With the water receding, the total damage to the crops is quickly becoming evident. What to do next with the drowned-out acres of wheat and barley? What replanting options are there or is summer fallow the best options this late in the season. There are very few viable alternatives left to plant. However, if the fields that are drowned out are intended for sugarbeet next year, summer fallow may pose a problem. Generally, summer fallow will result in high levels of available nitrogen next year because of: 1) mineralization of organic matter that will occur this summer, and 2) absence of a crop to utilize the nitrogen fertilizer applied this spring and mineralized nitrogen.

Thus, replanting something that can handle some or all of the nitrogen this year may be needed to ensure that next year the optimum amount of nitrogen can be applied to the sugarbeet crop rather than having an extra amount of N affect the quality of next years’ sugarbeet crop adversely. Replanting wheat or barley this late in the season does not make sense. It will use some of the available N, but the grain yield and grain quality will be very low. Two crops do have a chance to yield something when planted this late. Buckwheat or sunflower can still yield a crop this season. Both crops can be a previous crop to sugarbeet, but some words of caution are needed. Weed control in both crops is more problematic than wheat or barley, if we want to reduce a number of problem weeds like kochia in sugarbeets for next season. Be sure to use herbicides on flowers that DO NOT carryover. A suggestion is to plant sunflowers directly into what is left of the wheat or barley crop and use a preemergence RoundUp application to kill the broadleaves as well as the wheat and barley.

Buckwheat does not use all that much of the available nitrogen. Sunflowers will use a lot more of available nitrogen. The disadvantages of sunflowers as a pre-crop of sugarbeets are: 1) the amount of crop residue left and 2) the amount of water sunflowers use. The best solution for sunflowers would be to either moldboard plow or disk the sunflower stubble to reduce the trash and allow a good seedbed to be prepared for sugarbeet next spring. Should we end up with a dry fall and winter, the sugarbeets may face a moisture stress situation next season.