Ag Fax: MidSouth Cotton
By Laykyn Rainbolt & Owen Taylor
Cotton has pretty much wound down through much of the region. Scattered insect treatments continue in late-planted fields, but the bulk of the crop is past the point that pests matter.
More bolls are opening in the central Delta.
Defoliation in most areas will start later than usual this year.
Corn harvest has all but wrapped up in parts of the lower Midsouth, and combines are running in soybeans in a few areas.
Hurricane Laura moved ashore near Lake Charles, Louisiana, as we closed out this issue early Thursday morning. How much it will affect Midsouth crops is an open question. As much as they could this week, farmers were cutting rice and corn.
Steve Schutz, Ind. Consultant, Coushatta, Louisiana
"We've sprayed a few plant bugs, but I think cotton has mostly cut out pretty well. A lot of fields are opening up in Louisiana now. At this point, I don't see enough green areas left in fields to worry about checking for worms. However, we'll do one more worm check right before the rain tomorrow (8/25).
"Where I work in Arkansas, some of that cotton is 2 to 3 weeks later than my cotton in Louisiana, and I’ll give it a good going over tomorrow, too.
“In my Louisiana cotton fields, 80% to 90% have at least one open boll somewhere. We’re just a little off track in terms of crop development, but not as much as I expected earlier. With the heat, cotton sort of evened itself out. I hesitate to say what’s normal now. Last year, we planted cotton a little late, so this crop is at about the same point compared to 2019. But in previous years, we were 7 to 10 days ahead of where we are this week.
"In soybeans, we applied a desiccant ahead of the expected hurricane (Laura) on earlier beans, but we’re also spraying for stink bugs in places. A pretty wicked worm complex developed last week in several fields – a combination of loopers, bollworms and velvetbean caterpillars. We treated 8% to 10% of the crop for that.
“So far, we’ve sprayed 70% of our beans for redbanded stinkbugs. Pretty much all those soybeans were right at threshold, so it wasn’t anything too bad. Our stinkbug population kind of shifted, and we’re finding plenty of green stinkbugs, which we haven’t had in a while.
“Farmers are harvesting corn as fast as they can. Every acre of corn I consultant on could be cut right now, in fact, but nobody has enough machines to do it. My Arkansas farmers started into their corn this week, but some have shifted their focus to irrigating beans.”
Sebe Brown, Louisiana Extension Field Crops Entomologist
"Our guys are pretty much at the finish line with cotton and are mainly waiting to defoliate. Cotton is opening all across the state. Other than a few of our latest fields, I think most guys have turned loose the vast majority of this cotton crop.
"In soybeans, loopers are popping up in spots. Some are at threshold, others aren’t. In most cases, guys are finding about a third of a threshold, 10 to 12 per 25 sweeps. A lot of people are asking when they can turn loose of beans for loopers. At R6-plus, people are letting them go.
"The big story right now is this hurricane (Laura). Some people are putting out insecticides to have protection in place ahead of the storm. The forecast says rainfall totals could run from 4 inches maybe 12-plus inches, depending on what side of the storm you’re on and where it goes.
“Farmers are trying to get a lot done because they’re expecting to be out of the field for an extended period. They know they won’t be able to spray by air after it calms down because all the applications already will be booked solid.
"Along with all that spraying, farmers are cutting a lot of corn and soybeans ahead of the storm. But some growers are opting not to apply a desiccant right now. They’re figuring that the leaves on the plants will help deflect some of the rainwater, and that would help maintain quality.”
Ashley Peters, Peters Crop Consulting, Crowville, Louisiana
"Not much is left to talk about with the cotton, and I’m not checking for bugs anymore. Mainly, we’re just waiting to defoliate. We’re hoping the hurricane (Laura) doesn’t bring any strong winds or heavy rain when it comes through. With our very earliest cotton, we may start defoliating around the middle to latter part of next week.
"In rice, we’ve drained a lot of fields, and some people started cutting last week and into this week. We did make fungicide applications yesterday (8/24) in our latest-planted fields. Other than that, we’re just spraying for stinkbugs where they pop up.
"We’re about 90% done with harvesting corn. A few growers had a limited amount of late-planted fields, and we still have a small amount of that acreage left to harvest. So far, yields have been really good. Everything I’ve heard has been 180 bu/acre or above, with certain fields and farms averaging in the 230s and 240s.
"We have cut very few soybeans acres yet. Some people in the area planted early and went with early-maturing varieties, and they were cutting beans a couple of weeks ago. But most farmers are just now making a good start. I’m sure that after this hurricane passes through, we will be harvesting more beans next week.
"We’re still treating loopers and stinkbugs in the soybeans, sometimes both in the same field."