By Scott Stewart IPM Extension Specialist University of Tennessee It seems that fall armyworms have gotten a running start in recent years. This species does not overwinter in Tennessee, but it may survive warm winters in the extreme southern areas of coastal...

The National Cotton Council believes maintaining the benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico is crucial to the U.S. cotton industry’s long-term survival. How important are exports? The U.S. cotton industry is heavily dependent on access...

As the cotton crop rolls into mid-July, consultants are shifting into high gear across the Belt to nurture and protect the precious money bolls. This important segment of the industry is now in the height of its season. With...

Ray began checking cotton in 1949 as a college student. After we married in 1952 and he served in the Navy for two more years, Ray set up a consulting business and started knocking on doors. Franklin Parish was...

Overhead seed houses are valuable for short-term seed storage, wet seed storage and gins with limited yard space. With recent design improvements, overhead seed houses can also provide a highly efficient method for loading trucks from flat-storage houses. When fully...

Special Report Texas Cotton Farmer Encouraged By Initial Experience With Herbicide-Tolerant Trait System For too long, cotton farmers in some parts of Texas have been frustrated trying to manage herbicide-resistant careless weed, waterhemp, marestail and giant ragweed. This season offered them the...

John Deere Introduces New Tractor Display The John Deere 4640 Universal Display is part of the latest John Deere Generation 4 Operating System. This translates into better data collection, increased application functionality and greater choice for monitoring and managing many tractor-driven...

Cotton Incorporated is charged with promoting cotton to consumers. It does this through a wide variety of tactics, the most well known of which is advertising. The advertising climate in today’s world is changing and challenging. Companies must be able...

By Carroll Smith Editor Singer and philanthropist Bryan Adams once said, “I like the idea of helping people help people.” To expand that thought, one might say, “I like the idea of helping people help their communities.” The Transform My Community Contest,...

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...