Tag Archives: Field Scouting
2022 Cotton Scout School
AgriLife Extension will hold a Cotton Scout School on Thursday, June 2. Time: 8 to 11 am Location: Jackson County Services Building in Edna, TX. Cost: $10 per person 2 TDA IPM CEUs. Let us know if you’ll be able to attend!
Midge in Grain Sorghum
Grain sorghum fields range in maturity from nearing bloom to soft dough and all of these fields need to be scouted frequently. Blooming sorghum is susceptible to sorghum midge and field scouts are finding more midge in the fields this week. Scout sorghum fields 2-3 times per week until past bloom. Start by scouting fields on the south side (downwind) as the midge is a poor flyer and will be found on the field margins first. When you are finding them on field margins, move 150-200 feet into… Read More →
Rain and Square Loss
Scouting fields this week we are finding each field is different from the next. Much of this has to do with how the rain affected the field. If the water got off the field or did not stand for too many days, the crop was better off. Fields that held water are more likely to have square losses. Many of these fields have lost the larger squares leaving fruit smaller than match-head square. An example of this is shown. I removed the leaves showing the lower four squares have… Read More →
Pest Update and 2020 Insect Thresholds
This week we have been finding low numbers on insect pests in cotton, grain sorghum and soybeans. Cotton ranges from 1/3 grown square to mid-bloom. While most fields are below threshold, we have found a few fields with 30-40 cotton fleahoppers per 100 plants. Continue to monitor for cotton fleahoppers until bloom and treat when they exceed an economic threshold of 15 per 100 plants. Blooming cotton has had significant bollworm moth flights this week but so far, egg numbers have been low. Bollworms are important pests and should… Read More →
Unique Production Season Ahead
When I first moved down to Port Lavaca, at a crop tour, growers were talking how much experience they had farming. One replied he had “1 year experience, 40 times.” I think there is a lot of truth to that statement. It seems each year presents it’s own production challenges. So how is 2020 different from other years? There are two obvious differences: lower than normal rainfall and higher than average temperatures. Much of insect and plant activity occurs as a response to three variables. These variables are… Read More →
