Crop Scan Ag Report: Planting Moving Quickly. So Are Thrips and Weeds.
June 1, 2023 
Rain seems to be the name of the game in most areas of the Cotton Belt, including the Texas High Plains (although the drought there is far from over). Our contributing cotton consultants say growers are making good progress with planting while watching and treating thrips and knocking down weeds.
Here’s their report for early June.
Wes Briggs consults on cotton, corn, peanuts, soybeans, and small grains for growers in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.
We got more rain than we needed in spots. Some areas got 3-4 inches and it’s caused some stand issues. Most of the cotton I check is under pivot, so we’re having to keep it wet. These last rains have hurt us on getting cotton up to a solid stand. We’re a little thin in places.
Because it’s wet, we still have small grains and wheat that need to be cut so we can plant what we call our double-crop cotton behind sweet corn, cucumbers, small grains, or vegetables. Right now, we probably have about 80% of our cotton planted. Hopefully by June 10, we’ll be 100% planted.
Our oldest cotton is about 40-42 days old. We’ve started spraying for weeds. Thrips pressure is probably as low as I’ve seen in 10 years. It’s really sporadic. We’re not treating a lot of cotton for thrips, and that’s really unheard of for us. It’s usually an automatic treatment.
We’re starting to sidedress our oldest cotton with fertilizer and get back across it for weeds – all while trying to finish planting.
Overall, the cotton crop looks to be about 80% good to above average. The problems we have with cotton right now are environmental, especially where there’s been too much rain. We just need to finish planting so we can concentrate on fertilizer, water, and weed control. Once we get past July 4, hopefully we’ll have most of our weed control situated.
We’re about 98% done with peanut planting. We’ve had some stand issues with peanuts, and we have about 3-4 fields with different growers that may have to be replanted. That’s just not ideal to do in June, because we could start running out of daylight by the end of the season, especially if we get a cool October.
Corn is progressing right along. We have some corn in the 90-day range, about 30-35 days from black layer. We’ve sprayed a lot of corn for stinkbugs. Disease pressure has remained low in field corn, although some acres have received a fungicide treatment. I do think it’s an advantage to have a fungicide on corn, especially with our rainfall during harvest. I think it helps the corn hold up better.
Chad Harrell owns and operates Harrell Agronomic Services in Northeastern North Carolina.
After a slow start, we finished planting cotton just before the end of May. Overall, it looks like we have achieved a good stand this year.
Most growers are now focusing on thrips and weed control applications. We have seen very high thrips pressure this year, with most fields reaching threshold and needing treatment. We have been in a period of cool and damp weather over the past two weeks, causing seedlings to grow very slowly. I believe this is partially the reason our seed and in-furrow insecticide treatments have not worked well this year. We just need some warmer night temperatures and sunny days to get this crop going.
We’ve had good activation of our preemergence herbicides this year with the timely rains, and they seem to be holding well. Over the next couple of weeks, we will begin top dressing while taking into consideration losses from the rains in early May.
Looking forward, it’s starting to look like the cotton crop is shaping up to be on the later side this year due to delayed planting and lack of heat units in May.
Tucker Miller is a Mississippi-based independent private consultant for cotton, soybeans, corn, peanuts, rice, and vegetables.
We finished planting cotton as of May 24. Our cotton ranges from pinhead square to just emerged. The majority of the cotton is at third and fourth true leaf.
The thrips pressure has been erratic, with the early cotton making it through without a spray. The later planted has received one application for thrips, and we should get past them now. We have been using Intrepid Edge exclusively for control due to the loss of effectiveness of our standard OPs.
The weeds, mostly pigweed, are emerging rapidly now, and we are applying herbicides as needed. We are applying fertilizer and plowing out middles where we furrow irrigate.
I would love to see a nice cotton shower this weekend.
Mark Nemec is an independent agricultural consultant for cotton, wheat, grain sorghum and corn in the Blacklands and Brazos River Bottom area of Central Texas.
After about a month and a half of wetter and cooler weather in Central Texas, the sun is back. Fields have finally dried out, and we are playing catch up. The cotton has started to grow off nicely in most places and we are close to squaring on most plants now. A few early fields are about at match head square.
Weeds have been our biggest problems. A lot of our residuals played out early. And, with all the wetness, the weeds are off and running. Many of them have grown past the height recommendations on the labels. So far, our herbicides are doing very well controlling them though. As fast as they are growing, maybe they’re pulling in more of the product(?). It’s a thought.
Insect pressure is building in and around cotton fields. Wheat harvest is in full swing and chasing thrips right to the cotton. Fleahoppers will be our next concern. The pastures and road sides have had many wild hosts for them. As they dry down, the migration will begin. With the crop being behind, growers need to be on the lookout for these and not let them knock off our early fruit set.
Kerry Siders is Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent-IPM for Hockley, Cochran, and Lamb Counties.
As I write this, it is raining. Now don’t for a minute think that I am saying that our drought is over, but only that we have been heading in the right direction the last few weeks. In May here at my office in Levelland, we received 3.28” of precipitation. Really nothing to brag about for spring rains. However, many parts of this and surrounding counties have had upwards of 7” during May.
This weather during planting has caused some delays and poor stands. Looking at some of my variety trials on the last day of May, I would say that 50% of those will need to be replanted. The soil temperature has been good, but our nighttime temperatures have continued to hover in the mid to upper 50’s. Too cool.
Cotton here on the Southern High Plains of Texas is mostly planted. There are dryland acres which still need to be planted as soon as it dries enough to get back in the field. This weather has thrown us a curve ball in the completion of planting, but I think producers will stick with cotton for as long as they can and then may divert acres to alternative crops such as grain sorghum or corn.
Cotton stand evaluations are our priority as we visit fields. Most of our cotton acres are on 40” rows, so we generally count the number of plants in 13’ of row (1/1000th of an acre). We would consider 26 plants (2 plants per foot) in that 13’ space to be 26,000 plants per acre. This would be a minimum good stand on irrigated cotton. Ideally, your stand would have closer to 40,000 plants per acre or closer to 3 plants per foot. Dryland acres can dip down into the 19,000 range or 1.5 plants per row foot.
Weed pressure has really increased with these rains. As soon as planting is over and stands are established or maybe even sooner, producers need to turn their attention to weed management. Post-emerge herbicides like Roundup, Liberty, XtendiMax, or Enlist will need to be used along with the addition of a residual herbicide.
Another issue which producers will need to revisit due to the recent rains is their fertilizer program, matched up with a new realistic yield goal. We often do this recalculation too late in June or July and are behind the growth curve to do much good and can cause delay in cotton plant maturity. Here very soon will be the time to react to these rains.
Thrips have been light up to this point. As this cotton has been slow to grow-off and many acres are just now emerging, thrips could rapidly develop and be devastating. Fields must be scouted! A good field scout can pay for itself.
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