With Seed-Applied Treatments Holding, it’s Time To …Beat Resistance, Improve Quality
February 26, 2009 Quite obviously the results are not in – and won’t be until after harvest – but at first glance, it appears seed-applied insecticides, nematicides and fungicides are doing as well as can be expected.
“In a normal year with normal temperatures, seed treatments will hold,” says consultant Ty Edwards. “We have been feeling extremely heavy thrips pressure this year, and we have had to spray some cotton that nearly made it through the thrips stage. We didn’t quite get there. But if you want to see what seed treatments do, go look at some untreated cotton.”
He recommends either Aeris or Avicta Complete Pak. Aeris is Bayer CropScience’s combination of an insecticide and nematicide. The fungicide Trilex can be added to Aeris. Avicta Complete Pak is Syngenta’s three-way combination of Avicta nematicide, Cruiser insecticide and Dynasty fungicide.
Ty is the consultant for Travis Brooks, his son Heath and nephew Brad Brooks. All are from the hill section of northeast Mississippi in Yalobusha County, near Water Valley and Coffeeville. Ty doubles as gin manager for Yalobusha County Gin, just outside of Coffeeville. Travis and Brad farm as separate entities, but share resources.
“Nematodes are one of the reasons I decided not to use just an insecticide treatment and went with Aeris. We haven’t tested for nematodes, but I think we have them,” says Brad. “Every acre I have is treated with Aeris and Trilex. The seed treatments are doing everything we want them to do.”
Adds Ty, “We have some nematode problems in creek bottoms – reniform and probably root knot – and that’s the reason Avicta and Aeris are so nice. As soon as the cotton comes up, I start looking for thrips. As long as they used a seed treatment, I am not worried that much. We have had spots that were too dry – or too something – and we had to go in and make an over-spray for thrips.”
Another early season pest that can cause concern for them is the cutworm. The Brooks are 100% no-till – “We were some of the first people to get into no-till around here,” says Travis – and cutworms tend to be a problem in the stubble left from the previous crop, especially in wet conditions. But no matter what the conditions are, Brad says he always applies a pyrethroid behind the planter: “We band it, so we’re only spraying a third of the row. At the rates we use, it’s cheap insurance.”
Ty says, “When I am checking plant stands, I look for holes in the ground where cutworms may be. We don’t want to find a spot two weeks down the road where cutworms have hit.”
Resistance Options
It seems the entire Cotton Belt – particularly the Southeast and Mid-South – is fighting some form of resistance to glyphosate on either pigweed or marestail, sometimes both. Resistant marestail is confirmed on the Brooks’ farm, but Brad says, “If we have any resistant pigweed, I have not seen it. I have had some pigweed that took two shots of Roundup to kill. I noticed resistant marestail about four years ago and it started in one field. It’s farm-wide now. There are some spots that are worse than others, but we don’t have a field that does not have resistant marestail.”
And Travis says, “I think Roundup Ready used in no-till is one of the main reasons we have resistant marestail. The few people who are still rowing up and breaking ground are the ones who don’t have resistance like we do. But we still like no-till because of the economics — less labor and cost.”
Because of that resistance to glyphosate, the Brooks like FiberMax varieties with the Liberty Link trait that can be sprayed with the non-selective herbicide Ignite. Ignite and glyphosate are different chemistries, and the Brooks have not seen resistance problems with Ignite. Liberty Link gives them the same flexibility as Roundup Ready Flex, which some of their varieties are stacked with. Both Liberty Link and Roundup Ready Flex varieties can be sprayed after the five-leaf stage.
“With Flex and Liberty Link, we can wait to put out the second shot when we think it’s time,” Brad explains. “We can base that application on weeds and weather – we don’t have to put the second application out just because the cotton is at the four-leaf stage. You can put out either one at any time.
“Glyphosate is weak on morningglory; Ignite is good and it will get resistant marestail,” he continues. “That’s the main thing – where glyphosate is weak, Ignite shines.”
Adds Ty, “You just can’t afford not to get two shots of Roundup on. Regular Roundup Ready restricts you, because you have to get (Roundup) out after the first leaf and before the fifth leaf. That can be a problem if you don’t get the weather.”
Yield and Quality
In addition to the resistance options Liberty Link provides, the Brooks are sold on the fiber qualities of the FiberMax varieties. This year, Brad planted FiberMax FM 9063 BG2 (Bollgard II) RF (Roundup Ready Flex), FM 955 LL (Liberty Link) BG2, and FM 1600 LL as a refuge. Travis has FM 9063 BG2RF, FM 1880 BG2RF and FM 960 BG2RR (first generation Roundup Ready).
“I’ve had good luck, yield-wise, with FiberMax. It’s been my experience – and it varies from year to year – that it’s always worth about 11⁄2 to 3 cents a pound more because of the fiber quality,” Brad says.
But both Brad and Ty say being paid a premium is somewhat of a misperception.
Explains Brad, “The premium you get for having good fiber qualities is less than what they dock you
if you don’t.”
Adds Ty, “The only premium you get is not getting discounted. In essence, the premium is not to get docked.
“You can actually tell the difference when FiberMax cotton is going through the gin; the gin runs smoother,” he says.
Both Brad and Ty say FiberMax varieties respond very well to plant growth regulators.
Says Ty, “There are some other varieties that need up to 20 ounces of Pix to stop them. With FiberMax, you may need 6 ounces here and you may need 8 ounces there – it just doesn’t take a lot.”
Brad adds, “The first year I had 960, we had a total of 16 ounces on it. With another (seed company’s) variety, we had 50 ounces on it and it was still head high.”
Riding the Piggy’s Back
Sprays with a herbicide, such as Roundup or Ignite, are often piggybacked for one-pass convenience with PGRs and/or an insecticide, but there are instances where efficacy trumps convenience.
“I try to piggyback anything I can,” says Ty. “If I can piggyback a Pix spray with an insect spray, it saves a trip across the field. But I am basically going to apply anything when it needs to be done, even if I can’t piggyback. We might put out Pix four days early if we have to spray an insecticide, because that much time is not really an issue with a PGR.”
The Brooks say precision applications are impractical because of the size of their fields, which are substantially smaller than fields found in the neighboring Delta. In their case, applications of PGRs and defoliants are more art than science. “Technology is just not available to us like it is in the Delta – our fields are just too small,” Brad explains. “But we can program three rates when we spray. When we get to a rank spot, we can turn the pressure up. As far as being controlled by a computer and a satellite, we don’t have that.”
What they do is program the rates based on water volume. For instance, they begin the application by putting out 8 gallons of water with 8 ounces of Pix per acre. When a rank spot is reached requiring a higher rate of Pix, they increase the spray volume to 15 gallons, increasing the Pix rate to 15 ounces per acre.
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