- [Narrator] Montana Ag

Live is made possible by

The Montana Department

of Agriculture.

The MSU Extension Service.

The MSU Ag Experiment

Stations of the

College of Agriculture.

The Montana Wheat

and Barley Committee.

The Montana Bankers Association.

Cashman Nursery and Landscaping.

And the Gallatin Gardeners Club.

(cow mooing)

(country music)

♪ If your herbicides

and fungicides

♪ And pesticides are old

♪ The veggies you are growing

♪ In your garden start to mold

♪ If the ants are attacking

♪ And you're having a hard time

♪ Call Montana Ag Live

♪ Knapweed in the ditch

♪ And the old bull's got an itch

♪ Ticks upon my sheep

♪ And the wool is really cheap

♪ The gophers in the pasture

♪ Are even worse than last year

♪ Montana Ag Live

where are you ♪

(country music)

- Good evening.

Welcome to Montana Ag Live

originating tonight

from the studios of KUSM

on the campus of Montana

State University.

And before I go any

farther along tonight

I'd like to wish everybody

out there a Happy Mother's Day

especially all you mothers.

I can't let that pass,

or I'd be in big trouble.

Okay, with that I'm

going to go ahead

and introduce the panel.

You know the routine.

If you have questions, pertinent

to the panel this evening

please phone them in.

The phone number will be

on the screen and the more

questions you ask, the

better off we are in here.

I'm going to start the

introduction tonight

with an old friend.

On the far left,

Hayden Ferguson.

Hayden has moderated

this program for years

lots of years, actually.

And he is here tonight

as a soil scientist.

So if you have fertilizer

questions, soil questions,

potting questions

for your garden pots

tonight would be a good

night to ask those questions

because Hayden can

definitely answer.

Our special guest tonight

is Jeff Littlefield.

Jeff is a biocontrol expert,

and has one of the best

biocontrol programs for weeds

going in the United States.

So Jeff, we're happy

to have you here.

Barry Jacobsen would

be sitting next to him.

Barry is a plant pathologist,

he's also associative dean

at the College of Agriculture.

But he's here as a plant

pathologist this evening.

Y'all recognize Laurie.

She always has a great smile

on her face, Laurie Kerzicnik.

Love you have you,

she's our entomologist.

And she'll be happy to

answer any entomology

or bug questions this evening.

The phone operators,

who will be taking your

calls this evening.

From the left is Barbara Shaw.

And in the middle is Judge

Bruce Lobel back again

as a phone operator, thanks

for being here judge.

And Sheryl Moregoff.

So with that, let's start

off with asking Jeff

to tell us a little

bit about what you do

in Montana State University.

- Well Jack, I think I'm

a Jack of all trades.

(laughing)

You know I do

a little of everything.

I the quarantine lab, I

guess the payment laboratory

for biocontrol.

Very kind of a specialized

containment lab

that's probably only maybe

30 such labs in across

the United States.

And, we work primarily with

biological control with weeds.

But sometimes we do

bring in plant pests

to work on, as well.

So my function is to

maintain the facility

then for testing

biocontrol agents we see

what they feed on,

how specific they are,

what sort of impact they have.

Once we have a suitable

agent we run them through

the regulatory process then we

bring them in to quarantine,

bump up the numbers for field

release, redistribute them

across the state.

Then do research to see

how effective they are.

So kind of a little of

entomology, a little botany,

a little bit of plant

pathology at times.

- And over the past

15, 20, 30 years

that I've been around here,

Hayden's been around here.

Barry you're a youngster,

you might have been here 15.

We've seen a big

improvement in the amount

of biocontrol agents

that we have available

to control weeds,

is that correct?

- Yes, I think that

when I first got here

leafy spurge and spotted

knapweed were the big programs.

There was kind of a

lag time there where we

started to bring in new insects.

And now we're starting

to put out agents for

hawkweed,

tote flags, Russian knapweed.

Then we have agents

in the pipeline.

(crosstalk)

- I'd like to ask

you a question.

- Okay.

- 100 or so years ago

I interviewed at a

place called Deep Creek.

(laughs)

- [Jeff] Yes.

- In Maryland.

Which was an army

research center

dealing with issues of

using biocontrol of

good plants

to defeat some

bad group of people.

In theory.

- Yep.

- Do you interact with them?

And has any of that kind

of information transferred

into the kind of things you do?

- Yes well they're not

doing any germ warfare now.

(laughing)

But there is a specialized

laboratory for plant pathology.

And they have been working

on a number of plant

pathogens for weed control.

And over the last couple

years, they've actually

partitioned several

agents for release.

They have one agent

for yellowstar thistle.

Common (mumbling).

And Russian thistle.

- [Jack] Okay.

- So.

- Appreciate the

answer, thank you.

Hayden, from Belt,

this came in last week.

Is it important to fertilize

a lawn in the spring?

I don't want to.

(crosstalk)

- Now that's a personal

question because

if I were to fertilize my

lawn like two weeks ago

I couldn't keep my mowing

machine sharp enough to do it.

So what I do is wait

until things cool off

in terms of rainfall and growth

and then I fertilize.

Now, is that, do I have

a totally green lawn

early in the spring?

No.

(laughs)

Do I care?

(laughs)

My mow machine works better.

(laughing)

- [Jack] That's a

good point Hayden.

If you fertilize too

early you could pasture

with a lot of sheep

and never keep up.

(laughs)

Okay, thank you.

Barry, from Cows Bell, this

person called in last week.

It's a little out of your

area of expertise but you

could probably answer this.

This person is concerned

about the anticoagulant

properties of

yellow sweet clover.

If it's used as a cover crop.

Is this a real concern

for a beef producer

if they pasture that cover crop?

- Well they produce a

compound called (mumbling).

And when molds start

to attack that hay

it's only the moldy sweet

clover hay that's a problem.

It forms an anticoagulant

compound in there, (mumbling).

And it's you'll only see

it as a problem if you

feed it long-term more than

seven to 10 days in a row.

And that's exclusive feed.

So is the dose that

makes the poison.

- Exactly.

- [Barry] And there are

varieties of sweet clover

that don't produce this

compound for very high levels.

One of them is polar.

So I would say it's not going

to be a serious problem.

Avoid feeding moldy

sweet clover in hay.

- [Jack] Exactly.

- That's all you have

to worry about.

- Thank you.

- Laurie, from Bowsman.

This came in again last week.

This person has about a dozen

ant hills, many of which

are burrowing their way

into the irrigation ditch.

On his property.

Is there a non-toxic

control measure for ants?

- Well I mean I think a

lot of people will turn

to boric acid to treat ants.

Or I think one of the least

toxic methods you could use is

(mumbling) Earth.

And it's a dust formulation,

it's very affordable.

And especially if you know

where the ant hills are

that's usually the

challenge with ants.

You could put the

(mumbling) Earth on

and it will end up

smothering the ants

and won't be as toxic as

some of the other methods

that are available.

- One of our previous

entomologists here

recommended feeding them yeast.

- [Laurie] Oh.

- Because when the yeast

expands, the ants blow up.

(laughs)

Now I don't know

if that's actually.

- [Laurie] That sounds

like a fun thing to test out.

(laughing)

- [Jack] Well I just thought

I'd bring it up because

that was mentioned years ago.

Okay.

- [Hayden] Sweet clover

was used utilized

as a big time hay crop

that fed the dairy cows

and that was their

exclusive food.

- [Barry] Yeah.

They died right and left.

- [Barry] Yeah

- But it's not

an issue today.

- [Barry] No.

It's not an issue today.

- [Jack] Okay,

Jeff, from Bowsman.

This person is thinking of

starting a milk weed garden

for monarch butterflies.

We all know that monarchs are

kind of in a decline phase.

Any suggestions for

this individual?

- Well maybe Laurie

can help me out.

First of all, I'm not sure if

have you ever seen any

monarchs in Bowsman?

- I hardly ever get

any butterfly samples.

But I get questions about them.

So I'm not sure what

their population is

and how much milk weed

we have around the state.

- [Jeff] There's quite

a bit of milk weed

over in the Billings area.

Probably a little

bit around Bowsman

probably not a whole lot.

For planting it, I would suggest

planting native milk weed rather

than more tropical things.

And providing some other

plants for nectar sources.

I really have some questions

whether you will attract

any monarch butterflies

to the Bowsman area.

I haven't seen any

in and I'm not sure

the last one I saw

in Montana at all.

- [Barry] We're not really

in a major migration routes.

- No, we're kind of

at the edge of the

probably what little

there is for migration.

So if you're interested

in butterflies I would

probably go with a

more diverse planting.

- [Barry] Yes.

- Of flowers

or even some other things

to attract native bees.

- [Jack] Okay, Barry.

This is an interesting

question and I've read

quite a little bit about this.

It's from Great Falls.

And he's heard that planting

intentions indicate that

we're going to have over

200,000 acres of chickpeas.

Is that a concern to you?

- Yeah, the two reasons.

A lot of our field crops

we really don't

have any diseases

that we absolutely have

to use fungicides for.

Sometimes we have to but

in the case of chickpeas,

especially the large seeded

or (mumbling) types, there's

a disease called Ascochyta.

And one of the key

controls for this

is disease free seed.

And there's no way in

the world we had enough

disease free seed to

plant 200,00 acres.

So we're going to plant

some diseased stuff.

And we have a lot of new growers

and they don't realize

that you've got to get out

and scout for this.

And you have to use fungicides

for control of this.

Now the small seeded

chickpeas or (mumbling)

are less susceptible

although it can still

be a serious disease.

And some of the newer varieties

do have some resistance.

But I foresee some

real wrecks Jack.

- I've seen those in the past.

So, you nailed it.

You need to really watch

that crop day in and day out.

And watch the fungicides,

a lot of the fungicides

we used to use are now.

- [Barry] Well any of the

Headline of that quadrants

they don't work anymore.

Right now I talked

to Mary Burrows

Headline is not effective, but

Preaxor is still effective.

Which has got Headline's

component Bravo.

But this is a difficult

disease to control.

So if you start seeing little

tan spots on the leaves

and you're serious about

what you've got invested

and you've got a high seed cost.

- [Jack] Yo do.

- You really need

to think about a

fungicide program.

- Potential for

high profitability.

But it's a management

issue with (mumbling)

- [Barry] Clearly.

- I assume my knowledge about

growing those things

is infinitely small.

Are they related to legumes?

- [Barry] Yes.

- They are a legume?

- [Barry] Yeah.

- The legume for run of

the galloot is valley peas.

- [Barry] Yeah.

- With diseases.

- [Barry] Yeah.

- Does that disease transfer

to other?

- Not to the chickpeas.

But we've gone in

this state from

probably Jack when you

retired we had maybe

70,000 acres of peas,

something like that?

Last year we were over

600, 700,000 acres.

With any of these pulse

crops, peas, lentils,

chickpeas, beans, if you

don't practice long rotations

three or four years, the

root diseases are gonna

drive you out of business.

That's just the fact of life.

- [Jack] You're

absolutely right.

Jeff, from Innsdale,

for biological control

of orange hawkweed, what

type of habitat is needed?

And what are the best

practices to benefit

those biological controls?

- We've been putting

out a gall wire

for orange hawkweed.

And unfortunately we

haven't established it

on orange hawkweed.

Even though it's a laboratory

host it doesn't seem

to be a good field host.

Up in Canada they

have the same agent

established on a closely

related species

whiplash hawkweed

it seems to be a

little better host.

They have recovered

it on orange hawkweed

but at very low levels.

So I'm not sure

right now it doesn't

look too promising.

- [Jack] Okay.

- However we do

have a new agent that

we hope to release

probably next year,

or the following year

that attacks a variety

of invasive hawkweeds.

- Appreciate it.

Laurie, from Billings.

They have some young

plains cottonwoods

with thousands of

tiny black bugs

about the size of ants.

What do you think they are,

and are they hurting the trees?

- And you can guess at that one.

- Yeah, those are

probably aphids.

They could either be

aphids without wings

or aphids with wings.

And that would probably

be the most likely thing

that would be on

the trees right now.

And most aphids are

controlled by natural enemies.

And especially with all

these rains coming in

I think that we could

maybe it will take

care of a lot of the

aphid populations

we've just seen them recently.

I try to steer people

away from doing a lot of

treatments for

aphids because if you

take care of the natural enemies

you might just have a

secondary pest infestation.

- All right, thank you.

Hayden, this person from

Havern wants to know

what causes dark green spots

in their winter wheat fields?

- Well if you drive around

this part of the world

especially in northern Idaho

you look at a winter wheat

field and there will be

a whole series of

spots about this big

out in that field

that are dark green.

Now what you know about that

is the cows stop there.

(laughing)

- I would have

guessed that Hayden.

(laughing)

- And you don't need

the soil to disc

if you have that kind

of thing on your farm.

You need some

nitrogen management.

- [Jack] Exactly.

From Bowsman.

Interesting, if you

live around Bowsman

you know we are inundated

with plenty of dandelions.

And this person

would like to know

is there any biocontrol

for dandelions?

- As a matter of fact there is.

- Oh, I didn't know that.

- There's a very good

I think it's called Setorra

or something like that.

It's a (mumbling) minor

which will not

produce Sclerotia.

But they put it on and

the Sclerotinia attacks

dandelions and any broad leaf.

And it works very very well

in over winter, go

to any of our crops.

And that's a very very

nice biological control

Disease-wise there might

be an insect or two.

- There's no insects from here.

Is that a commercial product?

- Yes, yes.

- [Laurie] Deer are too.

I've watched all the

deer eat all the heads

off my dandelions.

Why do I even have

to treat them?

(laughing)

- They do other things Laurie.

- Yeah.

(laughing)

- This I think

it's white mold

control for dandelions.

I'm sure if somebody Googles it

they can find the

name of that product.

It's a Canadian product,

but it does work very well.

- I bet it's a little

pricier than your standard.

- [Barry] It's more

expensive than 240, yes.

- Yeah, okay.

Jeff, what's that dead

plant you've got there?

- Well I told you I was

a jack of all trades.

And currently I'm a bug sucker.

So what I have here

is Russian knapweed.

And what you see here

are what the biocontrol

agents that we're releasing

and moving around the state.

And this is a Cynipid wasp.

A Cynipid wasp people

are really concerned

do they sting.

- [Jack] Yeah.

- [Jeff] And they don't.

What they do is they lay

their eggs in the plant

the larvae hatch out

and cause these skulls

that you see here on the plant.

And I get my coordination here.

And they kind of stunt

the plant a little bit.

And what we're hoping to

see that some long-term

impacts with reduced

plant density and

reduced flowering.

In some of our sites

we've had this out for

about nine years now.

And not even nine years

and maybe we're just

starting to see some impact

on some of our populations.

You can kind of

see here the plant

kind of compensates

a little bit.

So even putting these out about

about 10 to 20 sites

now across the state.

- [Hayden] Are those

bugs elective in the type

of weed that they eat?

- [Jeff] These are very

specific to Russian knapweed.

- They don't, how

about the others?

- [Jeff] Even though

it's called knapweed

it's a lot different

than spotted knapweed

or diffused knapweed.

And completely different

set of insects that

that attack it.

So Russian knapweed,

Asian small tag.

Spotted knapweed, spotted

knapweed agents won't attack

a Russian knapweed.

This is one agent that

we're putting out.

The other one is

a small (mumbling)

that attacks the

tips of the plant.

And that has

multiple generations.

- [Barry] I think Jeff,

Hayden just brought up

something that you spent

a lot of your time on

as we import some of these

biological control agents

from overseas, you have

to make sure they don't

attack our crops.

- Yes, it depends on.

- A lot off the

work that Jeff does.

- And some of that

work is done overseas

by a co-operators.

- [Jack] On that note we

had a questions come in

from out in Gateway.

And they have a small

patch of leafy spurge.

Would it be better to spray it?

Or would it be better to

use a biocontrol agent?

- One thing I found

over the years

what people consider a small

batch is quite variable.

Sometimes a small batch

is just a few plants.

Sometimes it's much

bigger infestation.

If it's a really

small infestation

my suggestion would be

to probably just spray it

if you don't have

anything else in the area.

The small infestations,

the roots haven't

been established very

well, in leafy spurge

they go down quite deep

and quite extensive root system.

So if you can get that

early before the roots

really become established

that is probably the

better than biocontrol.

- Who is the best person

for someone to contact?

I get a lot of calls

from extension agents

in the community, they want to

release the agents or want

to know who to contact.

Is there a lot of them,

or some of your agents

available though the state

that they could, I mean.

- There's a variety

of sources for agents.

You can buy some of

them commercially.

Some of the newer ones,

I'm always looking

for research sites.

Over in Missoula County

Melissa Mageo Cassner

is the biocontrol coordinator.

Every winter she puts

out a request list

for mostly state

and county people.

- Okay.

- Wheat suppliers

requesting that might

have a request for

biocontrol agents.

- [Laurie] Oh great.

- There's also school groups

that produce biocontrol agents.

And will give them out.

- [Laurie] Okay.

- [Jack] Barry, on a related

topic from Three Forks.

I kind of have to agree

with this question.

They have seen a

lot of advertisement

and a lot of

information crossing

their magazines, Ag

magazines talking about

biostimulants.

Are these bathtub brews,

or are they actually

some good biostimulants

out there?

What is a biostimulant?

- Well, there are bacterias

that colonize roots

and sometimes they

get insides of plants

that produce some of

the plant hormones

that cause things

to grow faster.

More importantly they're

probably very very important

(mumbling) both

phosphorous and potassium.

So there are legitimate

things, I would have said

20 years ago we

had a lot of things

that were probably witches

brews of some sort.

Today we've really got some

actual products out there

that work as advertised.

They can be applied as seed

treatments, most of them.

You got to remember with

anything when you're

dealing with biocontrol,

you're dealing with

living things.

- [Jack] Right.

- So you've got to take

care of your (mumbling).

It's just like the

(mumbling) we put on

(mumbling) for example.

If it's dead it's not

gonna fix nitrogen.

- [Jack] Most of what I've

read about the biostimulants

in the magazines and so forth

are geared towards

row crops more than

wheat or pulse

crops, is that true?

- No, no.

- [Jack] Okay.

- We've actually gotten

some pretty good materials

coming down the road.

This is one of the

reasons we actually

at the Central Agricultural

Research Station

Judd Eberly is a new scientist.

And he's applied

so much (mumbling)

It's his job to actually

find out how these

things will work in Montana.

On what crops, and how

to use them the best way.

Do they actually

help in water uptake.

Phosphorous

solubization, potassium,

plant hormones.

So that's gonna be

his area of study.

- [Jack] Good.

Laurie, from Bowsman.

This person's neighbors

cottonwood tree is dropping

tons of sticky leaf buds.

The dogs get them

stuck in their fur

and bring them inside.

The cat licks them off her fur.

Are they toxic?

Or what do you

think that might be?

- I think that might

be another aphid issue.

So if it's if you

got some aphids

aphids release honeydew,

and that's the sticky stuff

that's coming off the leaves.

So, it's not toxic.

It is a little bit of a

nuisance and sometimes

can attract sitting molds.

- [Jack] That's true.

- And it's sometimes

on sidewalks it can turn black

and from the sitting mold.

- [Jack] You don't want to park

your car under those trees.

- No (laughs) no.

- Hayden, why is

phosphorous deficiency

more of an issue

in eastern Montana?

And this question actually

came in from Mile City.

- Well for one thing,

phosphorous is generally

tied up to a very high

degree with calcium.

And the eastern Montana

soils are loaded

with calcium.

So it's a very slow

release process.

Now if you analyzed

some of that soil

and really analyzed it

completely you'd find

enough phosphorous to fertilize

half of the Gallatin Valley.

But it ain't

available to plants.

So the

calcium issue in eastern Montana

is a bigger factor in

phosphorous availability

than the actual amount of

phosphorous that's there.

- This is ties back

into the biostimulant.

If you can get some good

root colonizing bacteria

that actually start

to disassociate

the calcium and phosphorus

makes it available to the plant.

And this is a huge

area of research

with tremendous

economic implications.

- Yeah yeah.

I didn't know it was going on

but it makes total sense

if you could make it work

in any place that

is dominated with

the kind of rock

that's east of Bowsman

is gonna be short

of phosphorous.

- [Barry] Yeah.

- You know Hayden

I've always been

told that phosphorous

to be available to

a plant has to be

incorporated in the soil.

And a lot of people put

nitrogen phosphorous from

potassium on their lawn

and they just sprinkle

it over the top.

Is that phosphorous

ever available to?

- [Hayden] Oh yeah

some of it is.

Let me tell you a story about.

- Uh oh I shouldn't have asked.

(laughing)

- A long time ago my dad decided

he would plant a

lot of potatoes.

Along came a county agent

who was an icon in

this part of the world.

And my brother and

I were walking along

throwing a spoonful of

treble super phosphate

on each seed potato.

And the county agent said,

"I think that's gonna

"burn the potato.

"So plant it a couple of three

inches away from that seed."

Okay, we harvested

those things next fall

where we put the

phosphorous on the seed

the potatoes were this big.

Where we put it several

inches from the seed

you could stuff it in that cup.

Phosphorous does not

move readily in soils.

The roots have to go get it.

- Good story Hayden.

(laughs)

And I have heard this before.

Jeff, from (mumbling),

what establishes

a biological control

for one of my

all-time least favorite

weeds, houndstongue?

- Houndstongue.

Hmmm, that is a sticky

(laughs)

question biocontrol-wise.

There's one agent

that attacks the

developing seeds

that will probably be

petitioned for a field release

in another year.

That's very host specific agent.

The other agent is an agent

that had been approved

up in Canada, but not

approved down in the U.S.

because of a possible

non-target impacts

on other native (mumbling).

However, that agent has

moved over the border.

And established in Montana.

So the question now is

whether or not to move

it around the state

and which we're not recommending

until we get some

additional information

about what sort of

impact it might have

or it might not have

on native plants.

Right now it looks like they

have very little impact.

And that we can

petition for release.

So technically you

cannot move that agent

across state lines

without being penalized.

We're not recommending

that be moved within state.

Up in Canada it is a good agent.

- [Jack] Barry.

- Now when (mumbling)

was in my lab

and I had a lab did a lot

of biological control work.

She had a bacterium (mumbling)

common leaf occurring thing.

And it worked quite

well on houndstongue

that were out in the full sun.

If they were in partial sun

it didn't work so well.

And there are a lot

of, it had worked well

enough people said you

should commercialize that.

Well you had something

for one single plant

and it's to get through

all the EPA labeling

and everything like that

is just too much for

just that single use.

But there are some other

biological controls

I've seen houndstongue

dying from

what I think is a

(mumbling) wilt.

So they are attacked

by other things.

- [Jack] A day where I

run around with the dogs

most of the houndstongue

is pretty active.

- [Barry] Well Jack,

that's why I've got

the German shorthairs.

(laughing)

- [Jack] Yeah the

goldens do have an issue

with weeds, I agree

with you there.

Laurie, from Missoula.

This person has brown beetles

and grubs in their garden.

Will they hurt the vegetables?

- At this time of year

that maybe there is

May June beetles.

And they're more of a

issue with turf grass.

And I actually would

check your turf grass

and in the turf grass

they're called white grubs.

And they spend most of

their time under the soil.

They can potentially

cause some damage

in your garden.

But it's they're more of a

nuisance in the turf grass

and then more of a nuisance

they come to your porch lights

kind of in a couple weeks here.

So not much of a problem.

- I actually rototilled a

patch of garden last week

and I saw some cut

worms in the garden.

- [Laurie] Oh really.

- So that could be what

those grubs look like.

Probably the army cut

worms, I would assume?

- Yeah the grubs for

the May June beetles

are white and they're C-shaped.

But there are the

army cut worms are

have a little bit of striping

and a little bit different.

- [Jack] I've seen

cut worms in gardens

go to town on a lot

of different plants.

- Oh yeah.

- If they really

want to know for sure

they could send you some.

- [Laurie] They could

send me the grub.

- (laughs) Okay.

- Or the immature.

- [Jack] All right.

Barry, question came in

I think it was from

Highsham last week.

They say they had

lesions on spring wheat.

It headed out and didn't

produce any berries

on the variety vita, which

is a very popular variety

in the state.

Any thought what

might have caused that

without seeing it?

- Yeah without seeing

it it's difficult.

It is in low areas I

might suspect frost.

We did have some frost

lat year, right near

heading time.

It could be a headlight or scab.

Another one that they

talked about lesions

if they had kind of

diamond shaped lesions

down on the lower

part of the stem

this could be (mumbling)

sharp eye spot.

And actually I have seen that

not very far from Highsham.

A good friend of mine

had some on his farm

and we got him changed

up on seed treatment.

And that took care of it.

- [Jack] All right thanks Barry.

From Hindsdale, Jeff, is

there any biological control

available for field bind wheat?

- [Jeff] For field bind

wheat we were working with

a gall mite back

in the mid '90's.

The mite attacks the

leaves causing it to fold

and to curl up.

And under heavy populations

it really stunts the plant

so your bind wheat

plant just comes up

and it's just kind of a

knotted mass of gall material.

That was fairly widespread

in eastern Montana.

But maybe about eight

years ago we had that

100 year flood where we had

a very very wet spring.

That seemed to knock

the population back

and it really hasn't

rebounded very well.

So the mite does well

in dry open areas.

But it's very inconsistent.

As you go south into

Colorado, or even down Texas

it seems to be more effective.

Another agent was a

moth, a defoliating moth

that we put out.

Established also down

in Colorado and Idaho

but not in Montana.

And that has

question about that.

- That is a tough

wheat to control.

- Oh yeah.

- They are looking

for additional agents

and I think there's

dust and mining lye

that they're considering.

- [Jack] Okay.

- In Europe.

- [Jack] Hayden,

standard question

comes in every spring.

They need to know how

much nitrogen is required

to get a bushel of spring wheat

and/or winter wheat?

Do you want to get that one?

- A little more for

winter wheat only because

you probably have

more water available.

But, it takes about

100 pounds of N

wherever the source of the N is

for a 40 bushel crop

of wheat, winter wheat.

And it takes a little

more than that actually

so it would be a

little more careful

with that.

And probably because the

water ratio with spring wheat

you might get by with less.

But that's questionable.

And it may not be

questionable though with

what's the cost

of nitrogen today?

- [Jack] I'm not sure this year.

- 30 cents a pound?

- [Barry] No I'm gonna guess

a little higher than that.

- It was 23 when I

was dealing with it.

- Yeah.

- You're doubling the

cost of your input there

so be a bit careful with that.

- [Jack] On that note, for

winter wheat producers,

spring wheat producers,

most people do a pretty good

job in today's

world to fertilize.

- [Hayden] Yeah.

- And that was not

the case 30 years ago.

There was a lot of

people who did not use

a lot of fertilizer.

Let's change the subject a

little bit and go to lawns.

How much nitrogen would you use

on 1,000 square feet of lawn?

- Well, any more

I tell the lady who sprays it

to put on whatever the

extents and service recommends.

- [Jack] (laughs) Okay.

You know I probably

under-fertilize my yard.

But then again, I don't run my.

- [Hayden] Most

people over-fertilize.

- That's true.

- [Hayden] And then

they over-water.

And nitrogen is

extremely moldable

because it's NIN.

Most of the nitrogen

is, it's an NIN.

And if you want to kill

your neighbors cows

with nitrate poisoning,

that's probably

a good way to do it.

- [Jack] (laughs) Okay.

Laurie, a comment from Plains

on using yeast on the ants.

This person says yeast

packets work on sugar ants.

Was there such a

thing as sugar ants?

- I don't know what,

yeah I'm not sure.

- [Jack] What they do

is they use a packet

at the entry point

into the house

and replenish until

the ants stop.

This will eliminate the problem.

- Give them another source?

- Yeah.

- Yeah yeah.

Laurie, I want to have

you up from Manhattan.

This question

concerns dandelions.

Some say they are the

most important plant

for maintaining honey

bee populations.

What are your thoughts on that?

- [Laurie] They are

one of the earliest

things out there for

that are blooming.

So they're very important for

if you do start a honey

bee colony that's one of

the things that they

suggest is make sure that

you have a good pollen

source right away.

And early on, and if you

can put your honey bees

somewhere where you

have some dandelions

then yeah, it's

they're important.

- [Jack] There's no

shortage of dandelions

in the Gallatin County.

- Yeah not at all.

Yeah.

- And they're really

attractive, I think.

- [Laurie] Yeah, early season.

- They are.

- [Laurie] Yeah.

Barry, this probably

came in last week

and we didn't get to it on

the organic program we had.

But this person would

like to know what is new

in organic research at MSU?

- Well I think MSU

has had a long-term

interest in organic

related research.

Certainly Jeff Littlefield's lab

using biocontrol

for noxious weeds.

We've had a lot of

efforts in disease

and other insect control

with biological agents.

Certainly we can, one of

the things we're always

studying is what

are the mechanisms

for the biological suppression

of any of our pests.

Our breeding programs,

particularly in our cereal crops

breeding for disease

resistance, that's

organic-related work.

Doing a lot of work now

in cropping systems.

And I think the Ag

Experiment Station

we look at biological systems

and try to understand them.

And I think from that

work the organic producer

gets very good information

but as well as our

traditional agriculture.

So we have relatively little

work that just focuses

strictly on organic agriculture.

I might say that the

we've done some really

revolutionary work in

the area of cover crops.

To use manual crop

plannings for hay

and whatnot.

And I think these are gonna

play a real important role

in Montana agriculture

from more of the organic

perspective perhaps

long-term in getting

organic matter up

and proving water infiltration,

things of that nature.

- You know, you

mention organic matter.

We got one of our

experts on that.

It's my impression that

over the last 20, 25 years

statewide, the organic

content of our soils

has actually increased

significantly.

Would you agree with

that, Hayden or Barry?

- [Barry] I think no

till has had a tremendous

impact on that.

Although Jack, it's still not

back where it needs to be.

One of the things that's

very impressive to me

is up at the northern Ag

Research Station in Havern

we've got native

prairie up there.

That native prairie's

got an organic matter

levels five, three, five,

five and a half percent.

- [Laurie] Wow.

- Where we've cropped

there for 100

years, the research

we're down to one percent,

one and a half percent.

- [Hayden] THat's right.

- And you know

a lot of our guys that

have gone to no till

we're starting to see that

two, two and a half percent

we're coming back up,

but it takes a long time.

- [Jeff] It does.

- All right, thank you.

Jeff, from Livingston.

This person would like

to know, are there any

biocontrols for bell flower?

And I'm not sure

what bell flower is.

- [Jeff] No.

- Okay.

- Sometimes.

- Not that I'm aware

of, anyway.

- All right.

And the other one that we

have, have you ever heard of

minors candle or mullen?

And are there any biological

controls for those?

- [Jeff] For mullen

there is a weavel

that accidentally

got introduced that

attacks the flower heads.

It is established in the state.

Unfortunately it doesn't

build up high enough

populations to impact

the seed production.

It has a lot of seeds

and that mullens produce

and the weavels just

can't keep up with that.

- Mullen is a tough

bugger to control period.

There's no doubt about that.

And I'll save that because

Jane's gonna be around

and she might have

some suggestions

on which herbicides

would work best for that.

- Getting back to

your last question

that me and Jeff just said no.

Just like our crop

plants, or our ornamentals

all plants are

attacked by things.

And it's just understanding

how we can manipulate

the environment or

manipulate the populations

of these agents.

So there are biocontrols

they're just not

commercial biocontrols.

- I was going to ask Jeff

if the tell us about outstanding

biocontrol systems

that are documented

and have made a huge difference,

huge, a big difference

in the growth of

some obnoxious plant.

- There's probably

several examples.

One that may relate to

Montana is Tansy ragwort.

We do have Tansy ragwort

in the state up in

the northwest corner.

That was a big biocontrol

project in western Washington,

and Oregon, and

northern California.

They had several

agents center bar moth

and a three beetle

that they introduced.

And it was very effective

in reducing Tansy ragwort.

Tansy ragwort is also

poisonous to livestock cattle.

We've introduced some

of the same agents

in northwest Montana and

they've been equally effective.

We've brought in a different

strain of the flea beetle

that is more cold hearty that

seems to be doing quite well.

The center bar moth

is really doing well

up in northern Montana.

So, that would probably

be an example of

a really important

biocontrol agent

that's been effective

across regions.

Rather than just localized.

- Right.

Has there been a release

of a particular bug

that is dessimated

the particular weed?

- [Jeff] Usually

biocontrol the insects

kind of leave a few

weeks behind.

- Yeah they have to

if they want to eat wheat.

- Although some of

my ragwort agents

actually will eliminate the

weed from a particular area.

But eventually the

seeds might germinate

and they come back.

Let's see

some of the agents

on St John's Worts

can be very effective

in reducing the populations

down to low levels.

But they have a kind

of up and down cycles

where the

we target weeds

start to increase the

biocontrol agents eventually

catch us up with it

to make an impact to make

the population crash.

With that system it's kind

of a long up and down cycle

maybe like 10 years.

For something like.

- Barry would agree

that the lack of a dramatic

control

is more reason to work

hard on it, than not.

- Yeah.

- We can't

stop working on biocontrol.

- No.

You know one of the things

I was gonna mention Jeff

in sites we know the

flea beetle won't spurge.

When I first came

here 25 years ago

almost 26 years ago

the Story Hills were

just covered with spurge.

And there's still

some spurge there

but not like it was.

What's your impression of?

- Well at least up there

there has been some

chemical treatments, as well.

So it's not entirely biocontrol.

Leafy spurge has been pretty

effective in some habitats.

The flea beetles tend to be

somewhat habitat specific

sometimes.

And it's one of those

systems where it

can benefit from

an integration of

other management techniques.

Especially grazing with sheep

you go in there, thin

out the leafy spurge

the flea beetles seem to

be doing a lot better.

Same way with chemical control.

The combination of

simple techniques

that can benefit biocontrol now.

- The sheep are

biocontrol agents.

- Well they are.

(laughing)

They are kind of biocontrol.

- [Jack] And they

taste good too.

(laughs)

- From Stephensville, is

there a way to get rid of

crab grass in the lawn,

and the answer is no.

The only way you can

do it is take a glove

and Round Up, and

that's a lot of work.

- It sounds like it.

- From Cut Bay, Hayden

does the use of chemical

fertilizers accelerate

the decomposition of

organic matter in the soil?

- Well it might if it's

supplied a nutrient

that the bugs couldn't

get on their own there.

But I would guess

that proper fertilizer

management at Cut Bay

would have a positive

effect on organic matter

unless you burned it.

Then, then none

fertilizer management.

So I think that the

increase we may be seeing

in organic matter

smally

is probably more associated with

good management than it

is with anything else.

- [Jack] I would agree

entirely with that Hayden.

Laurie, from Bowsman.

They have a bunch

of holes on the side

of their pine tree.

Dozens all over the

trunks and branches,

is this an insect?

- If it's in a patterned

form, and not just a couple

holes here or there, it's

likely is sapsucker damage.

And I have a lot of sapsucker

damage on my pine trees

and several other trees.

And there's not much

you can do about it

except try to deter

the birds in some way.

And you can use some

flashy tape or something

of that sort but are

they protected so you

can't get rid of the birds.

It's they're taking

the sap out of the tree

they're not boring it

and looking for insects.

So they're not, if you have

dozens it could potentially

threaten the health

of your tree.

But just try to

get the birds away.

- Yeah.

I have seen a lot of

sapsucker damage around,

there's no doubt about that.

- Yeah, me too.

- From Clancy, Jeff, is

there any biological control

agents for poison ivy?

And is poison ivy a

big issue in Montana?

- If you run into it, yes.

(laughing)

There are patches of poison ivy.

To my knowledge, there's

no bioocontrol agents that.

Barry do you happen

to know if there's any

any sort of pathogens

that they have used?

- I'm sure there are

insects and plant pathogens

that attack poison ivy.

We just don't have really

studied them, I think.

- [Jeff] Right.

And typical most native plants

we don't do a lot of

biocontrol work on

because of

yeah, they're native.

- You know it's interesting

and maybe somebody

can explain this.

I've been in poison ivy

many times as a kid.

I've never had an issue with it.

Do some people react to

it, and others do not?

- I think so.

I grew up back east and we

had a lot of poison ivy.

And we would burn our

fields or a brush pile.

And with poison ivy and the oils

would get onto your skin.

So it becomes quite a problem.

I think some people are

fairly resistant to.

- A long time ago Ford Ord

was a poison ivy

area of the world.

And so when you were

marching and the guy said,

"Hit the ground."

it didn't bother me.

But we had people

almost die from it.

- [Jack] Yeah I've seen

some nasty reactions.

All right from Bowsman,

a comment about

the cats that had

stuff sticking to them

from the cottonwoods.

This person says,

and this is true,

that bud scales from

cottonwoods have a resin

on them that's naturally sticky.

And it also could be aphids.

- Yeah, thanks for that comment.

- All right.

Laurie, this is south

of Billings toward

caller is seeing an increase

in ticks and grasshoppers

this year.

Would like suggestions on

how to best control them.

Ticks are tough to control.

- Ticks are very

tough to control.

I'll start with that.

But just as a note I

talked about this a

few weeks ago when I was on.

We don't have either

species of ticks

of the two ticks that vector

Lyme disease, so

we're lucky there.

If you're traveling

outside of the state

you might run into those.

But they really like tall grass.

I guess if you keep your, if

you went away from your yard

if you want to keep

your lawn mowed short

and you don't have a

lot of tall grasses

then that would keep a

lot of the ticks away.

But if you're going for

a walk where anywhere

you're encountering

them you're gonna

come across them.

Grasshoppers are

really depending on

they usually don't

over winter don't spend

don't ever spend

winter in your yard.

So they usually are in ditches.

Or somewhere close by.

But it's really important

to try to target

grasshopper control

early before they

get into the later

stars or later stages.

- We actually had a

question from back

in the Jordan area

a couple weeks ago.

This person was driving

along the highway

from Jordan to someplace

and ran into swarms of

small grasshoppers already.

- [Laurie] They're out.

- Obviously there's

probably a good year

for grasshoppers

so need to be watching for them.

- You need to be watching.

- Barry, this probably relates

to last week's program.

We talked a lot about

production of organic crops

especially organic wheat.

If this person were to

produce organic wheat

in the Gallatin Valley,

is there a local elevator

that would take it?

If not, where would

you market this?

- I don't know the

exact answer to that.

But I can tell you where

they can get that answer.

The State Department

of Agriculture has an

organic cropping specialist.

And marketing specialist.

And if you call the Montana

Department of Agriculture

up in Helena, and ask for

the organic specialist

they can give you that answer.

- [Jack] That's exactly

right, thanks Barry.

Hayden, this person

is from Mile City

and they want to know

why an inch of rain

in the Mile City area

will penetrate to a foot deep?

Is there a reason?

Is that normal, or not?

- Now, repeat that please.

- [Jack] Well this person

says that if they get an inch

of rain, on dry soil.

- Oh.

- [Jack] It would

penetrate a foot deep.

- Soil will basically

the average soil,

there's a huge difference there.

An inch of rain

would wet dry soil

about a foot.

That's the water holding

capacity of that soil

basically.

If you got four feet of wet soil

you've actually got four feet

you've got four inches

of available water

for winter wheat.

- [Jack] That makes sense.

All right, from Bellgrade.

Jeff, these homeowners have

problems with dandelions

and knapweed.

They say one of the best

biocontrol methods is

to pull them and

remove by the tap root.

That works for

dandelions, will that work

as well for knapweed?

- You have to be somewhat

persistent with knapweed.

Because of seed bank.

So if you can pull up a

most of the tap root

it helps.

If you start breaking it

off it can regenerate.

But you just have

to be persistent

in hand pulling knapweed.

- [Jack] Okay, thank you.

This question came

in from Helena.

They have had issues

with their Aspens

and insect damage.

They see holes and sawdust.

What causes this, and is

there anything they can do

to make their Aspens healthier?

- That would probably be

based on those symptoms

it probably would be

the Poplar bore.

And once they've

gotten into the tree

they have a pretty

complicated life cycle.

Sometimes up to three,

three or four years

to complete their life cycle.

The best thing you could

do is try to protect

your other Aspen trees.

I would try to get any of

your infested trees out

and away from your property

so they don't infest

your other trees.

If your neighbor has them

as well and they're infested

that's a big deal.

But there are a lot of

things that you could spray

on the trunk to keep

to protect the trees

that have not been infested yet.

- What about a middle culprit,

would that a systemic on Aspens

would that control

the Poplar bores?

- That again that would

have to be applied.

Now would not be

the time to apply it

to the (mumbling)

because it takes

several weeks to be absorbed.

And your whole goal

is to try to protect

the eggs from hatching and

burrowing into the trunk.

- [Barry] Laurie it's

been my general impression

you tell me if I'm wrong,

and I might be wrong

for this insect.

But on woody plants we

tend to get the wood boring

insects on stressed trees.

- That's right, yep.

- And I'm gonna guess if

they're having real trouble

on these Aspens,

Aspens are a shallow

shallow rooted thing,

they're meant to grow

on wet places.

And in Helena there's

not a whole lot of

really wet places.

- Yeah.

- So I think if they do

some mulching and watering

that might help just as much,

about as much as anything.

- That's a great tip.

- [Jack] All right.

With that folks we're down

to our last 30 seconds.

I have a few calls

that we didn't get to.

We'll work on those next week.

I'd like to thank

Jeff for being here.

- Thank you.

- Great job.

Laurie, you didn't

get to show the scales

but we'll have those on

again some other time.

Hayden, good to have you back.

Next week we have Miles Watts

retired economist who

wants to talk about

the effect of public debt

on agriculture in Montana.

Thanks for watching,

have a good week.

And we hope to

see you next week.

♪ (country music)

-[Narrator] Montana Ag Live

is made possible by...

the Montana Department of

Agticulture

the MSU Extension Service

the MSU Ag Experiment Stations

of the College of Agriculture

the Montana Wheat & Barley

Committee

the Montana Bankers Association

Cashman Nursery and Landscaping,

and the Gallatin Gardeners Club

♪ bluesy guitar riff