Ag Fax: MidSouth Cotton
By Laykyn Rainbolt, Contributing Editor
Katie Humphreys, Editor
Ernst Undesser, Editor
(This newsletter is a continuation of the legacy left behind by the AgFax founders, Owen Taylor and Debra Ferguson, who passed away in an automobile accident in December 2020. Their dedication to the integrity of these crop reports and the other AgFax newsletters was recognized across the nation in the ag media industry. Farm Journal is honored to continue the AgFax tradition.)
Sebe Brown, Louisiana Extension Field Crops Entomologist
“We have received an unsightly amount of rain the past two weeks. In high, well-draining ground, today (May 25) was the first day we were able to get in the field. Some guys were out at the end of last week, but all the cotton is behind. The northeast has not received near the rainfall central or southern parts of the state have.
“At my research station, we got 14 inches of rain in April. I don’t have the exact figures, but I would say we’ve gotten around that in May as well. We easily received a third of our annual rainfall in the last six weeks. Our average is around 60 inches of rain a year – in a typical year.
“Pretty much all my cotton in trials died. It’s about 10 acres worth of tests that must start back at the beginning. I like to have everything planted by May 10, but this year it will be about May 30. That’s just how the year has been going.
“We’ve gotten a lot of rain. The prevented planting cutoff date is today (5/25), and this is driving down the incentive to plant cotton. We’re seeing a major decline in cotton acres continuously. Our cotton acres have declined so much several gins are not opening in central Louisiana this year.
“A lot of cotton acres are shifting to soybeans. Redbanded stink bugs are not going to be a big issue this year due to the cold winter, and at $15 to $16 per bushel, you can still make money on a 40-bushel yield, especially with using limited insecticide this year. A lot of acres went to corn as well. At $6 per bushel, people can cashflow corn much easier than cotton.
“I have seen a few issues with pests in corn, but soybeans have been relatively quiet.
“I have seen a lot of issues with slugs, particularly on no-till acreage with a lot of leftover stubble or fields planted behind cover crops due to the high level of organic matter shielding the slugs at the planting surface. Once the crops emerged, the slugs started feeding heavily.
“Thrips have been fairly quiet in cotton. However, as this rain moves out, that will probably change. I am getting more calls about thrips and more interest in rescue sprays. It’s going to be hot this week with a lot of sunlight. We will accumulate a lot of heat units, but our cotton is still highly susceptible to thrips – especially with a lot of it still sitting in the bag. In the past couple years, thrips have come in a lot later than normally we anticipate. Soybeans are currently harboring a lot of thrips, so there’s a lot in the environment right now.
“Guys are finding bollworms in soybeans right now. Our earliest planted soybeans are at R1, but it takes a lot of defoliation to justify a spray in the vegetative stage beans. We don’t have a threshold at this point. Soybeans can stand a large amount of defoliation during the vegetative stage, as long as you’re not facing a stand loss. No one is at the point of stand loss, but the bollworms are isolated cases.”