The 37th annual MACA conference was recently held at the Bost Extension Center on the MSU campus.
The highlight of the meeting (except for when the projector exploded) was the presentation by John McGillicuddy from Iowa. We had given him the last slot on the program, hoping to allow him the time to begin to scratch the surface of what he knows about corn.
After two and a half hours, he asked “Do you want me to keep going or should we quit now?”. The crowd of consultants yelled “Keep going!”
We eventually took a break, he eventually had to quit, and I am not sure that we quite reached the point where he began to scratch the surface of what this man knows about corn.
To be descriptive, John McGillicuddy could be dubbed a ‘forensic agronomist’. But the interesting thing was that the principles that he shared about corn, the crop that he knows inside and out, can also be applied to cotton, to soybeans, and to almost every other row crop that we can grow.
Understanding the growth habits of a crop, the physiology, and it’s reproductive and survival strategies are all key to understanding which factors have limited the productivity of a field or farm, and are critical to figuring out how to re-capture that lost yield.
Our group of consultants has been perfecting that science for 40 years in cotton, for the past 15 years or so in soybeans, but has only recently begun to offer in-depth consulting for the state’s corn crop.
The Red-Banded Stinkbug might be most serious pest we face in the Midsouth in 2010… or maybe not.
But, the fact is that this pest has moved into Mississippi, and might be here to stay. This insect is difficult to control, causes greater damage than other stinkbug species, and re-infests fields quickly after insecticide applications; three good reasons to know this insect, and how to identify him.
If you will note the very prominent spine protruding up from behind his rear pair of legs. This spine can easily be seen by naked eye, and readily distinguishes this small green stinkbug from the similar Red-Shouldered Stinkbug, which is much easier to control, and causes less damage.
Red-Banded Stinkbugs can migrate long distances in a hurry, so let us be vigilant, and watch for this pest in 2010.
As more weed species become resistant or more tolerant to glyphosate, changes must be made to current weed management regimes. Additional modes of action must be added to burndown materials, as well as residual herbicides in-season, if we are going to be successful overcoming these resistance problems.
Glyphosate resistant marestail compete with cotton.
Actually this was a brand new center pivot that never made a circle. High winds and a small tornado wreaked a little havoc on this farm in Tallahatchie County this past week. Two of the farm’s three pivots were damaged significantly.
Fields remain waterlogged after a solid week of rain and thunderstorms.
However, according to this week’s NASS Crop Progress Report, Mississippi is actually dead even with the 5 year average for cotton planting, and only slightly behind on soybean and rice planting.
At this point it looks unlikely that much progress will be made this week.
Flooded soybean field in Calhoun County
John Kimbrough III
On Wednesday, March 11, 2009, John Marmaduke “Kim” Kimbrough, III passed away at his home in Lexington, Mississippi.
As a good friend and long standing active member of MACA, he will be greatly missed.
By all who knew him he was an innovator, the first to try something new, always at the cutting edge of technology; sometimes known as the ‘bleeding’ edge to the early adopters.
Kim possessed a personality that caused anyone meeting him for the first time to remember him, and he was respected by all who had the pleasure to know him well.
MACA has a gap that will not likely be filled by someone as well-read and well-rounded, or by someone with the broad life experience of Kim Kimbrough.
