Crop Scan AgReport – Focusing on the Final Stages of a Good Looking Crop
August 24, 2020 
From the field level for late August: Cotton looks good in most areas, with a little concern over moisture levels and weather forecasts. Insects still in the mix in spots across the Cotton Belt.
Chad Harrell owns and operates Harrell Agronomic Services in Northeastern North Carolina. The NC State graduate is a member of the North Carolina Agricultural Consultants Association and serves on the board of the North Carolina Cotton Producers Association.
“The cotton is looking pretty good right now other than being a little late. We’ve been having fairly frequent rain here, so it’s been a little hard getting into the field for needed sprays. We have good moisture, so we could have the rain lay off some now.
“Our 3-gene cotton has held up well against the worms so far. The earlier planted cotton is becoming safe from further insect damage and will not likely need any more treatments. The later planted cotton will still need to be protected for three more weeks. We are now just starting to spray the later planted 2-gene cotton the second time for worms.
“Plant bugs really started picking up last week; mostly immature plant bugs. With all this rain and new vegetation, pressure has really built. We are spraying a lot of the later cotton for plant bugs right now.
“We are having to use some PGRs to control regrowth on the earlier cotton due to the rains. The later cotton is also receiving PGRs with insecticide applications to increase maturity.
“Overall, the crop is definitely looking a lot better than it did a month ago.”
Wes Briggs is an independent consultant that has worked with growers in Georgia, Alabama and Florida for more than 30 years. The Mississippi State University graduate covers about 10 counties in the tri-state area. He and his scouting team check primarily cotton, corn, peanuts, soybeans and some small grains. His services include weed, disease and insect management, along with fertility recommendations and variable rate soil sampling.
“The last time I reported a couple of weeks ago I made the comment, ‘We don’t need it to start raining a lot in August and September.’” Well, I think it has rained almost every day since that report. We are seeing some hard lock and boll rot in fields, but it’s not terrible right now. We just need it dry out and get some sun and wind on these fields. We are still not real sure what we are going to get out of those tropical systems. So, we are little concerned about that. We have had 2 to 5 inches, and some places a little more in the last couple of weeks.
“We have some dryland cotton that was a couple 300 pounds yield potential that, in a couple weeks, will look like it is in the third week of bloom. When these growers start picking peanuts, they are probably going to let that cotton ride and see if it will make a top crop. That is not a big issue for my customers, because most of that cotton is under pivot.
“We are still spraying whiteflies, stink bugs, plant bugs and few isolated fields for spider mites. Spider mites have backed off. And as far as the whiteflies go, they have not blown up as bad as we were expecting them to. Certainly not as bad as they were in 2017. They’re lingering, and we’ve sprayed a fair amount of cotton, but they are just not overtaking the cotton like they did in 2017.”
Tucker Miller is a Mississippi-based independent private consultant for cotton, soybeans, corn, peanuts, rice and vegetables. He earned a BS in Agronomy and MS in Pest Management from Mississippi State University and is a member and past president of the Mississippi Agricultural Consultants Association.
“The cotton in my area is fast approaching maturity. Our early planted cotton is cut out and starting to open. We stopped irrigation on all cotton this past week. Our late planted cotton is NAWF 3 and 4, and just got its last irrigation. Most of our cotton has a very good potential.
“We have terminated insecticide sprays on 90% of our acres and might hit some late cotton this week if plant bugs build to threshold levels.
“Growers are pulling up poly pipe and grading turn roads in anticipation of harvest. Our earliest defoliation looks like the second week of September.
“It looks like we have a very good crop. If we can mature out our late cotton, it should be very good as well – especially if we can avoid the tropical storm and hurricane season.
“Insect control this year has been good. We will be evaluating several Bollgard 3 varieties for yield and quality this fall. It looks like we may have some candidates to replace our standard Bollgard II varieties.”
Mark Nemec is a Texas independent agricultural consultant who covers the Blacklands and Brazos River Bottom area of Central Texas. He primarily checks cotton, wheat, grain sorghum and corn, as he has for the last 26 years.
“We are ready to wrap this year up, but Mother Nature is throwing us a couple of curves by the names of Laura and Marco. We’ve started defoliating some dryland cotton last week, but we’ve put the brakes on to see what the storms do. It can change up our defoliation recommendations depending on rainfall amounts.
“Our crop looks pretty decent right now and hoping we can miss the heavy rains so we can get in and get it out. Irrigated cotton looks very good and is probably 10 days to 2 weeks away from dropping leaves. Our biggest concern right now is getting a lot of boll rot.
“I still have a couple of later fields that have been treated for stink bugs. It’s been hot and dry here, and they are running out of things to eat and moving into these late green fields.”
Kerry Siders is Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent-IPM for Hockley, Cochran and Lamb Counties. A Texas Tech graduate, he has been with Texas AgriLife Extension since 1990, providing education and applied research for weeds, insects, diseases, nematodes, growth regulators and harvest aids in cotton. He is a member of the High Plains Association of Crop Consultants.
“Not much has changed over the last couple of weeks in cotton other than the physiological state of the cotton itself. However, I would still not let your guard down for a while longer, especially in cotton which has late growth, non-Bt cotton, or may have excessive nitrogen levels. Some fields – the earliest planted – are at the point of maturity that most insects are of no consequence.
“Most cotton will need to be monitored for at least another 10 days, maybe through the first week in September for later cotton. Cotton is generally safe from most pests when approximately 400 heat units (about 20 days) past the 5 nodes above white flower have accumulated. Cotton aphids would be one insect which could develop up through boll opening. I doubt if this will be the case this year, as no cotton aphids have been found in area fields.
“Cotton irrigation is still very critical with very limited rain showers. Cotton is still using anywhere from 0.15” to 0.25” per day. This is down from near 0.30” per day at the peak just a few weeks ago. Evapotranspiration has decreased considerably with mid-90s temperatures and decreasing day length.
“Weeds continue to be a concern for many. Be careful in your enthusiasm to kill these weeds. First, ask if these weeds are just cosmetic at this point or will their seed production haunt you in the future (i.e. morningglory, marestail) or cause you harvest problems. I am seeing many fields with large pigweed being hoed. I applaud your effort, albeit costly. But most likely, those weeds represent a real hurdle to harvest. For young flushes of weeds, however, control may not be necessary. In some situations, you might just save money for a good harvest aid program and be prepared to do a much better job next year with residual herbicides.”
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