Prepping For 2024 Production Success
March 15, 2024 One of the axioms for planting and managing a cotton crop is “Timing is everything.” Apparently, that applies as well to legal decisions.
By now, the Feb. 6 ruling by the U.S. District Court of Arizona overturning EPA’s 2020 reapproval of dicamba for over-the-top use in dicamba-tolerant cotton and soybeans is likely old (but still frustrating) news. The judgment vacated the labels for three key products in agriculture’s weed control toolbox — XtendiMax (Bayer), Engenia (BASF), and Tavium (Syngenta) — just as growers are finalizing their seed and weed management programs for the year. The fact that those decisions are generally intertwined make the ruling and the timing that much more troublesome.
Fortunately, EPA issued an Existing Stocks Order permitting use of existing product stocks currently on the farm and retail levels through this season’s labeled cutoff dates. Regardless, some weed management plans may need adjusting. Fortunately, there are still options for success.
Weeds: Review Options, Move Quickly, Be Timely
Remember, cotton’s major problem weeds are still waiting. Palmer amaranth (pigweed, careless weed, or your favorite unpublishable nickname) still tops the list. That’s followed closely — depending on geography — by tropical spiderwort, morning glory species, nutsedge, and a host of annual grasses (goosegrass, jungle grass, fall panicum, johnsongrass — just to name a few).
“As always, a sound diversified system approach to weed management is the key,” says Stanley Culpepper, University of Georgia Extension Weed Specialist. “The backbone of any program, regardless of cotton technology being used, remains the same.”
Those steps:
- Start clean. Remove weeds prior to planting with a strong burndown application.
- Apply two residual herbicides effective on Palmer amaranth at planting.
- Sequential post treatments, including residuals, for most fields regardless of cotton technology used. Timing is key: approximately 14 to 17 days after pre-emerge application, and 14 to17 days after first post application.
- Sequential post treatments of Enlist One (Corteva) + Liberty (BASF) for Enlist varieties.
- Consider a directed layby treatment to clean up escapes.
- Hand weeding is always an important part of sustainability.
Larry Steckel, University of Tennessee Extension Weed Specialist, suggests several other options if growers don’t have dicamba available.
“I’m a big proponent of putting Zidua (BASF) on with fertilizer,” he says. “It seems like a good hard dew that we get most mornings is enough to activate it and get it in the soil. In addition to use in Enlist programs, sequential applications of Liberty in place of dicamba in Xtend crops are also effective.”
Details on herbicide program recommendations are available from all Cotton Belt state Extension specialists.
Regarding new products, there’s not much current optimism about quick approvals coming through EPA for this year.
“There’s still hope for registration of Alite 27 (BASF) later this year and maybe additional formulations of glufosinate alone or premix type glufosinate products that would be helpful if we’re not allowed to use dicamba,” Culpepper says. “If we can’t get access to those existing dicamba in-crop formulations, there could be some significant product availability challenges as well as increased input costs.”
Insects: Monitor and Manage Thrips Early
Parts of the Cotton Belt endured serious early season thrips pressure in cotton in 2023. And, as noted for the past few years, the effectiveness of seed treatments continues to wane.
“On a 0-5 injury threshold scale with 0 being a perfect plant, 5 being completely dead, and 3 being where you need to spray, we consistently ran about 4 in our state, and our cotton was hurting,” recalls Sebe Brown, University of Tennessee Extension Entomologist. “Our traditional seed treatments are getting us out of the ground, and that’s about as much as you’re going to get. Unless you’re planting ThryvOn (Bayer) varieties, you’re probably going to need a foliar application for thrips.”
Brown recommends growers use the Thrips Predictor Model to help gauge treatment timing, especially when using AgLogic aldicarb (AgLogic).
“Four pounds of aldicarb performed very well for us,” he says. “A point to remember is aldicarb is very water soluble. A wet spring could leave some of the product out of the root zone and the plant won’t pick it up. In a dry spring, the roots will grow through the aldicarb, pick it up, express it through the plant, and it works like it should.”
Nematodes: At-Planting Decisions Needed
“The southern root-knot and reniform nematodes found in cotton will not feed on peanuts,” notes Bob Kemerait, University of Georgia Extension Plant Pathologist. “On the other hand, nematodes that impact peanuts – primarily the peanut root-knot nematode and to a lesser degree, the lesion nematode – will not feed on cotton. Rotating these two crops offers growers an opportunity to remove a host plant from the nematodes.”
His message to growers is simple: when they cover the furrow and pull the tractor out of the field, they’ve made the most important decision they can make about nematodes for the rest of the growing season.
“Be it a resistant variety, selecting a nematicide, or rotating to a non-host crop, once you make that choice, you have to then sit on the sidelines to watch your cotton or peanut crop go up against ‘Team Nematode’,” he says. “When that furrow is covered, the game goes on. But you have called your last play, coach.”
West Texas: Beware of Wireworms, Watch Fertility
2023 is already impacting the 2024 growing season, notes Kerry Siders, AgriLife Integrated Pest Management Specialist for Hockley, Cochran, and Lamb counties. Many growers saw crop losses later in the season after investing water, man-hours, and other inputs.
“In my mind, 2023 was a much tougher year economically,” Siders says, “so we’re starting off 2024 in a bigger hole — not just financially, but in terms of water availability and soil moisture too.”
Regarding pests in 2024, Siders warns growers in the Texas High Plains of the detrimental impact of the wireworm and to be wary against it when considering seed treatments.
“What’s so damaging about the wireworm is, from what we understand to date, you have to treat at planting,” Siders says. “If you miss it at planting and have wireworm damage, you’ve missed the boat, and your only option is to replant.”
Taking advantage of residual nutrients can be a big cost saver. After last year’s growing conditions, Siders tells growers they may be fertilizing more in 2024 than last year, but taking soil samples is still the most effective way to make an informed decision.
“This is going to be one of those years where we have to pay attention to fertility,” he says. “We’ve done a good job of trying to take advantage of carryover nutrients in the past years. If we still have nutrients in that zero- to three-foot profile, that can be a considerable amount of savings.”
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Agricultural writers Kylee Kitten and Brad Robb contributed to this article.
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