Category Archives: April
Herbicide Management in Corn and Forage Sorghum Silage Crops
Jourdan Bell, Kevin Heflin, Vanessa Corriher-Olsen, and Pete Dotray In response to increasing silage demands, Texas producers are growing more corn and forage sorghum for silage. In recent years, some producers are also making late season decisions to harvest corn intended for grain as silage due to favorable silage markets. As producers make preplant agronomic decisions, it is important to select herbicides that are labeled for the silage crops if there is a contingency plan to chop a grain crop for silage. Although it is commonly… Read More →
Next “First Tuesday” Statewide Hemp Zoom Update from Texas A&M AgriLife
Dr. Calvin Trostle, Professor & Extension Agronomist/AgriLife State Hemp Specialist, TAMU Dept. of Soil & Crop Sciences, Lubbock, (806) 746-6101, ctrostle@ag.tamu.edu April 26, 2021 We will continue the statewide Zoom updates we began in March. I originally planned for “Third Thursday,” but there was a major conflict. The May update will be Tuesday, May 4, 5:15-6:30 PM Central Time. We will continue this throughout the summer at the same time on the first Tuesday. (If this is a poor timing for many hemp growers and industry staff,… Read More →
AgriLife Extension Hires New Small Grains Specialist
Kay Ledbetter Fernando Guillen, Ph.D., is the new Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service statewide small grains and oilseed crops specialist. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Beth Ann Luedeker.) The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service has hired Fernando Guillen, Ph.D., as the new statewide small grains and oilseed crops specialist in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Texas A&M University. He officially started March 1. “Dr. Guillen brings a wealth of agronomic experience to AgriLife Extension’s small grains program. We are excited to have him… Read More →
Unique COVID-19 Social-Distancing Message for Texas Farmers
AgriLife agronomist alerting Texas farmers about their importance to remain healthy Adapted from AgriLife Today, April 4, 2020 The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service has specialists and agents statewide helping to keep Texans educated, informed and safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Calvin Trostle, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension agronomist in Lubbock, is a regular guest on many agriculture radio programs in the Texas High Plains and beyond. His message, however, is reaching farther than ever before as stations share his message over two dozen syndicated affiliates. Given his… Read More →
Late-season Weed Control in Wheat
Dr. Calvin Trostle, Extension Agronomy, TAMU Soil & Crop Sciences, Lubbock, TX (806) 723-8432, ctrostle@ag.tamu.edu Wheat farmers in the Rolling Plains, Concho Valley, and especially the High Plains, may have enough time to implement some late-season weed control in problem fields. For some farmers, earlier weed control with 2,4-D products may have given incomplete control for mustards, London rocket, kochia, etc. As many farmers across Texas know there is always some risk using growth-regulator type herbicides in wheat due to injury potential on grain yield. These herbicides include… Read More →
What is wrong with my wheat?: Multiple issues perplexing growers in Central and South Texas
by Dr. Clark Neely, Statewide Small Grains Extension Specialist, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension 2017 has been another interesting year once again for wheat growers in the Texas Blacklands and South Texas. Chances are you or someone you know who grows wheat has asked at some point, “What is wrong with my wheat?!” There appears to be a number of factors at play this spring causing wheat to look abnormal, poor, or “raggedy”. I will attempt to cover the most likely culprits and some less likely ones too in… Read More →
Sugarcane Aphid Update
by Robert Bowling, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist –Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Sugarcane aphid on sorghum in Hildalgo County was detected on March 21, 2017 by Danielle Sekula-Ortiz. Sugarcane aphid colonies were small and the field had not reached an economic population but there are several important considerations with this detection. Winged aphids were found in some of the colonies. This means the aphid is mobile and strong southerly winds will carry the aphid into other areas of the Rio Grande Valley and eventually to the Upper Gulf… Read More →
GOSS’S WILT OF CORN: ABILITY TO OVERWINTER IN TEXAS
by Thomas Isakeit, Professor and Extension Plant Pathologist, College Station Goss’s wilt is a bacterial disease of corn, caused by Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. nebraskensis. In recent years, its range has expanded beyond the Midwestern states, where it had been confined for decades. Outbreaks in Texas were confirmed in 2009, 2014 and 2016. Most of the affected fields were in the High Plains, but there have been occurrences in the Blacklands and Upper Coast growing areas (Figs. 1 &2). At this point, I don’t know whether these occurrences represent… Read More →
Within-Row Plant Spacing—Ensuring Planter Accuracy of Seed Drop
by Calvin Trostle, Extension Agronomy, Lubbock, (806) 723-8432, ctrostle@ag.tamu.edu In recent newsletters for Texas Grain Sorghum Association I first discussed row spacing for grain sorghum then especially in-row spacing of seed drop and the accuracy (or lack thereof) of uniform seed spacing within the row (see http://texassorghum.org/sorghum-tips). Here, I expand the with-in row discussion to all Texas row crops. On a smaller scale of about two to six inches within any row spacing, it may seem the uniformity of seed spacing is not that important for row crops. Yes,… Read More →