AgFax MId South Cotton Report, May 7, 2020
By Laykyn Rainbolt and Owen Taylor
Ag Fax
OVERVIEW
Cotton planting picked up steam over the last week. Rainfall continues to add delays, but not on a region-wide basis.
Cold temperatures are in the forecast going into the weekend. With poor planting forecasts in the near-term, some growers will hold off on covering more acres until warmer conditions return; others will take a chance and plant.
Steve Schutz, Ind. Consultant, Coushatta, Louisiana
"It's a hot, sunny day with the temperature at 85, which is nice. Everywhere I've been today (5/4), people can plant. Cotton planting just started today, and all my cotton farmers are rolling.
"Soybeans really surprised me where they've been planted. Except for a small amount of spot replanting, they've come up to a really nice stand. Plenty of them popped up before our last hard rain. The ground had dried up, but the wind was so bad that it caught some seedlings in the crust. But, that didn't turn out to be as bad as I expected.
"We have a small chance of rain tomorrow night and Wednesday, but maybe just 30%.
"A lot of people took prevented planting on corn, but my clients still managed to plant 3,000 to 4,000 acres. With the prevented planting, my corn will be off about 2,000 acres, which isn't bad with all things considered. Prevented planting has been really unusual where I work. I think the last time farmers filed a lot of claims was in 2016 when we had big floods."
Ashley Peters, Peters Crop Consulting, Crowville, Louisiana
"We're probably halfway finished with cotton planting, maybe a little better than that, and we may push that up to 75% before Friday when it's supposed to rain again.
"One reason that we're that far along with cotton planting has to do with our cotton acres being off about 50%. What will be planted this year won't take long.
"Very little cotton is up yet. The oldest is maybe starting to put on one leaf here and there. Growers planted some of it on the early side, but the majority went in late last week and this week."
Dan Fromme, Louisiana Extension Cotton And Corn Specialist
"Overall, 10% to 12% of our expected cotton acres have been planted. But after five-plus inches of rain last week, we couldn't work over the weekend.
"The ground is drying up fast now (5/4). In parts of the state, people are in the field again. If the weather stays with us, I think we can plant a significant part of this crop, although next week's forecast looks less than favorable – more rain and cooler temperatures."
Sebe Brown, Louisiana Extension Field Crops Entomologist
"In the past week, I've looked at a few central Louisiana cotton fields that appeared to have severe thrips injury, yet no adult or immature thrips were present.
"Thrips are often one of the first factors people attribute to seedling cotton injury. However, several other things can contribute to early-season cotton injury. These include cold temperatures, insect feeding, pre-emergence herbicides, sandblasting, seedling disease and water stress.
"At least so far, thrips numbers appear to be low this year, although that can change quickly. On our blog, I posted information about treatment options should that be necessary."