Charlie Craig, Friars Point
8/14/2023 – Most of the cotton that I look at is very close to being able to walk from.
I will look at some of it this week but don’t anticipate treating much if any of it with the exception of one block of very late cotton. Soybean insects have been pretty light with a lot going untreated and a few acres being treated for bollworms or salt marsh caterpillars. Looking forward to the predicted cooler weather and hoping for a good harvest.
Jeff North, Madison
8/13/2023 – Cotton ranges from 3 nodes above white flower to 20% open.
Got rain where we didn’t need it last week and missed it where we needed it. Going on 6 weeks without a rain in the dryland areas. Lots of hawk-billed bolls and flats in all cotton from extreme temperatures (see attached photo). Insect pressure coming to an abrupt halt. Yields will be totally dependent upon what’s in the bolls. Just beginning to count seed in dryland and averaging 6-7 per lock. Not enough.
Irrigated cotton still looks very good, again, depending on the weight in the bolls.
Keeping plant bugs out of the top and mites have just about crashed. They don’t even want to be caught in these hot fields. Defoliation could begin as early as week after next in a few places.
Escaped Pigweeds doing well (see attached photo)
Soybeans range from R5.5 to desiccation. Dryland fields could be ugly. Insect pressure as low as I have ever seen it for this time of year.
Hard decisions would have to be made if insect pressure dramatically increased, but they better hurry.
Corn yields ringing the bell. Many dryland fields are cutting the same as irrigated, what few times they were irrigated.
This season is about like Mississippi State Baseball. Ready for it to end!!!
Joel Moor, Greenwood
8/14/2023 – Corn is done and waiting on moisture to get low enough for harvest. Hearing above average yields after drying on high moisture corn harvested around me.
Soybeans range from R5.5 to getting ready to desiccate at the end of the week. Stink bug and looper pressure relatively low; not finding many RBSB either.
Most of my cotton is NAWF 2. Put my last shot on most plant bugs with a heavy rate of pix out last week. Crop looks good even with some shedding after last week’s rains.
Finally getting in the short rows now. Ready for this one to be over with.
*****Joel is looking forward to spending more time with his newborn daughter, Linney, born May 4th. Congratulations!
Clay Horton, Leland
8/14/2023 – Wheat beans are at 16 nodes and R4; they have been sprayed for bollworms and have since been cleaned. Fill season beans are starting to be cut south of Hwy 82 with another large percentage of acres to be lined up for desiccation at the end of this week and the first of next week. Insect pressure has been light; I have not treated an acre for RBSB but was starting to run some consistent low numbers down south last week.
Nearing the end of corn harvest south of Hwy 82; should be finished by Friday. North of 82 we’re really just getting going this week. Yields have been above average to this point.
Phillip McKibben, Maben
8/15/2023 – Our growers with dryers intend to begin corn harvest the week of August 21. Moisture should be in the 20-22% range based on my calculations. Let the shelling begin!
Gramoxone will begin going out this week on our earliest beans, with more going out next week, and more the week after. Once again, we’ve persuaded growers to plant earlier, and here we are looking at a phenomenal late bean crop wherever planting was delayed – if it finishes as strong as it looks right now. Loopers and Velvetbeans are picking up while Cloverworms are fading away.
Cotton is approaching the endzone rapidly. We went from 7 NAWF to less than 5 in about 2.5 weeks. About half our crop is taller than I would like, and the other half is dead on the money for the most part. We have fields where DPL2211 is butted up against NG4190, and ST4990 is next to DPL2127, and several other combinations that have complicated PGR recommendations. We’re wrapping up final plantbug / stinkbug apps this week (hopefully).
Sweetpotatoes are entering the intensive management stage. From now until harvest is where the most time scouting and the critical thinking take place. Potatoes are starting to stick out of the ground in some fields, and roots are otherwise exposed through cracks in the ground. Everything up until now has been a fire drill, now comes the FIRE.
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.
