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Arkansas Row Crops
South Arkansas: With the substantial increase in heat units the last few weeks the fields are ahead of their DD50 predictions. The Lincoln Co. row water field was one of the earliest to head causing stink bugs to reach threshold levels triggering an application. The Arkansas Co. field is 100% heading and unless stink bugs disperse by Monday it will also receive an application. The Jefferson Co. field stink bug numbers are running 3-4 per 10 sweeps.
Arkansas Row Crops
Current conditions have the rice crop speeding along. It’s not just your rice either, it’s everyone’s rice. Daytime highs in the mid-90s and low temperatures staying above 70 have us rapidly accumulating heat units and keeping rice progress at near maximum. From here, we have some positives and some negatives. The daytime highs staying in the mid-90s should keep us from having pollination issues based on the extended forecast. Daytime highs near or above 100 are where we have pollination issues.
Arkansas Row Crops
Driving around the Midsouth, especially in the Missouri Bootheel, West Tennessee and some areas of Northeast Arkansas it is not hard to find soybean fields that look similar to the picture below. Several thousand acres have been affected by either drift, volatility, temperature inversions or tank contamination from dicamba herbicide applications. No matter how many times we have mentioned the potential off target issues with this herbicide, it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
Arkansas Row Crops
The rice blast fungus is a worldwide problem of rice that can cause near 100 percent yield loss in susceptible cultivars under favorable weather conditions if left unchecked. The blast fungus is very versatile and effective in its modes of survival. The fungus produces airborne spores that travel long distances, exists in different races that can infect different varieties, survives on rice residues and seeds and infects different parts of a rice plant from seedling to maturity.
Arkansas Row Crops
Standing outside has felt like standing in front of either a hot blowdryer or a blowtorch depending on your perspective. Hot, humid conditions have the rice crop progressing well, but all those out in it perspiring well. With the high humidity and heavy dew periods in the mornings we’ve had our first reports of blast and sheath blight this week. So far nothing to get worried about in any case, but we have found them scattered around.
Arkansas Row Crops
By Nathan Slaton, Rick Norman, Trent Roberts, Jason Kelley, Jarrod Hardke, Bill Robertson, Jeremy Ross and Leo Espinoza; University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. Farmers must ask at least two fundamental questions about every product they are asked to purchase and apply to their crop: What is the frequency of crop response and what is the average yield increase? The answers to these two questions should be based on an adequate amount of unbiased, reputable research.
Arkansas Row Crops
Most rice in Arkansas is near or well past internode elongation (joint movement). Except for a few cases of seedling disease complexes and hydrogen sulfide toxicity, until now, blast and sheath blight rice diseases have been relatively quiet in Arkansas. Today (June 20, 2016), we received a report of leaf blast on medium grain rice variety Jupiter which is at ½” internode elongation in Woodruff County (Fig. 1).
Arkansas Row Crops
Beware the Ides of Midseason. Now that it’s time to fertilize and flood, it seems the weather is going to start working against us. More on that in N Management. Fields are beginning to take off from the week of warm weather after the previous week slowed progress to a crawl. For those in the northern half of the state – you were accumulating half the DD50 units each day that you should have been based on averages.
Arkansas Row Crops
Yes, I do think the cold weather is the culprit behind a lot of our problems in the last week or so. Rice a little pale and not growing off as you’d expect? Rice a little banged up from herbicide and not growing out of it? Cold weather is a prime culprit. Herbicide drift hasn’t helped anything either. We’re actually close to the 30-year average on DD50 units in the southern part of the state.
It’s time to put out southwestern corn borer traps
There was a significant increase in the number of acres of non-Bt corn planted in Arkansas last year, and it looks like this year is going to be similar. Southwestern corn borer is one of the more destructive pests of non-Bt corn hybrids. We generally see emergence of adult moths from overwintering in late May and/or early June in Arkansas.
Arkansas Row Crops
Crop pest scouting schools will be conducted on May 24 (McGehee) and May 25 (Jonesboro), 2016. This year we have added sections on plant diseases. The schools are classroom setting, providing information on identification and scouting techniques for insect and disease pests of cotton, soybean, rice, corn and grain sorghum. We will also touch on diseases and insects in peanut at the Jonesboro school. The schools are open to anyone who wishes to attend. Lunch will be provided.
When Rice is Ready to Flood, but Field and Levees Aren't
The heavy rains that hit the state a week ago have left many well prepared fields in rough shape. Washed out levee gates and blown levees are all too common. For many of these fields there’s plenty of time to get things patched up. But for some out there, the rice is reaching time to flood and that’s just not an option with the field situation. So what should we do?
Arkansas Row Crops
In 4 weeks’ time the state has gone from 3% to 75% planted. It’s been an amazing run, though the northern half of the state continues to have better luck with the weather so far. This week’s rains look a little more democratic. The missed rain forecasts for much of this week resulted in a frenzy of activity with folks trying to beat the rain with a few more acres. A stop at any dealer or co-op and everyone was in that half-run/half-walk mode as seed and chemical were flying out the door.
Arkansas Row Crops
Recent heavy rainfall has left many Arkansas corn producers feeling behind all of a sudden on corn planting. Last I checked the temperatures could get pretty cold this weekend so leaving that seed in the bag over the next week or so is probably not a bad idea. I did receive a couple calls this week from an unfortunate few who had planted corn prior to the flooding and judging by the pictures they will probably have to call a mulligan on those acres.
Arkansas Row Crops
Using irrigation water management to improve the bottom line Prices for diesel fuel and fertilizers have continued to decrease as Arkansas farmers are preparing for 2016 planting. Reports in February indicate that diesel prices have decreased to $1.25/gallon from a price $1.90/gallon in November 2015. This will reduce total fuel costs by $23.00/acre for a rice field using diesel power for irrigation.
Arkansas Row Crops
2015 is in the past, behind us, let’s just try to forget most everything about it. The majority of folks seem to be settled on what cultivars they’re growing this year, but the topic of how much of it has been a hot one of late. The official acreage last year was 1.3 million acres planted in Arkansas. A 20% increase in acres seems extremely likely given the current commodity price environment.
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