Walking & Talking Fields: August 19, 2024

Lucas Pitre

Direct Agronomics, LLC

Ville Platte, LA

Evangeline Parish

It’s dry…we went from the end of July when we were trying to look for a break in the rains to now where we’re looking for a rain. We’re trying to finish out the last of these crops, and it’s not going easy.

It depends on where you’re at, on how the crops are looking…the late planted beans are looking really good, but this dry weather, as they move into pod filling stages, is really taking a toll on them. A really good rain would really set this crop up for a good finish.

Cane could use a good rain, but it’s holding on. Ripeners are going out, so we’re sitting pretty good on that.

Wells are pumping pretty much non-stop on the later rice. We could use an overall good rain to give the wells a break.

Insects have been on an average level, nothing really out of control. We’re staying vigilant on the later crops, finding where the insects are, and taking care of them.

Weeds were an issue earlier on, but we pretty much got them under control, but I guess the biggest issue we have now is preparing some of these cane beds for planting, moving into preplant or at planting herbicides. That’s kind of been a challenge with some of these guys planting and missing the rains, so it’s going to change their plans somewhat, where we’ll have to move into mixtures for post-emergence applications, but still we’re hoping to get a rain to activate those. We need rain badly right now, and a 1-2 inch rain over an afternoon would be very beneficial, but we definitely don’t need what we had at the end of July, 7-10 days of afternoon showers. It’s always either too much or not enough, but we’re pushing through.

Chris Ward

Ward Crop Consulting, LLC

Winnsboro, LA

Franklin Parish 

Things are looking good, corn harvest, I’d say, is wrapping up. Most of the guys are in the short rows, if they’re still cutting. A lot of them are already finished. Yields seem to be average to a little above average, we didn’t have the barn buster that we kind of thought was out there, but I think everybody’s pleased.

The cotton crop is progressing along…I have cotton I check that’s April cotton to mid-late May cotton.  We still have a ways to go on the May cotton. The bugs have been relatively light, I would say surprisingly light in cotton, with maybe three sprays, maybe four tops so far. It’s heading up in a hurry. The cotton crop looks good to me, but of course it’s a long way from a cotton picker. We’re depending on the weather from here on out.

Soybeans, I think this week we’ll probably get most of the April beans desiccated. There’s some that’s been harvested, not a whole lot, there’s some guys just now getting started in their earliest planted beans. Seems like we’ll get in the “between beans” next week, and we’ll just be waiting on those late planted June beans. The insects on those have been from relatively non-existent to terrible, depending on where you’re at. We’ve had mostly brown stink bugs in most of my stuff, but a few pockets where we’ve had a lot of red-banded stink bug pressure, especially last week…we really got after them last week. And loopers…

Weeds have been a problem…we had so much rain early, it was hard for these guys to get their herbicides out timely. Of course, that depended on where you were at also…in some areas, it was not a problem.

We don’t really need rain right now. These guys with cotton really don’t need a rain. It’s all irrigated, so they’d rather get that last irrigation in themselves. The guys with the June beans could use a rain, but the rest of them don’t want it now. Especially thinking back on two years ago with the August we had, they don’t want to see a rain cloud coming.