Justin George, Merigold
7/11/2024 – Rice: first 1/2 of the crop is just beginning to head. Very little disease, yet fungicide is
going out for sheath blight and Kernal smut prevention, especially in DynaGro and CL varieties
Rice Stinkbugs in first heading areas. Planning on Tenchu, wish we had Endigo labeled. I hear of
Armyworms south of 82. We haven’t had any, yet. Some late Ozark going to flood. Really late.
Soybeans: full irrigation where possible. Most of my area missed the Hurricane rains. That was a
heartbreak. It did rain north of Jonestown and good rain west of Tunica/61. Good for a lot of dry acres
there. Very low insect pressure, but it’s coming. Potato leaf Hoppers bother me, some hopper burn in
48x9s. We have some fungicide and Bifenthrin out, and some diamide too, where the Moth
flight/worm pressure is imminent (SW of Cleveland, and Blaine).
For the most part we are waiting on fungicide and worm bite to line up.
Growers started backing up on Fungicide this week… $10-11 beans starting a panic.
Corn: 1/4 starch line, watering, some good potential despite temps and drought. *I do have 200 acres
of Dryland corn that will be poor.
Jackson Cowart, Inverness
7/17/2024 – Cotton ranges from first bloom to starting the 4 th week of bloom. Aphids and spider mites
have been increasing in the hot, dry weather. Plant bugs have been consistently light all year, getting
a good many days between sprays. Dryland is starting to bloom out the top. All we can hope is to
catch a shower to help fill out what is there.
Soybeans vary from R1 to R6. Stink bugs have been light, especially north of HWY 82. Started
picking up some red banded stink bugs in Humphreys Co. but haven’t had to treat any yet. This flight
of bollworms has been light, even in beans at full bloom.
Charlie Craig, Friars Point
7/8/2024 – Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4 th of July long weekend. I would miss my guess if I
didn’t bet that most consultants were working at least part of that time.
Things have been reasonably quiet insect wise so far. At this point I have recommended treatment for
plant bugs on all the acres I look at once and some twice. All these treatments seemed to work well
7-10 days after treatment. I am beginning to see spider mites in scattered areas and have
recommended Zeal on one block. Overall, the crop still looks pretty good but needs rain.
Tim Sanders, Sarah
7/10/2024 – We just received a nice general rain of 0.5 – 2" across a large acreage. What a blessing!
Cotton is from 9th node to mid bloom. Plantbugs have been light in most areas. We have treated 1-3
times so far. We have gotten Diamond on most acres. Spider mites are beginning to show up in a
few spots, some where we have treated the least. We are using Zeal SC where they are needing
treatment. Most of the older cotton looks good right now.
Rice is from midseason to milk stage. We have sprayed a few fields for stinkbugs but most heading
is just getting started. Corn is dough to dent stage. Pretty quiet this year. Aphids coming in late on
some. Soybeans range from emerging to late R5. Most of the year has been quiet but we have
treated a few old fields recently for stinkbugs.
Greg Williams, Eads, Tennessee
7/10/2024 – Cotton ranges from 10 nodes to 18 nodes. Many fields in the area have replanted spots
where the older cotton is 15 nodes and replanted cotton is 9-10 nodes. Defoliation should be a lot of
fun this year! The early cotton looks really good. Insect pressure overall has been light. Plant bugs
picked up in the last 2 weeks. Aphids are light in spots. Just started finding a few worm eggs in the
last week or so; no sign of spider mites yet. Pix going out everywhere.
Soybeans ranges from R2-R4.5; wheat beans are R1-R2. Beans overall look good. Insect pressure
has been very light this year; a few brown/green stink bugs showing up in older beans. Hoppers are
also light. Some fungicides are going out although disease pressure has been light so far.
Corn looks good north of Memphis and south areas are a little dryer and showing more drought
damage. Disease pressure is light and growth stage is white/brown silk. Corn acres are down this
year
Ed Whatley, Clarksdale
6/20/2024 – Cotton – Plants bugs have gone from 0-60 in 10 seconds in some areas. The season started off slow for plant bugs. Plant bugs have drastically changed in the areas with no rain and have cotton mixed with grain crops. We just have to keep something on the cotton until the insect pressure slows down. Aphids are building in some fields. The theory about flaring certain insects with certain insecticides is kinda hard to understand sometimes. I’m sure y’all know what I mean. I started picking up mites today, I’m sure they will increase with this weather. Need a cotton shower!
Soybeans – Insect pressure is light in soybeans at this time, but I did sweep up 2 red banded stink bugs the other day. I’m sure the guys down south will keep me informed on the progression of the RBS. Approximately 75% of my soybeans were planted by the 20th of April. Growers are making fungicide applications on April planted soybeans as they reach R3/R4 growth stage. I feel and hope these soybeans will outrun any insect problems.
Corn- My corn is brown silk, milk stage. Disease pressure light at this time.
Overall, the crops look good. Half of my acres got 2 inches of rain Monday. The other half is irrigating to full capacity.
Jim Arrington, Senatobia
6/21/2024 – I have Cotton that ranges from 3rd true leaf to first bloom. I think the last time I sent a report I was complaining about being too wet. Things can change fast! After being so wet and crops having shallow roots a dry spell with hot temps sure shows up quickly. Luckily on 6/17 we got a good rain in Tunica and Desoto counties.
Plant bugs have been light to normal. We have seen good control with all insecticides. With older cotton we’ve put out Diamond @6oz with acephate or imidacloprid. We haven’t had aphids or spider mites yet. I found blooms on 3 different farms in 2 different counties this week so we will definitely see some early picking this year.
Soybeans range from being planted to R4. All the older beans really needed a rain to keep them growing. The ones that missed out are going to go backwards soon. We have had little to no insect pressure at all in beans. Just an occasional green stinkbug.
Don Collins, Yazoo City
7/17/2024 – Most of our corn is at black layer or within a week of it. Irrigated corn and what dry land
caught the necessary rain showers look promising.
Soybeans are anywhere from 10 nodes and R2 to R6. With the bulk of our crop around R5. Any
bean with a bloom on it has had a bollworm in it for the last 5 days or so. But numbers are low with
most hanging around 5 per 100 sweeps. We’ve had a few isolated fields where we found numbers in
the teens that were set up to spray, but we’re letting the rest ride for now. It’s hard to get these
growers motivated to spend money on a 10-dollar bean and I don’t blame them. Stink bugs have
been light, but we have started picking up a few Red Banded’s in the last 7 days. Hopefully they stay
few and far between. Our early April planted beans on irrigated ground have tremendous potential.
But we’ve got some dryland acres on the verge of burning up. A big rain in the next week would go a
long way.
Most of our cotton is in the 16-18 node range with anywhere from 3-10 NAWF depending on planting
date and rainfall. We have some dryland acres that are pretty much done whether we get a rain soon
or not. Overall, this cotton crop has the potential to be one of our best in recent years. Fruit retention
has been great to this point. We just need to string together a few rain showers down the stretch to
finish this crop out. Plant bugs have been light except for a few isolated areas surrounded by grain.
Bollworm moths have really picked up the last week and we’re starting to find some 15-20+% egg
lays. Finding a few 1–2-day old worms feeding on blooms this morning in BollGard 3 cotton.
Hopefully our plant bug sprays will be enough to finish them off.
Joel Moor, Greenwood
7/17/2024 – Cotton ranges from second week of bloom to NAWF 4. Plant bugs are still fairly light but
starting to pick up more consistently. Aphids have been spotty, and most were cleaned up with a
Transform shot for plant bugs Spider Mites are starting to flare up.
Corn is at 25-50% starch line. Watering one last time, hopefully.
Soybeans range from R2-R6. Picking up a few stink bugs in older beans but no red bandeds yet.
Finding bollworms in younger beans.
John Hartley North, Madison
7/18/2024 – Soybean: poisoning bollworm in late planted soybeans.
Corn: heading towards maturity on majority of corn.
Cotton: poisoning plant bugs, big egg lays in Widestrike 3 and Bollgard 3 from July 8-17 and no
slippage yet (both technologies holding).
Haley Easley, Greenwood
7/9/2024 – Cotton is in week 2 of bloom. It’s been very dry and trying to get water around has been
difficult. I’m sure layby will be compromised by activating with flood irrigation. Insect pressure has
been below normal but seeing some aphids and mites showing up this week. Plant growth apps have
been less than normal this year but will increase as irrigation gets around.
Corn is from blister to two weeks into dent. Places that don’t water are too late now for any help.
Overall, I think corn crop is good. Very low disease pressure now. Seeing the normal disease that
can’t do anything about and has little effect on yield.
Beans early R5 to some late plantings at R2. Not much happening in beans either. Seems awfully
quiet in all crops for now.
Crops look good overall, but I don’t think we can out yield the costs of producing these crops with
current price forecasts. It’s a tough time to be a producer.
Luke Richards, Yazoo City
7/11/2024 – Cotton: Most all of our cotton is blooming by now with some getting very close to
blooming out the top. We have some cotton that’s around 8 nodes tall that’s already been row
watered. Definitely the youngest cotton I’ve ever seen row watered. Most of the cotton is around 15-
18 nodes with several weeks of blooming left. Plant bugs have picked up a lot especially near the
older soybeans that are filling out pods and the usual suspects, aka corn and pig weeds. We’ve gone
with Transform in places where the pressure wasn’t overwhelming, thinking we could get longer out of
the spray, and it’s worked well in most cases. Acephate and a high rate of imidacloprid has also been
working well so far but that’s a recent development. Going with a pyrethroid and acephate in some
places where the pressure is very high. Starting to see some spider mites in those fields.
Soybeans: A little under half of our beans are mid-fill or very close to starting to fill out. Seeing very
little in them still. The majority of our beans are from Full Bloom to smaller. Long way to go. Starting to
see bollworms in some of them but nothing to worry about yet. Seen a good many moths here
recently.
Dee Boykin, Yazoo City
6/19/2024 – Corn is in the home stretch now. It’s from milk to dough stage and moisture has been plentiful until now. The water had started flowing last week but was halted by the rains earlier this week. The wells will be cranking again by the week’s end. We’ve been watching the various disease symptoms for a few weeks now but there’s been very little progress. We treated one field of a “new” variety with fungicide for NCLB. We experienced the worst green snap I’ve ever seen around May 21st on about 300 acres of corn that was V11-12. Probably 50% of the plants were snapped. The wind was strong enough to destroy a metal building next to the field.
Our soybeans are from V3 to R5. Thankfully about 85% are R3 or farther along in maturity. The majority of them are “layed by” as far as weeds are concerned. It’s been a challenge as always, but we really have a clean soybean crop so far. Insect pressure has been nonexistent to this point. Irrigation is kicking in now.
Our cotton crop is from pinhead square to about a week from first bloom. Fruit retention has been really good compared to the last few seasons. We’ve made up to three PGR applications on some fields but are still wrestling with some of my generation to make them understand the importance of early applications. We’ve noticed that the cotton plants have tremendous tap roots in virtually every field especially considering the wet conditions earlier. Hopefully this will pay off later. Plant bug pressure has been very light so far, but we have some very densely populated cotton that we’re already finding nymphs in. Unfortunately, we have too much help setting planters, if you know what I mean.
In summary, the corn crop has great potential; soybeans and cotton have a long way to go but a good start.
Virgil King, III, Lexington
6/20/2024 – Our cotton ranges from 8 to 15 nodes. We are getting out some plant bug treatments and adding some pix where needed. Cotton looks good at this time with a good square set and we are seeing some blooms this week in our oldest. We have started to see some aphid populations building up but nothing that needs any treatment yet. Growers have been on a mission to get weeds cleaned up. Overall, we have been able to keep weeds cleaned up but pigweeds have given up problems in areas of fields where they got too big during all the rain.
Our soybeans are from 5 nodes to 18 at this time. We are starting some water this week. Sweep net mostly still empty but we do sweep a few green clover worms, stink bugs, loopers and some salt marsh caterpillars. We have just had our first fungicide application go out this week.
Most all our corn is at R3. Keeping the water going on it. We have not found any significant disease in the corn this week. Pollination looks good on it also.
Lauren Green, Greenwood
6/20/2024 – Cotton is from 8th node to 14th node. Plant big pressure has been overall light up to date. Starting to pick up a few more up around edges and corn fields that border. Began watering this week as well.
Corn has pollinated and looks good. Trying to keep fields with plenty of moisture where we can.
Soybeans range from R2 to R5. Insect pressure has also been light in beans. Fungicides have started going out and most will get one next week. Some fields we are adding an insecticide while most have not. Watering all we can as well.
Wheat harvest has finished and ended up with an average crop. Soybeans will not be planted behind it.
Trent LaMastus, Cleveland
6/21/2024 – Corn ranges from early R1 to early R3. Disease pressure has been light with the exception of Curvularia, that is just about everywhere. I have a number of non-Bt corn acres and there have been a modest number of fall armyworms in it. It’s all later planted so I’m concerned about the next armyworm moth flight. My SW corn borer traps have been out for three weeks and remain empty as of 6-21-24.
I’m seeing more aphids in corn every year and this year they aren’t hard to find. The corn crop looks really good right now in large part to begin one of the most uniform stands I’ve ever seen.
Irrigation is wide open!
Soybeans: as uniform as the corn crop is, the soybeans are just the opposite. I checked some beans today that had emerged earlier this week. The rest are anywhere from V3-V18/R5. Insects have been very light to this point and disease likewise. Weeds and grass are being cleaned up on the middle-aged beans and irrigation started last week on the older ones.
Cotton: like soybeans, cotton is in a wide range of growth stages as well. I have cotton less than a week old to V14 about to bloom. Insect pressure has been steady, but light compared to previous years with the exception of aphids. I haven’t seen them this bad this early in a long time. Aphids aren’t everywhere, but where they are they are a problem. Interestingly, they are the worst where we applied Intrepid Edge for thrips.
Plant bugs are light and spotty but are starting to migrate out of other crops and native host plants.
Some lay-by is going out now and the poly pipe will follow close behind.
Billy Bryant, Greenwood
6/17/2024 – Cotton: Plant bug round 1 has gone out where needed. Pressure has been very light and
not all acreage has required treatment, but several farms received either Imidacloprid or Transform
where Plant Bug populations justified doing so. The oldest cotton at node 12 and I expect to see
irrigation pipe rolling out on it early next week. Square retention is very high in the absence of Plant
bugs. I began seeing a slight increase in Plant bug numbers next to my older corn late last week so
will begin trimming corn fields adjacent to cotton where necessary. The majority of the acreage is 8-
12 nodes. Dicamba is not as effective as it has been against pigweeds and teaweeds and have come
behind some with Liberty to get some burn on them. Laying by some fields now. Some to get Zidua
and some may get some Valor underneath depending on the situation and what they have to apply it
with.
Corn: Most acreage is tasseling and silking now. Fungicide has been applied to all 2 yr. corn.
Applications went out at V15. I’ve been seeing some Curvalaria Leaf Spot starting up in several fields
of 2 yr. corn along with a trace of Physoderma Brown Spot. I have some 2-gene sweet corn that is
highly infected with Curvalaria.
Soybeans: Fungicide has begun to go out on oldest fields. Adding some foliar K on some and will add
insecticide to most, I expect. Everyone is hustling to get water on our soybean crop. Many acres in
the R3 stage need a few more nodes and we don't need them to quit. Not much disease activity. Just
the usual Septoria on the bottom nodes.
Clay Horton, Leland
6/17/2024 – Soybeans range from emergence to R5. In the Lake Washington to Delta City area, we
have some low lying, heavy ground that has not been dry enough to plant until this past week; finally
finished the last block last Friday. Soybeans have been pretty quiet for the most part. We got the first
round of fungicides out last week and we will have lots of acres lined up this week and next. Insect
pressure has been low in most areas.
Corn ranges from VT to milk stage. Pollination looks good in all the older corn and disease pressure
is light for the most part, other than a few corn-behind-corn acres.
Jeff North, Madison
These photos were submitted by Jeff North for the June 7 th posting but were omitted. Each photo is
identified and titled with symptoms Jeff is seeing in the field.
John Clark Cook, Vaiden
7/11/2024 – Corn: Oldest corn at black layer. Looks like yields will be average to slightly above
average.
Soybeans: Range from R6 to V2. Started picking up armyworms in about 200 acres of wheat beans
this week. Other than that, and a few kudzu bugs, it has been extremely quiet this year. The oldest
beans will be desiccated in about 10-14 days.
Cotton: Range from peak bloom to 12th node. Started picking up bollworm eggs in the very few
BollGard 2 acres this week and treated them with Vantacor. Aphids have been heavy in spots, using
Transform to take care of them. Plant bugs have very lite on my cotton acres this year.
Bert Falkner, West Point
7/14/2024 – We need a good general rain everywhere! In talking with a grower this week, he
mentioned the 10-year rain average and he is 7” below on his farm.
All cotton blooming and NAWF running 5-7-10. Plant bugs overall light, so far. Have treated few acres
(mainly corn influenced) for plant bugs. Haven’t had the high numbers that we’ve had in recent years.
I have been treating a lot of acres in the past 10-days for aphids and haven’t seen much of a sign of
virus yet. Have treated few acres for spider mites. Moths are increasing and starting to see eggs –
glad all cotton is BG3.
Corn is pushing dent to dent growth stage. Corn moving fast during this dry weather. Rain soon will
still help kernel size.
Soybean in stages of reproductive growth stage. Very few fungicides have gone out to this date; dry-
weather markets playing a big decision in this. Trying to get Dimilin on all acres. Insects have been
very light. Starting to see moths in fields.
Peanuts are anywhere from Day 50 to Day 80. Starting our 2 nd soil fungicide on older peanuts plus
Dimilin. Had low level leaf spot. Soil disease is low so far. High percentage have received a plant
growth regulator treatment. Insects have been low so far.
Trey Bullock, Seminary
7/12/2024 -Cotton is from 8-20th node. Aphids are crashing this week from fungus. Plant bugs have
picked up a little in isolated areas but for the most part are very light. Eggs and small neonates are
easy to find. Small neonates behind bloom tags as well as in small squares are present in most older
cotton, especially in fields that have missed rains and cotton is a little stressed.
Peanuts are looking really good and most fields caught rains last week. Granulate cutworms are
really bad in sandy spots in fields but just in small areas. Disease at this point is really low with the
exception of a couple fields with bad rotation. Late leaf spot is showing up in these fields and are
getting extra fungicide on a tighter schedule.
Soybeans are from R1 to R5.8ish. Soybeans have been relatively quiet. Kudzu bugs are awful across
the board this year. I personally am sick of trying to check some of these fields although I do not see
them hurting plants. Picking up a little aerial web blight behind last week’s rains in some older beans
and will treat a small amount of acres this week.
