North Delta
Jim Arrington, Senatobia
8/10/2023 – Cotton: The majority is close to cutout. Will have one final plant bug treatment for threshold numbers but not as high as we usually see this time of year. We finally had a decent rain today and will get to turn off irrigation. Everyone is very optimistic about yield potential. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for harvest.
Beans: We have sprayed some late beans and wheat beans for worms but not nearly as much as last year. Beginning to see an increase in stinkbugs but have only had to treat a handful of acres.
Corn: Finished watering last week. Corn crop looks good as well.
Justin George, Merigold
8/11/2023 – Rice: most Bolivar County rice is scheduled for drain this week. Endigo ZCX did really well on Rice Stinkbugs, where we sprayed. Pressure wasn’t terrible, but for most every isolated block/field we raise our own Stinkbugs.
For North Delta rice, my first rice, is also draining this week. Very few Stinkbugs up there, to me. Did some spraying. No Armyworm pressure was nice.
*Most of my Farmers were able to plant all they wanted in 7 days, and will all be draining their farms at one time. Do hope we have a good harvest window. Looks like a good crop.
Soybeans: mostly R5.7- R6.5. I do have some replant behind hail damaged that are R1, and some later than ideal wheat beans. We finally got some rain in the last 7 days to break the irrigation cycle. Some were on number 5, some were just starting number 2. Sprayed a lot of acres from R2-R4.5 for podworms about 3-4 weeks ago, and that’s been fun to check behind. “No Problems!” – a wise man once said.
Stinkbugs have been surprisingly low in number in my area. Every week we think, “Maybe this week” … near corn, near trees and CRP; just not bad.
Now, Potato Leaf Hoppers in SW Bolivar County, are a pest to me. Lots of Hopper burn, that didn’t go away with the Besiege shot, and especially didn’t where we haven’t treated with any poison all year. I suspect that Dimilin alone is working on them, before they get a foothold. And that they just like 48x9s and 46x6s. Old Research says it doesn’t pay to treat, but I don’t like the way the beans look with leaf tips burned.
-@1/2 my acres got Fungicide…. Some big farms did not want to do a stand-alone shot, on early beans.
-Need more answers on Foliar Feed products, there sure are a bunch out there.
Overall, the bean crop looks good.
Corn: irrigation is terminated except for three late fields, just beginning to dent. Corn crop is great, in places. Badly hail damaged corn that looked like 220 – bushel corn on June 15th, is cutting 100 bushels less than it would have.
Main harvest will start late next week.
Milo: good milo, had good stands, got behind with Fertilize which was disappointing, sprayed midge and head worms, but thankfully, sugarcane aphids have not been bad at all!! I guess they just haven’t found this milo crop yet.
We are headed out with 70% color change in some areas…. It’s still got a way to go.
Lee Rogers, Cleveland – Missouri Bootheel
8/11/2023 – We have received a lot of rain over the past week. Up to 3 inches in many areas. I understand just north of me, anywhere from 12 to 16 inches fell in just a couple of days causing major flooding. The cotton crop seems to be fruiting well as we move into this final phase of the season. We are still fighting plant bug in many fields and will take it week to week until we terminate treatments. Hopefully we will weather the storms and all will end well.
Ed Whatley, Clarksdale
8/11/2023 – Cotton is NAFW 5 or less except for a few acres planted in late May. Plant bugs are still the main concern as far as insect problems. I am dealing with adult and nymphs in my cotton. I figured this was going to happen late season. When you have continuous pressure all season, you are going to deal with nymphs and adults in late season cotton, (you grow your own). I will have to say the ThryvOn technology does have some value. Plant bug numbers are definitely lower in these fields. The final value will come when the pickers run.
90 % of my soybeans are R6 and above. I think my pod worm issues are over now; I will say it was tedious work dealing with them this year. Usually when beans quit blooming, moths will leave soybeans alone, not this year. Stink bugs have been light overall this year, but I have had to spray a few fields for them. Thank goodness I have not had to deal with red banded so far this year.
Corn harvest has begun. So far yields have been good. I was concerned about yields due to nitrogen loss due to excessive rainfall in some areas. But so far, no problems.
South Delta
Jackson Cowart, Inverness
8/10/2023 – Cotton ranges from bloomed out of the top to NAWF 6. Plant bugs have been steady but nothing out of control. Most acres will get the last insecticide spray this week or next. Sprayed a lot of scattered acres last week for spider mites. Overall, looks to be a good cotton crop.
Soybeans range from R3 to R6.5. Insects have been light all year. Starting to pick up a few RBSBs south of Hwy 82, but nothing has been treated yet. A good rain this past Tuesday wrapped up the watering on a lot of acres. The next planting date will only get one more.
Growers with dryers are easing into cutting corn. First reports are showing really good yield, I hope the trend continues.
Don Collins, Yazoo City
8/11/2023 – Corn harvest has begun. Early returns are above average, but everything is based off of yield monitors to this point. It will take some time before we know how good it really is. We’re knocking the dust off of our soil sample rigs and getting ready to chase combines as scouting slows.
Our first planted soybeans were planted on April 1st. These beans are being desiccated this week. All were treated for Red Banded Stink bugs. The bulk of our crop was a few weeks later and has reached the R6 growth stage. Stink bugs and podworms have been spotty in this age group of beans, with about half of the acres sneaking by with no insecticide at all to this point. What little bit of May planted beans we have were all treated for podworms around R3.5 and mixed with fungicide. These beans have made it to R5.5. The rain we got on Tuesday of this week really saved some dryland beans from disaster. Looper numbers were on the rise this week but we have yet to treat any. They’re showing up mostly in R6 beans, where we will try to let them ride.
Our cotton crop is headed toward cutout in a hurry. If not for the rain on Tuesday we would be there now. We’ve got enough moisture now to keep setting bolls another week or two and add to an already impressive fruit load. If we can get another rain shower within the next week the cotton crop has a chance to be very strong. Insect pressure has slowed the last 10 days as we have been able to coast on a lot of acres. We put out a stout dose of pix with 1lb acephate on a lot of acres last week and it is holding well. Seeing a bollworm escape here and there in the BG3 cotton but overall, it has held pretty well. When egg pressure was heavy it was hard to find a square that had not been scarred up by a fresh hatched worm. We were also making it a point to use acephate and/or Diamond to treat plant bugs when the moths were really heavy. We did treat one 45-acre field of BG3 cotton for worm escapes last week, but that field had been two weeks with no insecticide and had a million blooms in the top. So, it was a perfect storm. We shouldn’t have any cotton with NAWF higher than 5 next week so this one should be over soon.
Lauren Green, Greenwood
8/11/2023 – Corn is done and harvest is under way and yields are exceptionally well so far. Hopefully we can dry back out from this week’s rain and get back going.
Soybeans are anywhere from R5.2 to R7. Dryland areas have really taken a turn from all this heat. We have areas that have not caught many rains and yields will show they could have used some more. Insect pressure is still relatively light except for few areas with stinkbugs building up. Only have caught a few RBSB so far this year. I think that taproot decline will be more of a topic this fall as this is the most, I think we have ever had. Overall, soybean crop looks good.
Cotton is from 5NAWF to we will be walking away from some come Monday. Areas look promising but some took a good shed from rain in July and now this heat and high temps at night are not helping with top crop we were trying to set. Plant bugs have been consistent and only getting 5-7 days from a spray but we are also constantly applying pix to get this crop to finish out. Mites are still sporadic in areas and fungus has kept aphid down. Target spot is evident in a lot of areas but bacterial blight is starting to show up on few bolls, hoping to outrun both.
East Mississippi
Larry Walton, Tupelo
8/11/2023 – Finally a day of sunshine without rainfall. At my home we are approaching 50 inches of rainfall to date! It has been unreal the past couple of weeks. With that said, crops are still looking very good. I was in the Delta a couple days this week and saw several corn fields that had been harvested. I am hearing some very good yields and that is fantastic. With a week of sunshine, some early planted corn fields here in NE MS. will be ready for harvest. Early planted soybeans are turning very quickly, and yields will be very good as I have stated earlier. Frogeye leaf spot on susceptible varieties has been detected with fungicide application made as needed.
Cotton is really growing and as soon as it dries up, PGRs will continue. Insects in soybeans are very light at this time with a few loopers moths spotted as expected this time of year. Cotton insects to date has been light as well. Here’s hoping for nice weather the next few weeks to get our crops harvested.”
Bert Falkner, West Point
8/12/2023 – All corn at black layer growth stage or within 5-7 days. A small amount was harvested before 7-10 days of rain. Its too early to tell about yields; moisture at 18%-22%. I think corn has a lot of potential.
Cotton is 0-6 NAWF. We’re still fighting plant bugs in areas and adding pix to all applications. Trying to get cotton treated has been difficult the last 7-10 days with the rain we’ve had. Some areas have had “just right” rains; some areas, with up to 6”, are having heavy shed and heavy blight. I’ve not been really pleased with worm control behind diamide insecticides but we did have one of the heaviest egg lays I’ve seen in a long time; moths still flying today. Have not treated spider mites but they are building up in spots.
Soybeans are at grain-fill growth stage. Pod set on beans is very good; up to full pods in fields and 7 days to R6.5 in some fields. Overall, insects have been low the last 10 days. We added pyrethroid + Dimilin to fungicide applications and cleaned up a lot of insects. I have noticed a lot of potato hopper signs this year; stink bugs in areas are up to half threshold which is very low for this time of the year. Last winter’s cold weather might have helped this. Recent rains have been good on beans.
Peanuts are up to 105 days old. The 2nd soil fungicide is out on all peanuts; not far from starting 3rd fungicide in some fields on older peanuts. Disease and insect pressure has been low, as of today.
Trey Bullock, Seminary
8/9/2023 – Cotton, other than hail replant and a few acres of irrigated, is done. Heat and zero rain for last 3 weeks has taken a huge toll on this crop. Some counties have been without rain, or any significant rain, for 6 weeks now and never got a lot prior. Insects have been extremely light with exception of a few fields on Miss. River.
Soybeans are from R3 – prematurely done. These R5-R5.2 stage beans are in big trouble at this point and don’t see how they could ever turn around. No rain in immediate future with several days of 100+ in the forecast. In green spots picking up loopers and VBC and don’t really know what to do with them. Some fields will get treated and some are on a wait as long as possible to see what happens.
Peanuts are doing ok but haven’t seen a bloom in 2 weeks in some fields. We are kind of in a standstill with them as well. We have more irrigated peanuts this year than anything so I guess that’s a bright spot.
