Lee Boyd, Boyle
5/27/2024 – Rice: Drifts were a major problem this year especially when Sencor was involved. Rice never wants to grow out of Sencor, best to flood up and push rice, then drain it back down and reflood again. Another issue with drifts is the higher cost involved with weed control. Most rice going to flood had to have a lot of Clincher and Prowl during wet weather weeks to control grass. All rice had insecticide seed treatment but had to spray a few fields with pyrethroid or Belay to control adult weevils in the hybrid rice fields. 75%-80% of rice fields are going to flood. The rest of the rice will go to flood in 10-12 days.
Beans: A few bean acres had to be replanted due to weather. Cleaning up fields with several different mixes before beans come up. Overall beans are growing good and already at lay-by stage. Deer (wildlife) only problem hurting the stands. Yellowcress, swinecress, and knotweed changed up the standard weed control program and with dicamba being phased out, it will only become a bigger problem next year. No insect problems in beans, only seeing a few yellow striped armyworms and bollworms.
Corn: Early in the year, there was a big flush of brown stink bugs, but glad the last rain activated lay-by and fertilizer. Probably 8-9 days from tassel on the older corn.
Mark Rogers, Hernando
5/28/2024 – Cotton is 95% planted and at cotyledon up to 8-leaf stage. Most old cotton received one shot of Intrepid Edge; still battling some thrips around wheat but numbers have dropped on the whole. We are sweeping cotton today and plant bugs are light.
Rice is 100% planted with 60-70% to flood. The weather has been a problem trying to get herbicide and fertilizers applied of late. Insect pressure has been light.
Corn was planted early; all Halex based applications have been applied. The majority of corn has had nitrogen applied and washed in. Had a few stink bugs early; corn crop looks good.
Soybeans are at R1 to R4. We planted early and have a pretty bean crop. Finishing up the last herbicide application on old beans this week. Catching an occasional stink bug.
Cutting sample of wheat today so double crop beans will be early this year, hopefully.
Greg Williams, Eads, Tennessee
5/31/2024 – Wheat harvest has started, and most are saying an average crop so far. All the rain in May has caused some problems with harvest.
Corn looks really good at this stage. Acres are down in our area this year. Growth stage ranges from V2-V9; no insect pressure.
Due to the rain in May, cotton acres are falling off. Most have finished planting and working on replant areas. Growth stage ranges from cotyledon up to 6th node; heavy thrips pressure. Treating all cotton except ThryvOn cotton, which looks good on thrips control. Lots of dicamba going out with Liberty and PowerMax 3-5 days after.
Soybean acres will be up due to prices and rain in the area. Still a lot of beans to be planted. Growth stage ranges from 1st trifoliate up to R1; no insect pressure.
Tim Sanders, Sarah
5/31/2024 – Wet, wet, wet. There is a lot less corn in our area this year. What we look at is about V8 and looking good. Rice is from 1 leaf to about 7-10 days from midseason. We are really having trouble getting levees pulled due to the weather. We are splitting a lot of fertilizer to keep rice going. Most flooded rice looks good though.
Cotton is from not going to get planted to about 8 leaf and beginning to square. Thrips have not been too bad. We treated some acres and had others we lined up but kept getting rain until we were out of thrips stage.
Soybeans are from not planted to R2. Pretty quiet there. Overall, we have been dealing with weedier crops and catching up due to rain. We will deal with prevented plantings in cotton and rice this year. Some may go to soybeans, some may not. We are blessed to have what we do in the ground. Hopefully the sun will come out and we will have a great year from here on.
Will Price, Water Valley
5/31/2024 – Cotton: Most of my cotton is anywhere from stand establishment to 2 leaves. Thrips numbers are moderate to multiple per plant, but seed treatments are minimizing damage, and we are holding off treatments for now.
Corn: All the corn is 2-10 days from tassel and has just received or will receive a “pre-tassel shot” of fertilizer today.
Rice: We are 3-5 leaf stage and have just made our “Newpath” application a few days ago. Crop is fairly clean with a few broadleaves the only issue right now.
Soybeans: Ranging from tidying-up replant/spot plant to V9/R2. Older drilled beans are receiving lay-by herbicide applications. In older row beans, we are running furrow plows and laying pipe. Some acres have received their first irrigation cycle. All-in-all, we are off to a solid start.
Tim Richards, Yazoo City
5/28/2024 – We’ve had a very difficult time getting the cotton in our area planted due to rain. As for our Client’s intended planting acreage we still like roughly 30% to get planted. Rain is in the forecast, and it looks like it’s going to be late if we get it planted but as of today that’s our intentions. Cotton stages range from just up to eighth node. To date we have had no insecticide treatments and very little if any herbicides going out. It’s getting very nerve racking with the inability to do fieldwork. Soybeans are the same situation, still have quite a few to plant but intend on still planting them. We have had no insect problems, but we are getting behind on herbicide work.
Donny Adams, Greenville
5/29/2024 – Cotton: Anywhere from just emerged to 7-8 nodes. Had some cotton planted on April 4th that may bloom by the end of next week. It should be interesting. Insect pressure has been very light or the imidacloprid/acephate combination has done an excellent job, just haven’t seen much thrips pressure. Started sweep net on older cotton this week, picking up very few plant bugs. As numbers rise, will use imidacloprid/pix/boron shot; generally, put out two. So far, the crop has looked excellent.
Soybeans: Really just now getting in looking at them closely. Will begin sweeping R2/R3 beans this next week.
Just an add on: Really seeing a big problem with this Johnson grass! Anybody with any thoughts , please share them. Thanks
John Hartley North, Madison
5/29/2024 – Corn: Majority of corn is 7-10 days from tassel on earliest planted with exception to some later planted corn that 2-3 weeks from tassel. Moderate brown stink bug damage back early when corn was 5-7th collar in just a few high-pressure situations (bayous, heavy rye grass infestations, stagnant growing conditions due to rainfall). Double backed everywhere where damage was worse and can tell no difference. The majority of fertilizer tassel applications will go out this week and over the next 14 days. Some irrigation has started but very little due to adequate rainfall.
Soybean: Still being planted to 11th node. Soybeans look better to me than last year but fields still trying to be cleaned up and lay-by going out. Have been behind for the most part from weed control this year because of weather. Everything is shaping up now. Scattered bollworm in young beans a couple of weeks ago and scattered stink bug (nothing of any issue) but a lot of later planted soybeans this year compared to last 4 years. Some irrigation has started but very little.
Cotton: Still being planted to 6th node. The oldest cotton just barely starting to initiate squaring. I poisoned the least amount of thrips I’ve ever had to do. They were not an issue this year except for very few exceptions (Cotoran damage and stagnant growing cotton/ fields grown up in grass) where we piggy backed .4# acephate/ac (highly effective). Thrips picking up on later planted cotton but still light damage. Isolated aphid colonization in few spots. All good on cotton for now.
Larry Walton, Tupelo
5/30/2024 – The corn crop is really looking good with most side dressing complete at this time. I have some dry land corn that will be tasseling next week. A rain shower this weekend would be really nice. No issue at this time in corn. Timely weed control with POST plus residual herbicides has really worked well this year.
Soybean – Soybean planting still going on strong at this time. Some of the early planted soybeans are looking great. With these hit or miss showers, some growers are now working extremely hard to get weeds under control. I have not observed any major insect pressure at this time.
Cotton – Still several acres of cotton to be planted, however some June planted cotton last year yielded extremely well in my area. With the emerged cotton, some thrips sprays are being made at this time. As with both corn and soybean, acres of cotton that have emerged could use a general rainfall this weekend.”
Trey Bullock, Seminary
5/30/2024 – Cotton planting and replanting is finally wrapping up or should if we don’t get too much rain. Most cotton is from 4-10 nodes. Plant bugs have been non-existent to this point. Rains in the last two weeks have put a big gap in the crop. Most cotton should be in the ground by today or tomorrow if rains miss. Lots of replanted areas in fields due to deer, especially on the west side of my area. Growers have tried biosolids along with spray deterrents and deer are just relentless. This is really becoming a huge problem, and has been a big problem, but seems to get worse every year. Thrips were worse than I’ve ever seen around the Hattiesburg area. Most early cotton was treated, and I can’t remember the last time I had to treat for thrips across the board in this area. Cover crops may have played a big part in this along with rains stunting cotton and it not growing off like normal.
Peanuts are from just replanted to 40DAP. Pre’s worked well and we are staring to run herbicides trying to get ahead of rains forecast for the weekend. No bug issues much in peanuts other than some scattered cutworms. Fungicides will go out next week on older peanuts.
Soybeans are from in the sack to R4. Early beans look great. Beginning to pick up fall armyworms in grass in huge numbers. A lot of fields that grew up with just a little grass before getting planted are having to be treated. Cutworms are still a problem in young soybeans. Most of these fields are being planted into a thick cover of either rye grass behind winter calves or cover crops that got out of hand. Still a good bit of soybeans to be planted.
