Louisiana Corn Planting Off To A Good Start
By Dan Fromme
LSU AgCenter Extension Cotton and Corn Specialist
"We've planted about 95% of our corn and 80% of it has emerged. I'd say 60% of it looks pretty good and the rest is fair. We've probably planted 5% of the cotton, as well. Luckily, that's all we've planted, considering the cooler weather this week.
"If it doesn't rain, growers will probably start putting quite a bit of cotton seed in the ground next week.
"At the beginning of the year, I thought cotton acres were going to be way down, between 260,000 to 280,000 acres. However, now I'm thinking it will be down farther, around 200,000 to 225,000 acres. Plenty of corn was planted this year. We had 150,000 more corn acres this year compared to the past several years. Based on that forecast, I'm thinking we're going to be down on cotton acres.
"About 60% of the state's cotton crop last year was planted in DP 1646, and that variety has been around for a while. Some people are looking pretty hard at PhytoGen 400, which is a newer variety. Since 1646 is a Bollgard II, a few growers also said they were interested in planting a Bollgard III because of the worm issues.
"The proverbial Easter storm came through on Sunday (4/12) and blew over some corn. Of course, it's too early to tell what's going to happen to it. The corn is still fairly young, luckily. At this growth stage, we will give it a few days and see if it can lift itself up again, and we'll know next week if it will recover.
"After our first corn planting in late March, a storm came through with a little cool weather, and corn had to be replanted in some areas due to that. It's been a rough start."
Richard Griffing, Griffing Consulting, LLC, Monterey, Louisiana
"We've been very fortunate south of Highway 84 from Natchez, Mississippi, to Jonesville, Louisiana. We're 85% of the way through planting in that area. We've already planted a tremendous amount of rice, cotton, soybeans and corn.
"Of the rice I scout, about 70% has been planted, and most of it is up. Wtih soybeans, about half of our expected crop also has been planted, and corn is done and fertilized. All the rain over the Easter weekend has held us up, but I think everyone probably will be running wide open Thursday morning. After that, it won't take long to finish everything else.
"My corn acres are down, and I think my cotton acres will be down 60% from 2019. However, my rice and bean acres are up.
"We will use more dicamba this year in cotton and soybeans than in the past. Growers who went with it in 2019 were very successful and didn't have any issues with it. We're planting more of the new FullPage rice. Growers will probably put FullPage on 50% of the rice acres I scout. All the rice I scout is in hybrids."