Tucker Miller, Drew
7/26/2024 – Cotton — NAWF 2 to NAWF 5. Have some small acreage of replant just starting to
bloom. Mites have blown up and most of my acres have had miticide in the last two weeks. Plant
bugs have been lighter, getting 10 days out of most sprays. Our area has been very dry, we have
watered center pivots 4 times and furrow twice and starting on the third. Cotton has progressed
rapidly this year and we will have a lot of cotton approaching cutout in a week or 10 days. Looks like
we have an excellent crop, with exception to the dryland.
Corn — Most corn is going into black layer and has plenty of moisture to finish. The youngest corn is
starting to dent. No insect or disease issues to speak of.
Soybeans — R6 to R4. Haven’t had much insect pressure yet. A few spots are building stink bugs,
but they are R6, and we will try to ride them out. No bollworms in the young beans so far. Still
irrigating beans.
Mark Rogers, Hernando
7/29/2024 – Corn – Southern rust showed up in last 10 days but corn will outrun the rust. This last
week of rain finished off the corn irrigation needs.
Rice – I still have a few late planted rice fields to fungicide. Drained a couple of fields at the end of
last week. Rice stink bugs have been light. Sprayed 2 fields of rice of army worms
Soybeans – The early planted bean insect pressure has been light this year. I’ve sprayed 3 fields
around corn for stink bugs. Bean leaf beetles are building in a few fields along with light loopers.
Hopefully the beans will outrun them. On my wheat beans I’m in my second generation of bollworms
that are still below threshold. There is a mixed net of loopers, green clover worms, saltmarsh
caterpillars and bean leaf beetles as well.
Cotton – In general plant bugs have been light this year. Still dealing with a few of them on my border
fields. Aphid fungus is showing up and wiping them out. Spider mites have been an issue but last
week’s rain and insecticide applications are helping to control them. A few bollworms are showing up
under blooms but mostly one day old.
Bruce Pittman, Coila
7/29/2024 – Cotton – plant bug nymphs on the rise in my area, last 10 days of rainy weather allowed
them to get ahead. I am using a mixture of what few products we have left and praying. Spider mites
have been spotty and treated them along with a plant bug app. Cotton overall is fruited well and looks
good.
Corn is over in my area some has black layered and remainder is not far. Soybeans are maturing fast
– March and the first week of April beans almost over. Later beans have scattered loopers and
bollworm but have not treated as of this time.
Dee Boykin, Yazoo City
7-29-24 Corn – All is mature, and harvest has begun. I’ve heard very few yields and they were on
very high moisture so we’ll see soon enough.
Soybeans – Most of our soybeans are R5.5 to R6 but we have some later planted around R3.5 to 4.
Many of these later planted are wide row so prime for earworm moths to be attracted to for deposition
but our pod feeder numbers have been relatively low. We’ve treated less than 10% of our acres for
pod feeders. We’ve noticed very high looper moth numbers hovering in the cotton and soybean
canopies, so we’ll probably be battling them soon. Stink bug numbers have increased substantially in
the early soybeans, but the RBSB numbers are still surprisingly low. We’ll be desiccating some in a
week or so. Most have good yield potential.
Cotton – The cotton crop has a good fruit load, generally speaking. Insect pressure has been
relatively light but continuous, so we’ve been forced to make about the same number of insecticide
application we would have with heavy pressure. We haven’t treated any cotton specifically for
bollworms, yet. The recent irrigations followed by rain have encouraged cotton to grow so we’re
pouring the growth regulators on it to force the blooms to the top. We are running out of time to set
blooms. We’re seeing more potassium deficiency than usual. This is not uncommon for a heavy fruit
load. Hopefully this is a good sign.
The recent rainfall has really improved the outlook in our area for most crops.
Luke Richards, Yazoo City
7/30/2024 – Soybeans – Have a few fields at late full seed that have had no pest problems as of yet.
Starting to see a red banded or three but not more than 1 maybe 2 at a time so far. We had to
recommend we spray some young beans for pod worms, but we were able to hold off on a good
many of ours. Still finding some though but the numbers seem steady to declining. I’ve also seen a
few fields starting to yellow up like they are maturing – not burning up but this is a very recent
development.
Cotton – For the most part the cotton looks very good. Have about 500 acres at cutout. Mostly due to
lack of moisture I suppose because it’s 2127 behind a decade of grain that was planted end of April-
May 1st ish. I’ve been very impressed with the 2141 this year. In other news we have seen a few
bollworms in the BG3 but not many at all, maybe 1 a day between the scouts, Daddy and I here
lately. They aren’t doing very well for the most part. We have some cotton that just began blooming
and we will try and get aggressive with it with pix in the coming weeks; provided we have continue
having moisture. Hopefully we have everything cleaned up from the plant bugs and can be picky from
here on out
Phillip McKibben, Maben
7/26/2024 – Checking primarily dryland fields in the hill region of the state for so many years, I have
always been amazed at how productive some of our dryland farms can be when they receive water
during critical times. Unfortunately, not all farms have received enough rain in time to make the
bumper crop we've hoped for. It is a mixed bag.
Earlier planted corn sure got the ear size, but grain fill, tip development has suffered. Later planted
corn should have a great kernel weight, but when kernel counts per ear are in the 350 range,
everything else must be perfect to even have a shot at 150 bushels.
The soybean varieties these days can tolerate a stressful period and still crank up when the rains
finally come and make a crop. We're treating some Frogeye Leafspot for the first time in several
years. These days when a certain variety has a little less tolerance, it shows.
If you see Southern Blight spots with dead plants, pull the plants, shake the dirt from the roots, and
look for swollen roots and galls. We're finding that most of these 'disease' spots have Root-Knot
nematode infestations. If you carefully tear open the galls (white, Irish potato consistency), you can
see the gravid female nematodes with the naked eye.
Cotton has been typical. Plantbugs, some mites. We've over-pixed some varieties / fields, and
under-pixed some varieties / fields. Overall, I am satisfied, but growers that plant two varieties in the
same field, one variety needing multiple high-dose rates, and the other needing to be babysat to keep
it from pooping its pants has not made it fun for me.
The sweetpotato crop is moving along, we'll have some diggers cranking up well before the end of
August.
Trey Bullock, Seminary
7/26/2024 – Cotton is 16 – 22 nodes. Should see open bolls in some older cotton next week,
especially fields that went without rain for a long period. Plant bugs have picked up in Claiborne and
Warren counties. Eggs and small neonates aren’t hard to find but haven’t seen any slippage at this
point. Stink bugs are showing up in older cotton, but numbers are low. Rains in all counties and fields
this week finally. Our biggest concern is being able to get in fields to apply growth regulators. Some
fields have been on the books to be sprayed for a week, but rains have kept sprayers out of fields.
Peanuts are looking really good with no big issues at the moment. We are a week behind with
fungicide sprays around Hattiesburg area due to rains every day but I’m not gonna gripe about too
much rain.
Soybeans are from R3-R6, with a few fields that should get terminated next week. Again, rains have
been a blessing for all beans, especially these R3-R4 beans as they were beginning to suffer. VBC
have picked up a little this week but still low numbers. Kudzu bugs are beginning to get fungus.
Hopefully this will hurry up and get rid of some of the high populations we have.
