Winton Earnheart, Tunica
7/11/2023 – Cotton: The north delta has an excellent cotton crop. Planting dates were favorable, weed control and insect control has been good, and rains have been timely. Increased corn acreage has been supplying a large amount of plant bugs migrating into adjacent cotton fields. Most of our fields were blooming by the Fourth of July.
Wheat: The wheat crop was excellent this year, and growers have had good conditions to plant soybeans behind the harvest. A small acreage has nice crops of rice and cotton established in the wheat stubble. The rice is already to flood and is tillering nicely, and the cotton is 8-9th node and squaring. Most of the soybeans behind wheat are about 8 inches tall. Wheat yielded in the 60-90 bushel per acre range.
Rice: Most of the rice crop is from midseason to heading. This crop also looks good for the time of year and is a little early for us. Challenges have been weed control where there is resistant grass, and controlling volunteer, or “weedy” rice. With a few exceptions, we have been having success with the Max Ace system to meet these challenges. Other varieties, both conventional and hybrid, also look good. Some of the heading fields are getting treatment levels of rice stink bug.
Soybeans: With the favorable rains, and favorable planting dates, the soybean crop looks excellent. Full season beans are lapping middles and fruiting is from R3 to full podding. Insects have been light so far, except for some older fields that are getting treatment level of stink bugs. We are just beginning to pick up bollworm moths and a few small worms.
Charlie Craig, Friars Point
7/11/2023 – I’m still dealing with plant bugs in most places. Some have more than enough and others the pressure is pretty light. Plant bug control is hard to evaluate for me. They are not like aphids where you can go behind an application and say wow that worked or oh sh—-t it didn’t. I guess fruit retention is the best criterion. All my last applications have included Diamond and the different insecticide mixtures that I have tried have resulted in good to excellent fruit retention so far, so I guess they must be doing something even though I can find plant bugs behind them. I hear that egg counts are picking up south of us, so far, I am not seeing it yet but I never find as many eggs as everybody else. Probably due to my age. I am not that concerned about worms in BGIII cotton yet but think that blooming soybeans might become a problem. Hope everybody got some rain and wish we could take the crop to the bank for what looks like right now.
Jeff North, Madison
7/10/2023 – Cotton is progressing rapidly. Plant bugs are still being addressed as needed with corn edges being “trimmed” regularly. Aphids are not an issue at this time, and mites are sporadic. Bollworm eggs were observed over the weekend with Diamides being applied to non-Bt cotton and Bollgard 2. No treatments are being applied to Bollgard 3 for bollworm control at this time. However, entire plant inspections are being conducted for any sign of “breakthrough.” The million-dollar question is, “When will they begin surviving in Bollgard 3?” If history is the best predictor of the future, it is only a matter of time.
Fruit load on cotton is very good. Many fields have golf ball size bolls now. Of course, there are still plenty of fields just beginning to bloom hard. PGRs are being used as needed and aggressively. Rainfall has been adequate to abundant. Very satisfied with cotton at this time.
Soybeans – Bollworm pressure has been extremely light here, but I understand our colleagues in Louisiana are having a lot of issues with heavy rates of Diamides being applied. Still applying fungicides here and detecting Aerial Web Blight in a few places. Some applications of fungicides have included a pyrethroid where stink bug numbers were increasing. Being careful not to “flare” bollworms by fungiciding too early and mixing in an insecticide. Node numbers on this crop are a little shy of what I like. The hot June reduced nodes from normal. Topping out a little earlier than I hoped. We’ll see!
Corn – No issues at this time and progressing extremely fast. It will be scary how soon we will be in harvest.
Haley Easley, Greenwood
7/11/2023 – Corn and soybeans are looking great from recent rains. We have not been spared from June storms though. Lots of wind and hail damage on several farms. I don’t have a lot of cotton this year but what I got was hit bad with hail. Navigating through some tough decisions. Thankfully the plant bug populations are less than normal in those areas. Light mites showing up before rains but haven’t had to use much acephate so far to flare them. Hopefully, they fade out.
Transform and Diamond application went out first. Lots of bollworm months in cotton and beans today. Bean insects have been very low up to now. Expect some pod worms in blooming beans over next few days but thankfully not many acres in that scenario. Corn disease has been very minimal but expect to see something showing up after recent rains. Corn is mostly dent but some still in dough stage. I don’t expect much fungicides on corn. Rains in July with temps in upper 80s to low 90s will always be beneficial and hopefully offset some losses to earlier storm damage.
Ethan Willers – Mantee
7-6-2023 – Cotton is coming along strong, most of what I’ve looked at this week is 10-13 nodes. Have a few fields we’ve started spraying plant bugs in.
Corn is filling out pretty good and with these rains the last few days should continue strong. Most is R3 to R4. Disease is pretty light. I have seen several plants scattered here and there with Physoderma brown spot.
Beans are relatively quiet. A few stink bugs moving in and some spots where green clover worms have built to about a third of the threshold, but that’s about it. Most of our beans are around R3, but range from just up to R4.
The sweetpotato crops looks decent. A lot of it has a now been plowed and layed by. Some fields have had really high flea beetle numbers, but these are fields we have had a history of flea beetles in, bifenthrin did good enough cleaning those up. At the end of last week, I started seeing some small cutworms, so we’re getting into the next generation. Also, this week I’ve seen the first few southern armyworms, not any alarming numbers though.
Mitch Leflore, Eupora
7/7/2023 – Cotton – 6th node to first bloom. Thrips are finally over but plant bugs in the usual hot spots – nothing crazy yet but I expect that to change. It seems like all cotton we check is surrounded by corn. Spider mites are showing up on spots.
Sweet potato setting is finished and looking good so far. I hope these last ones set last week survive the heat until they get a rain. Insects have been light with a few granulated cutworms in fields that were wooly before we set them. Also a few beetles but nothing to worry about so far.
Soybeans re from V2 – R4. Early beans look better after some rain and heat. Little bit of aerial web blight showing but probably going to increase with heat and moisture. Later beans coming on and have gotten them cleaned up. Insect wise, were finding a few cloverworms and a few stink bugs but nothing crazy yet.