I spent this past weekend in Hiawassee at the Georgia Cattlemen’s Summer Conference. It was great! No gnats and it was about 60° every morning. During the conference, I was able to meet with cattle producer across the state and gain some insightful knowledge on what is up and coming in the cattle industry. Also this week we had the Farm Bureau Ag Tour and we made a few stops visiting Tift County farmers. Thanks to Johnny Dunn, Bill Brim, Brian Ponder and Wes Shannon for visiting with our Farm Bureau officials and our State Representatives.
Peanuts: We have been seeing some white mold in peanuts and we have seen a lot of false white mold in peanuts. Stay tight on your sprays. The white mold we have seen was kept from running down the row because of timely sprays. Worms have been a battle in peanuts this year; mostly foliage feeders and a fair amount of lessers. I would watch dryland fields and dry corners in irrigated fields. We are currently working on a peanut maturity check schedule. We hope to have it out next week so you can start planning for checks.
Cotton: We have had people start spraying for whiteflies in cotton. Every field that I have been in has had whiteflies but I have not found any at the threshold. Remember that threshold is if more than 50% of leaves collected in a field have 5 or more immatures on the leaf. Hairy leaf and late-planted cotton carry the most risk for whiteflies. Knack or Courier are insect growth regulators (IGRs) that should serve as the backbone to your whitefly management program. They both have excellent safety ratings for beneficial insects and have longer residuals than our other products. Some timely rain will help keep whitefly populations in check. We have seen a very small amount of boll rot, no target spot and a little bit of Stemphillium.
Corn: This week harvest is going on in the cornfields. Grain moisture is below 20% now in some fields so time to get it out. If you don’t have drying facilities then there are some places that will buy wet corn and it’s often worth it to take the deducts. Some places even need corn now. Seeing a little more ear rot and insect damage but overall grain quality is good so far.
Here is a little tip for using the blog site. I think some people have had trouble navigating different postings so here are some easier ways to navigate the site and you won’t have to keep returning to your email to swap postings.
- If you are looking at this on your phone. Scroll back to the top and in the red bar under Tift County Producer Updates you will see three lines and Menu. If you tap on the three lines, a drop menu will appear with the word home. If you tap home it will take you to the main page and you can view other blog postings.
- If you are looking on an iPad or tablet. Scroll back to the top and in the red bar under Tift County Producer Updates you will see the word home. Tap on home and it will take you the home page so you can view other postings.
- If you are on a computer. Scroll back to the top and in the red bar under Tift County Producer Updates you will see the word home. Tap on home and it will take you the home page so you can view other postings.
Hope that helps!