Kentucky wheat producers will learn more about how to cope with adverse economic conditions at a workshop January 7 at the University of Kentucky Research and Education Center in Princeton. The workshop is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. CST.

Educational sessions will include long- and short-term prospects for wheat production, update on head scab research, fungicide management, fertility for a wheat-soybean double crop system, aphid thresholds, managing weedy grasses, and storage practices to maintain high quality wheat.

The session on long-term prospects for wheat in Kentucky will include a discussion on the impact of the 1996 Farm Bill on profitable wheat production, according to Steve Riggins, Extension grain marketing specialist with the UK College of Agriculture. "Under the '96 Farm Bill producers no longer have guaranteed target prices, which had been in the four dollars a bushel range the past few years. Wheat prices will be affected to a greater extent by world market conditions," he said.

Another prospect is the importance of exports to profitable wheat production in Kentucky and the effect of the worldwide financial condition on agricultural exports and wheat in particular, according to Dick Trimble, Extension farm management specialist.

Producers will learn about the results of wheat head scab research from Dave Van Sanford, wheat breeder and geneticist. Van Sanford will give results from two years' evaluation of scab resistance among adapted soft red winter wheat varieties and elite breeding lines. He also will give an update on a regional wheat and barley scab initiative.

In another session, Tom Peeper, Extension weed specialist at Oklahoma State University will discuss managing weedy grasses in wheat and the effect of adverse economic conditions on these management practices.

Dewey Strickler, marketing associate with Bradford & Co., will address the near-term market outlook for wheat.

Other educational sessions by UK scientists are spring and summer fertility for a wheat-soybean double crop system, John Grove; fungicide management, Don Hershman; the current status of aphid thresholds, Doug Johnson, and maintaining high quality wheat through storage, Sam McNeill.

In other sessions, a farmer panel will discuss managing inputs such as factors affecting decisions on when to apply fungicides, herbicides and nitrogen in adverse economic conditions. Chris Bowley of Wheat Tech, Inc. and Phil Needham of Miles Opti-Crop will give crop consultants' perspectives on the current economic situation.

The wheat workshop also will have agribusiness displays and educational posters by members of the UK Wheat Science Group.

Author: Ellen Brightwell

Contact: Ellen Brightwell (606)-257-1376