Livestock Show, Soybean Pests at Top of Strain’s Latest List

By Don Molino

Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Dr. Mike Strain was in Delhi Thursday night for the Northeast District Livestock Show Sponsor Appreciation Dinner.  During his daily report on the Voice of Louisiana Agriculture Radio Network, Strain pointed out the Northeast Distract Livestock Show is one of the largest in the state and is always “very, very well attended.”

“One of the greatest challenges of our time,” said Strain, “is to prepare the next generation to run this country, to feed this country and to take our place as elected officials and leaders of the nation. And programs like the Northeast Distract Livestock Show highlight some of the best of the best.”

On another matter, Strain mentioned an article in Delta Farm Press about soybean pests Louisiana farmers will need to look for in 2017. 

The two main insect challenges are once again the red banded stinkbug and the soybean looper.

Strain quoted LSU AgCenter entomologist Dr. Jeff Davis as saying the mild winter we’ve been having just hasn’t been cold enough to kill the vast numbers left over from last year.

“The red banded stinkbug is tolerant to ma insecticides,” says Strain. “Pyrethroids, for example, do a good job on green stinkbugs but not the red banded stinkbug.”

Soybean loopers are hard to control because they feed on the inside of the internal canopy into the middle of the plant, according to Strain, and insecticides tend to stay on the top one-third of the canopy.

The commissioner will be in Washington this week in his role as president of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture meeting with congressional leaders as work begins on the new farm bill.