Do Not Forget About Barnyardgrass
With no new herbicide modes of action under development and increasing problems with resistance to current herbicide modes of action, next year’s crop must be considered when controlling weeds this year.
Over the last several weeks corn has either passed or approached the V2-V5 stage of corn growth. During this time we have received numerous calls about corn having a yellow, streaky appearance. Many of the fields we received calls on
Holcus leaf spot, a leaf spot of corn caused by a bacterium, has been confirmed across a wide geographic area in the Mississippi Delta over the past two weeks. The disease is typically characterized by numerous cream to white lesions on the corn leaf that can oftentimes be confused with herbicide (paraquat) drift.
Rice Acreage: On March 30th USDA estimated that Mississippi will plant 135,000 acres of rice. That is down 16% from 2011 and the lowest acreage since the mid 1970’s. Talking with producers and seed retailers, I would estimate that Mississippi acres will be closer 100,000 acres. There are a lot of farmers across the delta that will not be planting any rice and it has been over 40 years since they have done that. Stagnant rice prices and high urea prices have not encouraged any additional plantings. The recent upswing in urea prices will not have a significant impact on rice acres.
The 2012 Mississippi Agricultural Industry Council and Mississippi Seedsmen’s Association convention will be held again at beautiful Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach, Alabama, on July 24-July 28, 2012. This will be our 19th year at Perdido Beach Resort.
In addition to the wheat rusts we’ve been observing over the past few months throughout our wheat production area, numerous additional foliar disease have been observed. The abnormally warm temperature and heavy dews we’ve experienced over the past several weeks have allowed several other wheat diseases to occur.
Sentinel plots will continue to be used to monitor for yield-limiting diseases throughout MS during the 2012 season. Even though in the past sentinel plots have more typically been used to monitor for the presence of soybean rust, the plots will be used to monitor for all economically important soybean diseases.
Heavy leaf and stripe rust sporulation continues to be a concern throughout much of the wheat production area in MS.
A problem that has become increasingly common in Mississippi and across the Midsouth over the last two years is corn injury from fomesafen (Flexstar, Flexstar GT, Prefix, Reflex) carryover.
USDA released their April World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report this morning and inside was one unforeseen surprise. Corn carry-over (the amount we keep in bins and elevators from one year to the next) was unchanged from the March estimate
I have been told in many places by many people that using poultry litter to fertilize crops spreads weed seeds. However, research by Auburn, the universities of Kentucky and Georgia, and most recently, Virginia Tech found this to be untrue.
Encouraging farmers to plant rice this year has been a hard sell. The rice industry is facing multiple issues that have put downward pressure on acres resulting in what will be one of the smallest rice acres since the early
Using herbicides with different modes of action is an excellent resistance management tool for glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth.
USDA released their annual Prospective Plantings report Friday morning (Mar 30). The report reveled that corn is the big gainer in terms of acres planted this year versus last year. Corn acres across the U.S. are expected to jump by
Wheat diseases continue to be identified throughout the MS production area. Barley yellow dwarf virus, leaf rust, powdery mildew, and stripe rust are all present in limited situations in several counties.
Paraquat is a critical component of an at-planting herbicide application.
The severity of the glyphosate-resistant (GR) Italian ryegrass problem in Mississippi has varied from year to year. This year has been the worst year since the initial confirmation in 2005, and GR Italian ryegrass is spreading.
In the last couple of days there have been calls coming in about armyworms in wheat. It is not unusual for us to get armyworms in wheat in MS but this at least 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule compared to years past.
The time until cotton starts to square is still a few months away, but it is not too early to start thinking about managing plant bugs in cotton. With the mild winter, plant bug population densities appear to be a little higher on wild hosts than they have the past couple of years.
Below is a short list of apps that I have found helpful in the agriculture world. This list is by no means the only ones available or useful. These are just the ones I found to be pertinent and can help your overall productivity. I am sure there are more apps out there that could be beneficial, but I may not have discovered them yet. As always, I welcome your comments.
Variety selection is one of the most critical components in maximizing soybean yields. Soil type, planting date, maturity group, and many other factors are key components in selecting the correct variety for your farm. The Mississippi Soybean Promotion Board offers a tool to aid you in your selection.
Corn is quite unique because much of its potential productivity is determined during the planting process. Thus, corn is often much more responsive or dependent on variables implemented during planting than other Southern crops. This article gives planting guidelines for enhancing corn productivity.
We are pleased to announce the EPA has granted the Mississippi Department of Agriculture a Section 18 emergency exemption allowing the use of anthraquinone, which is an unregistered product marketed as Avipel on field or sweet corn seed for the purpose of repelling blackbirds and cowbirds in newly planted corn fields in the state of Mississippi.
USDA released their monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report on Friday (Mar 9). With respect to crops, the report continues to project production and use for the 2011/12 marketing year which encompasses the 2011 crop. Therefore, the United State’s production