Charlie Guy
G&H Associates, Inc.
Tillar, Ark.

 
I am a partner with Ronnie Helms in a contract agricultural research company with facilities in Stuttgart and Tillar, Ark. I grew up in Tennessee but have been in Arkansas since 1983. College was a lot of fun, and I guess that’s why I was there for nine years. After Fayetteville, I went to work for Mobay (now Bayer) as a field development specialist in Little Rock. In 1989, I accepted a position as an Extension/research weed scientist at the Southeast Research and Extension Center in Monticello, Ark., where we still live. In 1996, I left the university and went full time doing what I am doing now.

Today, the majority of our research is efficacy work. Some of the most interesting research has been with insecticides. First was Tracer, then we started working with DuPont’s Coragen (rynaxypyr) insecticide. For years, our DuPont rep, Dickie Edmund, would come down to Tillar where we would count worms for days. The next most interesting insecticide was Diamond for plant bugs. I don’t think we use Diamond enough in southeast Arkansas.

I am fortunate to be friends with many crop consultants and share information. I visit with Danny Moore and Steven Wall the most. Danny gives me a heads up on new problems, and Steven is in my area so I get the scoop on what and when to treat. Usually we are on the same page, but a second opinion always makes me feel better.

In southeast Arkansas, we mainly have weed resistance issues. By spraying turn roads with glyphosate for years, we have created a glyphosate-resistant ryegrass population that is creeping into fields. One option we use is Gramoxone – when ryegrass is near headed or headed – applied in 20 to 30 gallons of water per acre. Glyphosate-resistant horseweed is everywhere. Next year we will use dicamba – in fields, turn roads and ditch banks.

Where did the pigweeds come from? In 2011, we will start using pre-emergence herbicides again. The use of bullet hoods will be the most important tool for fighting resistant pigweed. Before RR cotton, we used witches’ brews like Gramoxone and Bladex to clean up messy fields. Rope wicks will be helpful until we get dicamba-tolerant cotton. A rope wick application of half water/half dicamba with a little surfactant wiped both ways works well on pigweed that is above the cotton. I don’t know if this is a labeled use, but it works in my research plots.

 
Click here to ask Charlie Guy a question or submit a comment about this month’s Cotton Consultant’s Corner.

• B.S. and M.S. degrees in Plant and Soil Sciences –
  University of Tennessee
• Ph.D. in Agronomy with an emphasis in Weed
  Science – University of Arkansas
• Member of the Agricultural Council of Arkansas,
  NAICC and the Arkansas Agricultural Consultants
  Association
• Past president Arkansas Agricultural Pesticide
  Association
• Evaluates herbicides, insecticides, fungicides,
  PGRs and GMO traits.
• Married to wife, Linda Anne. Two twin sons, Andy
  and Cayce, are now attending college.
• Enjoys fishing as a hobby