Ag Fax: Midsouth Cotton

By Laykyn Rainbolt and Owen Taylor

AgFax

Midsouth cotton planting has mostly wrapped up for 2020. A few growers were likely still planting early in the week. Scattered replanting and spot planting also continued as the calendar flipped into June. So, how much cotton the region will plant this year is pretty much a certainty now. It's just a matter of running the totals once the dust settles.

Planting success depended on how much it rained, when it rained and how quickly soils dried up. Cold conditions in May also held up both planting progress and plant development. Some growers planted 100% of their intended acres, while others fell short by varying degrees, based on our calls over the last two weeks.

Thrips treatments have been necessary in places. In Louisiana, aphid applications started on a limited basis and a small amount of older cotton has been sprayed for plant bugs. In one case, the rapid plant bug accounted for about half the plant bugs one consultant found in some sampling. As cotton pests go in this region, the rapid plant bug is about as obscure as they come. See comments by Sebe Brown.

Steve Schutz, Ind. Consultant, Coushatta, Louisiana:

"Our cotton is doing much better than right after we planted it. With this warm weather, it has really jumped in the last three or four days (from 6/1). We've finished replanting. About 600 to 700 acres of cotton won't be planted and they'll take the prevented planting. In this case, it was land that they owned. If they had rented the ground, they probably would have replanted.

"My farmers will take a risk with June-planted cotton when the market is at 70 cents but not at 50 cents.

"We had to spray for thrips, which doesn't surprise me because the cotton got to that button stage or first true leaf and just sat there for a while. It's moving on now but thrips found it in the meantime. The cotton we sprayed last week for thrips has reached four to five leaves, so it'll be out of danger. That's probably a third of my acres.

"Weeds are coming up now, but we've got plenty of options for that. It's been wet, so those weeds haven't hardened off yet, and we've been able to kill much bigger weeds than normal. Sometimes that worries me because people might get a false sense of security about how well certain herbicides will normally perform.

"We couldn't use dicamba because rain kept us out of the fields so much. But we used Liberty in our beans and corn, and it did really well. Even the pigweed that it normally wouldn't kill was gone. Again, we had that moisture on our side. Right now, we're holding our own.

"Corn started out rough, but with this sunshine now, it's taking off. Where corn is into the fertilizer, it looks especially strong. But I think, again, people could end up with a false sense of security. That corn looks like it could be above average, but I'm seeing areas where roots were waterlogged and aren't as developed as we'd expect. Farmers might be tempted to add extra nitrogen, but I'm thinking it won't give an economic return.

"Early on, we found instances of Northern corn leaf blight, but it has since disappeared.

"People are still planting soybeans. Older soybeans are already up to the third or fourth true leaf. Some of my narrow-row fields are actually beginning to canopy. Like with the other crops, they've really taken off in the last several days. The beans came up better, too, than corn or cotton. Farmers concentrated on planting those other crops during mostly poor conditions. That delayed soybeans. By the time we could plant beans, soil temperatures had improved."

 Ashley Peters, Peters Crop Consulting, Crowville, Louisiana

"Our cotton ranges from two true leaves up to some of the oldest that's starting to put on little squares. We're cleaning up thrips in several fields where we're applying herbicides.

"We've finished planting cotton. This time last year, it was dry, and we were watering fields to try to get cotton up to a stand. From that standpoint, we're in better shape this year. We've got a stand on everything, and we aren't having to run water.

"I did see some aphids yesterday (6/1), which is kind of weird considering how early it is, but they would have to be a lot worse before I would be concerned.

"The bulk of our corn has finished pollinating. We've watered most of it where we can and are probably on the second irrigation on much of it. A very limited acreage of our soybeans are at R4, but the bulk of them range from emerging to just starting to bloom."

 Sebe Brown, Louisiana Extension Field Crops Entomologist

"Places in central Louisiana that received too much rain earlier now need a decent rain. It's hot and dry in spots. In north Louisiana, irrigation started up in a lot of corn. I've also heard that irrigation cranked up in some of the older cotton on that tougher ground that needs a shower about every 10 days.

"That tropical storm (Cristobal) in the Gulf of Mexico could bring rain, but hopefully not too much.

"We hit almost another wave of thrips in specific parts of the state, like Tensas Parish, which is our largest cotton parish. In places, thrips pressure was pretty severe, although in other areas they weren't an immediate issue.

"Where thrips developed in Tensas Parish, it was in cotton planted in the first and second weeks of May. People were finding upwards of 20 immatures on plants. Oversprays went out in places but, again, parts of the parish didn't have treatable numbers.

"Thrips are mostly coming off alternate hosts. Weeds along ditch banks have been drying down in places. Herbicide applications also are taking out hosts. Italian ryegrass has been pretty common in places, and herbicides desiccated it, which pushed thrips into cotton. Wheat is another host for thrips, but wheat acres are pretty negligible this year.

"Aphid numbers also are picking up in cotton, and applications have started on some farms. We've gone without rain for 10 days and highs have moved into the 90s, which is a recipe for aphids. I wouldn't be surprised if spider mites aren't far behind.

"Plant bug applications also started in our earliest cotton. One consultant said he was making an aphid application in one field and was beginning to treat plant bugs in another.

"One consultant also said he was finding a threshold level of plant bugs, with about equal numbers of tarnished plant bugs and rapid plant bugs. We don't often find rapid plant bugs, but they can inflict some serious damage in cotton. Chalk that up to 2020 being an odd year."