FIELD TEST

Record Floods Presented Challenge To Agricenter

This has been another challenging year for us at the Agricenter International in Memphis, Tenn. We got off to a good start preparing our fields for planting. Preplant fertilizer had been applied, and all of our hipped ground was ready to plant by mid-April. March and early April had ideal weather conditions as far as getting the fields ready.

We generally try to plant our corn trials in April, and we usually like to have our cotton planted by May 10. From around April 25 until May 2, we received 13.65 inches of rainfall. Areas to the north and east of Memphis received quite a bit more rainfall than we did, and a lot of that water flows into the Wolf River.

Just as it did last year, the Wolf River, which runs through our property, came out of its banks. Unlike last year, the flood waters flooded more of our fields and our office area. Our offices had around two feet of water in them, as did our shop and equipment shed. Fortun-ately, the waters receded in a few days.

Our cotton variety trials were managed for optimum yields and quality. The variety trials were conducted on a Falaya silt loam with pH of 6.1 and OM content of 0.9 percent. We applied Cotoran plus Dual Magnum preemergence and came back over the top with Envoke and Select. We also came in with a post-direct rig at layby. We applied two applications of a PGR plus a boll opener, approximately 10 days apart.

Agricenter represents just one location, and the data presented here corresponds to the growing conditions that we had this year on that particular location planted on a certain date.

The Agricenter and I would like to thank everyone for their support and assistance in fulfilling our commitment to agriculture. We hope that you had a good year, and we also wish you a very successful 2012. If you’re ever in Memphis, don’t hesitate to visit us.