Justin George, Merigold
5/9/2024 – Rice ranges from emerging to 5 leaf and headed to flood. Muddy for the last 7 days, so planes
are mostly spraying Preface/Prowl or Clincher/Prowl trying to catch up to or stay ahead of grass.
Ground rigs will run with weed/grass sprays soon, levees going up when dry, fertilizing and flooding
by 3rd week of May. 90% of the rice is planted and up. Mostly ahead of schedule.
Soybeans: 90% planted in Bolivar and Sunflower County. The North Delta has a little ways to go, just
needs a 5-day run of dry weather. Fall pre-emerge herbicides (Dual, Command, Valor, Boundary,
Blends) need to catch on with everyone! Ryegrass is not a good thing in any crop!
Spraying in the fall and before planting (even again in March – well before planting) is better than
fighting the winds, and neighbors’ crops being up, at planting!
Emerging stand to V5 almost blooming plants… more April1-5 beans this year than I’ve ever seen.
Will see how that works out!
Corn: Growers really need someone to be looking at their corn!!! There is a lot that can happen to
young corn, and some guidance really pays off…(cheap insurance)! That’s all I’m saying.
More corn acres were planted than I think anyone expected. All speculation for a higher price!
Andy Tonos, Greenville
5/13/2024 – Rice – What little I will have planted this year is not in the ground yet unfortunately.
Soybeans – Anywhere from still in the bag to R1. Weed control has been good so far. Not many
replants yet. Been a struggle to get planted in some of my areas in the south delta.
Corn – Most of it has been laid by and is looking a lot better. No replants to any extent this year.
Cotton – No cotton for me this year thus far.
Tucker Miller, Drew
5/14/2024 – Cotton – 90% planted. The oldest cotton is 2 true leaves with very little thrips pressure
thus far. Had to spray about 300 acres for cutworms on no till land. Starting on some weed control
with liberty and select, trying to save dicamba for later. Hope to finish planting cotton this week.
Corn – corn ranges from 8 collared leaves down to 4. Finishing up herbicide applications on the
younger corn. The second shot of fertilizer is going out on a lot of acres and plowing the middles for
irrigation. Very little stink bug damage early.
Soybean – oldest soybeans 6-7 nodes are starting to bloom and the youngest are just coming up.
Very little soybean pressure in soybeans thus far. Applying herbicides and plowing the middles for
furrow irrigation.
Steele Robbins. Greenwood
5/13/2024 – A wet spring has made weed control and planting a challenge that continues. Submerged
corn , then brown stinkbugs showed up …. Treatments made where threshold met. Soybeans and
cotton are still going in the ground. Early planted beans look good, but a few caterpillars have started
showing up. Cotton that is up and ranges from cotyledon to 3rd true leaf. We just need a couple of dry
days to finish up planting!!
Joel Moor, Greenwood
5/13/2024 – Corn ranges from V3 to V8. Working on fertilizing, plowing, and laying by. Stink bug
pressure has been light and damage minimal thus far.
Soybeans range from still in the bag to R1. Working on cleaning up weeds in younger beans where rain caught us and didn’t get PRE out in time. Will start plowing and laying by older beans soon
depending on the rains.
Cotton ranges from in the bag to 2 true leaves. Need rain on some planted last week to keep from breaking necks on the top ends and having enough moisture to germinate on heavier low ends.
Starting to find a few thrips on older cotton but nothing to warrant treatment.
Charles Downs, Indianola
5/13/2024 – Beans range from unifoliate-R1 stage. Started finding a few small worms in the top of
blooming beans this week. Working on cleaning up weeds where pre-emerge wasn’t applied behind
the planter. End of March planted beans are really growing, just not many of them this year.
Corn ranges from V6-V10 stage. Stinkbugs have been light in most places, but still can find 3-4% on
the edges next to woods or heavy ryegrass areas. Corn is growing fast. Working on layby to clean up
weedy areas before the corn gets too big. For the most part, the corn crop looks good after having a
rough start with stands.
Rice is just planted and starting to establish a flood on some of the first planted. It’s been hard getting
rice sprayed timely this year. Rain every week and cautious pilots have delayed herbicide
applications. We are finally about to start getting ground rigs in to get sprayed and fertilized. Will have
to start flushing by the end of the week if we miss the next rain chance. From one extreme to the next.
John Clark Cook, Vaiden
5/13/2024 – Corn ranges from tasseling next week to v3. Had some issues with crickets (of all things)
early on and a few armyworms but nothing of any real concern. Some of what I check experienced 80
to 100 mph winds last week with the youngest corn being laid flat. Most had stood back up by today
but some is still struggling.
Soybeans: range from 11-12 nodes (R1) to still in the sack. Had good luck planting early with March
20th being the earliest. Insects have been nonexistent so far. The biggest problem has been dealing
with T-weeds this year. Been going out with Anthem Max/Prefix + Python and Roundup to try and get
a hold on them.
Cotton: ranges from 5th node to still in sack. With cotton at 75 cents and rain in the forecast for most
of this week a good bit may stay in the sack. Beans will replace those acres hopefully. Few thrip
around but nothing at treatable levels. Weeds, yep, we got them and maybe we can get them under
control sometime in the near future. Good bit of Phytogen planted this year, gonna give Enlist a good
test.
Hope everyone has a safe and productive season! are planting usually take us 140 days.
Trey Bullock, Seminary
5/14/2024 – Cotton 50% planted; Peanuts 90% planted; Soybeans 30% planted
Cotton ranges from in the sack to 4th node. Rains in the past 2 days exceeded 6” in areas on the
west side of area and have some fields under water. Expecting some of those fields to stay that way
for 18 hrs. Most of this is cotyledon cotton. 3-4” fell in most of my other counties with the exception of southernmost counties. Counties down south have not had significant rain for 2 months and
planting has been halted. Have seen more cutworms this year than remember seeing in a long time.
Haven’t treated any but they’re around enough to make you spend a little more time. Thrips have
been average to above average so far but good moisture and fast-growing cotton have gotten us
through early planted cotton.
Peanuts are from just cracking to 3 weeks old. Pres are holding well and really no issues in peanuts
at this time.
Soybeans are from in the sack to v-3. The few early beans I have really look good. Cutworms have
been an issue where planting followed too close behind burndown but really haven’t seen enough to
treat or any stands being reduced enough to treat.
Praying all have a great crop this year with minimal problems. I know most growers need a good year
after the last two. Everyone stay safe!!
