Owen Taylor, Editor Hello, Tesxt text Owen Taylor Email... Here is this week’s AgFax: Southern Grain. If you would like to be removed from our distribution list, please reply with "remove" in the subject line. OVERVIEW Stink bugs in corn More reports this week about stink bugs in corn, especially in the lower South. David Buntin, Georgia Grain Crops Entomologist, focuses on scouting and control measures in the June issue of Georgia Grain Highlights newsletter. Click here to download it. Stored-grain issues A big wheat crop is prompting more questions about on-farm grain storage, especially as everyone looks ahead to corn and soybean harvest in the fall. We have posted a stored-grain advisory, Keeping The Bugs And Mold Out Of Grain Bins, on our web site. Also, a stored-grain workshop has been planned for July 22 at Alabama’s Tennessee Valley REC in Belle Mina. Rain, maybe Showers and thunderstorms have been popping up across much of the South in the last few days, with totals mostly in the tenths. Many areas need rain. Dryland corn is suffering in the Southeast, and doublecrop soybean planting is on hold in parts of the Delta and Southeast. CROP REPORTS Reynold Minsky, Ind. Consultant, Lake Providence, La. “Soybeans are at R1 to R2, and field corn has edible ears in some of the older fields. The Mississippi River is going to fall today (Monday) and tomorrow, then rise to 41 feet at Vicksburg, which means more seep water under the levee and damage to crops in adjoining fields. All that rain in the Midwest is coming this way.” Richard Petcher, Regional Extension Agronomist, SW Alabama “About 80% of our small grain has been harvested in southwest Alabama, and the average is probably close to 60 bu/acre. Until about 3 weeks ago, we were wet during the entire season, so the wheat has done better than we thought it might. Growers keyed to top varieties and closely managed the crop. About 80% applied a fungicide.
"About 80% of the corn is tasseling. Most is in good to excellent shape, but 3 weeks of dry weather have hurt some. We received at least some rain in the last few days. We’re finding a mix of corn earworms and armyworms in some fields, but nothing high enough to treat. Soybeans are probably 80% to 90% planted.” Scott Gifford, Gifford Crop Consulting, Manila, Ark. “We’re burning up. We went from it being too wet to plant soybeans a month ago to the point that we had to stop planting last week because there was no moisture. Some people are putting beans on beds and trying to water them up. Otherwise, planting stopped late last week. They’re calling for an 80% chance of rain tonight (Monday), and we need it. Growers started cutting wheat on Sunday, and all the wind over the last 8 days really dried down grain quickly.” Joe Townsend, Ind. Consultant, Coahoma, Miss. “We’ve treated quite a few acres of soybeans for green stink bugs. That was in Tallahatchie County. Beans were between R1 and R2. Numbers were quite significant. I’ve seen numbers like this before, but not on as many acres. When we checked behind the treatment, we found 4 to 5 dead stink bugs on the ground on 10 row feet. It’s dry. Very few soybeans are being watered, but we’re watering all the corn we can. A significant percentage of our pivots were blown over by 3 different storms this spring, and a lot of that damage hasn’t been repaired yet. We’ve got some corn in those fields that is burning up. Wheat harvest started 5 to 6 days ago. Yields are phenomenal, from 75 to 95 bu/acre in many fields. We had significant wheat acreage, so a lot of our soybeans are still waiting to be planted. In places, we have adequate moisture to plant. But in other fields, it’s too dry right now (Monday) to plant beans.” John Burleson, NC Ag Service, Inc., Swan Quarter, N.C. “Wheat harvest is moving along. I just got off a combine that was consistently showing 100 bu/acre on the yield monitor. Overall, we had a good season. There was too much water in spots and some freeze damage. In some places, yields are down to 15. But, overall, everything should average out pretty well. We could stand to have 2 to 3 inches of rain. I know people don’t want that right now with wheat harvest underway, but it would be good to have a rain afterwards for planting beans, and the cotton wouldn’t mind it, either.” Scott Holder, Helena Chemical Co., Cleveland, Miss. “We’ve pretty much planted all of our soybeans except wheat beans. We’re just starting to irrigate a few beans on rows. About half our corn is ready for a fungicide. Just a little corn here and there was treated for stink bugs. We thought they would be bad. We found them early, but they never materialized much.” Ralph Bagwell, Louisiana Extension Entomologist, Winnsboro, La. “We’re hardly finding anything, insect-wise, in soybeans. Some people are treating stink bugs in soybeans, but I haven’t found a situation, myself, that justifies an application. What I’m finding are very low densities of stinkbugs and maybe threecornered alfalfa hoppers. The only thing in corn that we’re finding that might need treatment would be adult southwestern corn borers in non-Bt corn. The treatment window in a lot of the state would appear to be Friday and Saturday. You need to scout and determine whether to treat. A majority of the non-Bt fields may have enough to justify applications. We’re seeing a few sugarcane and European corn borers, too” Howard Small Jr., Ind. Consultant, Colquitt, Ga. “Some of our field corn is just past the eating stage and in the mid stage of filling out. We’ve had 3 straight days of 100-degree highs, and people are paying a price to try to keep everything watered in this heat. We’re dry. If it wasn’t for irrigation, some of our crops would have already burned up. All we’re getting right now are scattered showers, maybe 2 to 6 tenths of an inch here and there. Bigger pivots can’t put out enough water in most cases to keep up. We need a tropical storm with 5 to 10 inches of rain over a week to replenish subsoil moisture. Corn, in particular, has milked it dry. People are planting soybeans and cotton behind wheat and watering them up. One guy said he already had watered 3 times to get some cotton up. We’re still fighting stink bugs in younger, tasseling corn, and we’ve sprayed some fields twice. We treated 1,200 acres last week for both greens and browns.” Gus Lorenz, Arkansas Extension IPM Specialist “We’re getting a lot of calls about thrips on soybeans. Evidently, pressure is pretty high in many cases where seed treatments weren’t used. Some applications are going out. We’re not sure how productive that is, but the pressure is high, and we’re getting calls about this from the Missouri to the Louisiana line. Grasshoppers are spotty up the Arkansas River valley, with treatment levels in some fields.” Pawel Wiatrak, South Carolina Corn and Soybean Specialist, Blackville, S.C. “We need rain. Corn is suffering. Recent rains have been heavy but spotty, and most fields received little to none. There is a chance today (Wednesday) and tomorrow. More corn is going into tasseling and silking, so moisture is critical. We’ve already seen some yield reduction, particularly in sandy soils. About 70% of the soybeans have been planted. With the remaining acreage, many growers have finished small grain harvest and are waiting for rain.” Lance Honeycutt, Craighead Farmers Co-op, Jonesboro, Ark. “Everyone has either finished planting full-season soybeans or they’ve stopped planting because it’s too dry. By Monday, most everybody had started cutting wheat. Right now, I’m hearing averages of 50 to 80 bu/acre. We had such a water-saturated winter that I didn’t know what to expect out of this crop. People have pretty much been able to get the soybean maturity groups they want and at least some of the varieties they ordered. At this point, I think we’ll have a lot of soybean seed left over. Some people overbooked, and we’re getting calls now from folks who have seed left over.” Chris Main, Tennessee Extension Cotton Specialist “Wheat harvest is just getting into a good start. Over the last 2 weeks, the south wind and higher temperatures really finished it out quickly. Some of our small-plot wheat has been averaging 85 to 90 bu/acre. Producers are saying that they’re bumping 100 in spots and maybe averaging 90 or near that in some fields.” Dewey Lee, Georgia Extension Grain Specialist “We’re struggling through the heat and dry weather and trying to keep up with corn irrigation. Hopefully, this unstable air will bring good rainfall. There’s nothing widespread, but we at least seem to be setting up for regional thundershowers. Dry, hot conditions are having an effect on corn in some areas. Corn earworms and stink bugs are major problems right now, and treatments are being made. We’re slowly completing wheat harvest, even in north Georgia. Initially, it appears that we’ll have a record yield. Field and farm averages are commonly 65 to 90 bu/acre, which offsets a lot of problem fields that only averaged 25 to 30.” Trey Koger, Mississippi Extension Soybean Specialist “We’ve got soybeans from just planted all the way to R4 growth stages. All in all, the crop looks good. We do have some growers in parts of northeast Mississippi who haven’t been able to plant soybeans yet because it’s been too wet. We’ve seen stink bugs, threecornered alfalfa hopper and thrips. But, overall, insect pressure has been fairly light in soybeans.” Rob Ferguson, Louisiana Interim Coordinator, Soybeans-Feed Grains “The corn crop looks great up to this point. For the most part, north Louisiana to Natchitoches has caught spot rains just right. But growers desperately need rain near Alexandria and southwest Louisiana. Stink bug applications have been going out, and borers have been showing up in grain sorghum. Doublecrop soybeans and grain sorghum are all that’s left to plant.”
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