprout. For spring wheat the easiest sprouters are in order: Conan, Hank, Duclair, Vida, Corbin, WB Gunn, and Mott. Other varieties would be considered harder to germinate. It is not necessary to see the radical of the seed to have the initiation of sprouting. The seed could have “swelled” enough changing the starch in the plant resulting in falling numbers. Falling numbers is a test that the elevator can make, where they grind a sample add water to it to make a past and then let a special probe fall through the mixture. It counts how long the probe takes to fall to the bottom of the mixture, thus falling numbers. Wheat should have more that 300 to be of good baking quality. Sprouted wheat would be around 150.

As far as diseases go, the main concerns are post‐ harvest grain quality and volunteer issues. Sooty mold will colonize wheat heads and can cause discoloration of the grain, a disorder known as ‘black point.’ There’s really nothing you can do to control it at this time. Producers should check their wheat for visual damages. Contact the elevator to see if they want a sample before they accept a load. Post-harvest should focus on elimination of volunteer wheat that can provide a green bridge for disease transmission.