For better management, leave…Footprints in the Field
February 12, 2009 Keeping footprints in the field is one of the better things growers and consultants can do in managing cotton.
Southeast Arkansas cotton consultant Robert Wells believes that one of the keys to managing his growers’ fields is scouting them twice a week. “One advantage to scouting fields twice a week is that you can track the crop’s progression and you can anticipate insect build up,” says Wells, who lives in Monticello, AR.
Wells offers a complete service package for his growers that includes variety selection, insect and weed control, soil sampling and recommendations for fertility and defoliation. He says variety selection can definitely play a major part in keeping down grower’s input costs, adding that yield is the number one characteristic his growers look for in variety selection.
“Maturity is number two,” he notes, “because you expose yourself to more problems when you go later into the season.” Medium-maturing varieties are used because he is able “to control plant height early, which helps determine maturity, and how well the cotton will perform.”
Wells’ growers rely on him as an information source for cotton variety selection. They also look at university variety trials and company variety trials to determine the best varieties suited for their area.
“When varieties are made available to us, we don’t necessarily try them on our best ground the first time. Your best ground can make cotton with just about any variety. So we will try a new variety on some of our more mixed and marginal ground. If it performs well on that marginal ground, we will feel more comfortable recommending it to other growers.”
One medium-maturing variety that performed well for one of Wells’ growers last year was Americot’s AM 1532 B2RF. His grower tried AM 1532 B2RF for the first time in 2007, planting it on some of his marginal ground to see what it would do.
“AM 1532 averaged 1,234 pounds per acre and some of that field was dryland,” Wells says. “It yielded right up there with the other Bollgard II/ Roundup Ready Flex varieties. Last year was the first time that grower tried Roundup Ready Flex varieties, and he really like that aspect of AM 1532.”
Most of Wells’ growers are moving to Flex cotton. “In 2009, just about all cotton varieties will be in Flex and/or Bollgard II,” Wells says. “We are preparing for that by trying a little bit as we go because we need to move toward that technology.
“But even with Bollgard and Bollgard II cotton, growers should still keep an eye on worms. We are not as inclined to fight worm pressure the way we have in the past with conventional cotton, but we still have to be aware of what is going on with egg lays and hatchings.”
In addition to keeping a watchful eye on bollworms, Wells says plant bugs are 100% his problem these days. “We hit plant bugs hard and heavy. And we hit them often,” he says. “Last season I sprayed some areas 5-6 times and other areas 8-9 times.
“We use a combination of Bidrin and pyrethroids, Centric and Carbine, or Orthene and pyrethroids. Basically we rotate insecticide chemistries and try anything to suppress plant bug numbers when the fruit sets. We try to set at least 85% of our small squares and make our sprays effective for 5-7 days.”
From 90%-95% percent of the acreage that Wells scouts is furrow irrigated. Wells says that most of the cotton in his area should be irrigated. “If you can not irrigate the field, you can not afford to put it in cotton,” he adds.
Wells graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in agronomy and went to work for the University of Arkansas in the cotton verification trials in 1980. From 1988 through 1993, he ran the Arkansas cotton verification trials.
Caption:
Robert Wells
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