1)  Tips Can Ensure Food Safety at Tailgate Parties, Picnics

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Pre-game parties add fun to fall activities, but skipping critical food safety steps can put family and friends at risk, said Karen Blakeslee, Kansas State University Research and Extension food scientist.

If restrooms are in short supply, take a thermos of hot water, hand soap and paper towels; soapy washcloths in a sealed plastic bag; pre-packaged towelettes or hand sanitizer, she said.

“Washing hands before and after handling raw or cooked foods is key to preventing foodborne illness,” said Blakeslee, who offered the following tailgate and picnic tips:

* Match the menu to the number of guests to minimize leftovers.

* Avoid cross contamination – designate separate coolers for beverages; salads and perishables, such as vegetable dip; meats and poultry.

* Use separate utensils for raw and cooked foods, meats, and vegetables.

* Keep coolers, ice chests or food on the serving table out of direct sunlight. 

* Use a food thermometer to check doneness for hamburgers (160 degrees F.), for chicken (165 degrees), for brats (170 degrees) and for hot dogs (165 degrees).

* Place leftovers in coolers prior to the game, and discard food left on a serving table (or in direct sunlight) after one hour in 90 or above temperatures or two hours in cooler weather. Discard food trash in designated areas; stow table service and utensils, and grill (according to the manufacturer’s recommended safety procedures).

For non-perishable snacks after the game, Blakeslee recommends fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, snack mix, popcorn or cookies.

More information on food and food safety is available at county and district K-State Research and Extension offices and on the Extension Web site: www.oznet.ksu.edu/foodsafety.


 

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2) ‘Best’ Lawn Turf Variety Depends on Performance, Availability

OLATHE, Kan. – This year’s weather was hard on tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass lawns. By August, many were suffering from drought and heat stress. Some were riddled with weeds and dead spots.

So, Rodney St. John is now getting lots of questions about better, stronger, prettier turf varieties.

Typically, people just want to know the best or top three varieties for their yard. But, St. John doesn’t have that answer, even though he’s a Kansas State University Research and Extension turf expert.

“The top 10 to 20 tall fescue varieties for the Midwest are always so similar in growth and performance that picking a hard-and-fast winner is basically impossible,” he explained. “Besides, no one can forecast which varieties are going to be available at local stores from year to year. That depends on many factors.”

So, if homeowners plan to stay with the region’s favorite turfs, St. John recommends that they go shopping with the names of at least 10 fescue or bluegrass varieties that have performed well in their area.

For example, as do many land-grant universities, K-State takes part in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Turfgrass Evaluation Program. K-State horticulturists test turf varieties at experiment fields statewide, ranking the grasses’ quality, density, color and the like. The current field trial leaders for Kansas include:

* Tall fescue -  Apache III, Avenger, BE 1, Coshise III, Finelawn Elite, Focus, Gremlin, Inferno, Justice, Matador, Millennium, Padre, Plantation, Regiment II, Riverside, Scorpion, 2nd Millennium, SR8550, Trooper, and Wolfpack.

* High-quality, high-maintenance Kentucky bluegrass – America, Apollo, Award, Awesome, Champagne, Champlain, Excursion, Freedom II, Impact, Langara, Liberator, Misty, Moon Shadow, NU Destiny, Odyssey, Princeton 105, Sonoma, and Unique.

* Good-quality, low-maintenance Kentucky bluegrass - Baron, Baronie, Caliber, Canterbury, Dragon, Eagelton, Kenblue, North Star, and South Dakota.

K-State’s recommendations on total lawn care are at http://www.ksuturf.com/Homeowners.html.


 

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3) Some Tomato Vines Decline by Fall

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Some tomato plants won’t bounce back when more moderate temperatures replace summer’s scorching heat. Producing late-season tomatoes just isn’t in their nature.

“This includes most of the newer tomato varieties, such as Mountain Pride, Celebrity, Carnival and Daybreak,” said Ward Upham, who heads the Master Gardener program for Kansas State University Research and Extension.

Most people know that tomato varieties can vary in the size and type of fruit they produce. If nothing else, proof of that is on display in grocery stores’ fresh produce sections.

But, tomato varieties also divide into two groups based on vine type, Upham said. And, each of those vine types produces for a different length of time:

* Determinate (or, semi-determinate) - Plants stay relatively small, bushy and compact. Group members tend to be newer varieties with good disease resistance, less need for support and uniform ripening. They also usually die or become unproductive after a 6- to 8-week production period.

* Indeterminate - These varieties often become large and rangy. They grow throughout the season, producing fruit into fall. The group includes the old standby for Kansas gardens, Jet Star.

“These groups mean you have two options if you want to keep harvesting tomatoes into fall,” Upham said. “One option is to make room and plant some Jet Star-type indeterminates in spring. The other is to plant an improved and smaller determinate variety about mid-June, so the plants will begin to produce about the time your spring-planted determinates finish.”


 

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4) Cattle May Need Early Fall Horn Fly Treatment

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Horn flies are a small, but performance-affecting cattle pest. Their incessant, blood-letting bites are a constant irritation from April through October. But, they often reach the larger of their two annual population peaks in early fall, a Kansas State University scientist said.

So, despite any earlier horn fly control efforts, cattle herds now averaging more than150 flies per head may merit treatment this September, said Alberto Broce, entomologist with Kansas State University Research and Extension. In some years, control can still pay (i.e., be above economic levels) into October.

“The problem with this is that use of highly effective insecticidal ear tags has led to widespread populations of horn flies that are resistant – especially to the pyrethroid-based insecticides,” Broce said.

When a population of insects becomes resistant to one chemical, it also becomes resistant to the other insecticides in the same chemical group, the entomologist explained.

So, producers most rotate among chemical classes when choosing the control to apply, he said.

Fortunately, horn flies tend to congregate on the upper back of livestock. As a result, an array of treatment methods can be effective, including ear tags, sprays, dust bags, pour-ons and back rubbers.

Broce charted the common horn fly controls by chemical class and then outlined example rotations in this year’s May 18 newsletter from K-State’s Extension entomologists. That information is now available at any county or district K-State Research and Extension office. It’s also on the Web in issue No. 12, “To Rotate or Not to Rotate,” at http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/entomology/extension/KIN/KIN_current.htm.

            An extra benefit of a September control, Broce said, is that fall’s horn flies produce the young that will overwinter as pupae under the cowpats and emerge as next year’s first adults.


 

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5) Sidebar/Box: Horn Fly Facts

* Female horn flies lay their eggs on fresh dung – sometimes before livestock finish depositing it. The eggs hatch out dung-eating maggots, which do best if their “meadow muffin” remains undisturbed.

* The small, gray horn fly is only about 3/16-inch long. It’s a major pest for cattle, though, because it densely aggregates with its fellows, each one of which feeds 20 (the males) to 40 (females) times a day.

* Horn flies produce a new generation every 10 to 18 days from mid-April into October.

* Horn flies clearly prefer cattle, but – although they will not develop in these animal’s feces – the flies also will feed on horses, sheep and goats.

* Each horn fly orients itself so that its head is pointing toward the base of its host’s hair.

* The horn fly’s scientific name clearly suggests this pest’s effect on livestock: Haematobia irritans.

– Source: K-State Research and Extension Entomology


 

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6) Wheat Growers May See Good Yields, Even Planting Older Varieties’ Seed

MANHATTAN, Kan. – This year’s weather extremes resulted in a shortage of high quality wheat seed in some areas. That does not necessarily mean producers will also see lower yields, a Kansas State University agronomist said.

“With the shortage of good quality wheat seed of newer varieties in parts of central and eastern Kansas this year, producers may have to use some older varieties that have lost their leaf rust resistance,” said K-State Research and Extension state agronomy leader Jim Shroyer. “If those producers are ready to treat the older varieties with a foliar fungicide next spring, will they have to settle for a lower yield potential? All else being equal, probably not.”

Varieties such as 2137, Jagalene, Jagger, and Karl 92 still have good to excellent yield potential, if treated in a timely manner when disease pressure makes that necessary, Shroyer said.

Other factors such as freeze injury, heat, drought, flooding, and hail can still limit the older varieties’ yields. But, those factors can reduce the yields of almost any variety, new or old.

“In general, producers in central and eastern Kansas do not have to worry about settling for low yields by using 2137, Jagalene, Jagger, or Karl 92 – provided they treat these varieties with a foliar fungicide, if necessary. In the absence of leaf diseases, these varieties can still be reasonably competitive with the newer varieties,” the agronomist said.