Congratulations to Virgil King, III of Lexington, current MACA President, on being named “2011 Cotton Consultant of the Year”. Virgil received the prestigious honor, which was presented by Cotton Farming magazine and Syngenta, at the recent Beltwide Cotton Conference in Orlando.
To see the article and photographs go to the following link at Cotton Farming magazine and click on “Winner Cotton Consultant of the Year” on the upper right hand corner of the home page.
http://www.cottonfarming.com

Consultant Commentary – Up-to-Date Information from Mississippi’s Crop Professionals
Reporting from the South Delta region is Virgil King, III, Lexington
8-29-11 Cotton - Most of the cotton that we check that was planted in early to mid May is winding down at this time. We have made some of our last treatments for plant bugs and spider mites in the last 10 days. Mostly trying to protect top bolls and keep leaves safe until maturity. Our worm pressure is down from where it has been all season with us seeing some late worm damage in tops of plants. We have not defoliated any cotton at this time but will get some going next week. We have fields that are partially ready with green spots all across them. This is where cotton has held up better in these soil types.
Soybeans - Most of our beans are through at this time but we do have some late beans behind the flood and some behind wheat. Will have to carry them into October. Insect pressure is down in beans at this time. We have treated most prior to now to clean up loopers, bollworms and armyworms. We do not have much pressure behind these treatments. We are still seeing a lot of 3CAH and few bean leaf beetles. We see some low numbers of stink bugs with some immatures.
Corn- Corn harvest is over for us. Some dry land yields really low. Some irrigated yields high at around 200 bushels. On average yields will be anywhere from 125-135 bushels.
Milo - All our late planted milo has headed at this time. We had to use pyrethroids in the whorl stage for armyworms on most of it. We used Baythroid for midge, bollworm, and armyworms at pollination with some fields getting two application because heads did not all come out at the same time. Within the last 10 days most has had an application of Belt for Fall Armyworms and a few bollworms. It has been a tough fight in the milo but we have very little damage at this time. Hopefully pressure will ease up this week when we check.
Reporting from the South Delta region is David Hankins, Rolling Fork
8-29-11 – Corn finished cutting dry land beans yields off about 25 percent due to drought. Cotton looks good. About finished spraying most of it. None ready to defoliate yet.
Reporting from the East Mississippi region is Phillip McKibben, Maben
8-29-11 – We’re letting go of about 75-80% of our cotton this week. The rest still has green spots that we’re watching closely for bollworms and plant bugs. We should begin defoliation the end of next week on some of our thinner soils. I’ve told my growers that when the cotton was blooming, we were getting about 8.5 to 9 days worth of heat units every week, so when the cotton starts opening, expect it to open about 10 days worth per week, and so far that looks about right.
Corn harvest is about 60% complete. Yields have been better than we expected, in the 150 bushel range on most of our dry land acres, and we’ve just moved on to our better soils, and our irrigated ground.
Our soybeans look great, the majority are R5.5-R6, with our wheat beans ranging from early to late R4, and catching up quickly.
Reporting from the South Mississippi region is Trey Bullock, Hattiesburg
A little more defoliating going on this week and one grower started picking on Monday. Only cotton I am still looking at is behind wheat and I figure I will look at it for another 10 days. Bugs still very light in cotton. Cotton is opening extremely fast and should be defoliating the majority next week.
Velvetbean caterpillars and bollworms have picked up significantly in soybeans and most acres were treated in last 4 days with Belt and a pyrethroid. Dry weather is starting to take a toll on soybeans, if we don’t get a rain soon they will be fair at best. Irrigated beans look great.
Peanuts yesterday were starting to stress pretty bad and need a little rain pretty quick. Flushing lots of velvetbean moths in all peanut fields, and sprayed several fields end of last week in Claiborne Co. White Mold is still an issue but dry weather is keeping it in check.
Corn harvest will wind up this week and yields are still excellent in irrigated corn and late planted dry land is doing better than expected.
Reporting from the East Mississippi region is Bert Falkner, West Point
8-30-11 – A little cotton has been defoliated but the majority will start next week. This crop is progressing fast. Low insect pressure in cotton planted after wheat which is at 0-4 NAWF. Corn harvest is 50% to complete, depending on grower size. Irrigated corn averaging 175 bu/acre plus and dry land averaging 50 – 125 bu/a. Soybeans are at R 5.5 – R 6 and we’re treating isolated areas for loopers and mixed other insects. Dry land beans have potential but need a rain to fill ‘em out.
Peanuts are 90 – 115 days old. We finished up our 2nd white mold application this week. Insects and diseases pressure are low. This crop has a good root crop now and will be very good if we can get a rain for the limb crop. Most everyone has started digging sweet potatoes. We’ve been on about a 2 week schedule for worm complex and flea beetles (above average numbers this year) with Intrepid plus pyrethroid. Some fields have up to 4 apps. Also ran into some nematode problems in places.