Turnage Farms By Carroll Smith Editor A fourth-generation farmer in Pemiscot County, Mo., Patrick Turnage keeps a photo from 1937 of his grandfather — J.W. “June Bug” Turnage Jr. — and one of his parents — Sonny and Belinda — on their...

Paul Scott Poag Poag Scouting LLC Manila, Ark. I started scouting cotton for my sister and brother-in-law when I was 14 years old and later worked for consultants Terry and Gail Ramsey until I was a sophomore in college. In 1999-2000 I...

The National Agricultural Statistics Service October Crop Production report estimated Arkansas cotton production to be at 1,088 pounds lint per acre, unchanged from last month but down 4 pounds from 2015. This exceeds our 5-year average of 1,073 pounds lint per acre by 15 pounds. Our crop continues to be ahead of schedule. As about half of our crop has been harvested this season, the 5-year average for the same date was just shy of 30 percent harvested. Reports of fiber quality have been good. Lack of rainfall during much of the harvest season has resulted in excellent color grades. Just over 45 percent has received a color grade of 31 or better. About 80 percent of the bales classed have a leaf grade of 4 or less. Micronaire values this season have averaged 4.6 with less than 17 percent in the discount range of 5 or greater. In Arkansas, we generally expect to see our early crop outyield our later crop. This is not what most farmers are experiencing this season. The extended wet and cloudy August weather came just as our early crop was starting to open. Reports of 1.25 to 1.5 bales per acre were heard from our early cotton as the occurrence of boll rot and hard lock was great. Fortunately, yields improved as harvest progressed. Our good fields are yielding in excess of 3 bales per acre. The 4-bale yield potential we had in many fields the first part of August slipped away.

CALIFORNIA UPDATE By Bob Hutmacher Extension Specialist/Agronomist University of California We had what seems like another “unusual” spring this year, with a warm mid-March that encouraged early plantings followed by cool and even cold weather on multiple occasions during April and...

Special Report By BLAIR FANNIN TEXAS A&M AGRILIFE The 2016 U.S. cotton crop produced high yields and high-quality fiber, triggering a spike in export demand and higher market prices, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service economist. “No question, we had high-quality...

Transform WG Insecticide And Section 18s Update In 2015, the Environmental Protec-tion agency cancelled the label for Transform WG insecticide, manufactured by Dow AgroSciences. In October 2016, EPA established a limited registration, but that registration did not include cotton or grain...

As a youngster, I grew up hand picking cotton on a small, family cotton farm in Lawrence County, Ala., during the late 1940s and 1950s. Cotton was our primary crop. It paid the bills and purchased a new...

Entomologists from South Carolina, Mississippi and Texas offer an early outlook for potentially damaging cotton insect pests By Carroll Smith Editor Rows of young cotton not only are a beautiful sight to behold but also an attractive buffet for insect pests in...

The 2017 cotton-growing season got off to a good start in most of the Mid-South region. Cotton farmers are optimistic about this year’s crop, based largely on December futures contracts average of 70 cents per pound, which is higher...

The National Cotton Council is encouraged by some recent articles in which bee experts are saying that pesticides, including neonicotinoids, are not a primary cause for bee health decline. What are these scientists saying? In spite of the perception that pesticides are...

After reading Alabama entomologist Ron Smith’s My Turn column, “Picking On The Terrace Row,” I began to think about my own memories associated with cotton insects, the devastation they can cause and some of the methods associated with their...

Monitoring cotton pest thresholds has proven to be one of the more successful tools for keeping insect pressures in check. In the West, established research-based thresholds aid in determining treatment of cotton pests. Adherence to those standards can be...

Researchers Set Their Sights On Target Spot Control, But Several Questions Remain By Vicky Boyd Managing Editor Although researchers are gaining a better understanding of the fungal pathogen that causes target spot, they admit they still have a lot of unanswered...

What about world fiber consumption? A major reason behind the decline of cotton’s share of global fiber consumption is that global synthetic fiber production capacity is three times the level of global cotton production. That helps explain why on today’s...

In my early years as an ag journalist, one of the biggest challenges was fine-tuning the timing for getting in touch with farmers and university personnel who spent their days from sun up to sun down in the field....