• By Jason Bond and Ben Lawrence • The Environmental Protection Agency mandated manufacturers to update their paraquat labels by Nov. 14 with new safety, handling and training requirements. Key Points to Remember: • Purchasers, applicators, mixers, loaders, or tank cleaners of herbicide products containing paraquat must be certified applicators. • Purchasers, applicators, mixers, loaders, or tank cleaners must complete ... Read More »
The liquid herbicide paraquat is widely used throughout North America as an effective herbicide and pre-harvest crop defoliant but can be fatal if accidentally ingested in small quantities as well as cause eye damage and irritation to skin. In response to the risks associated with paraquat, the Environmental Protection Agency has already pursued significant manufacturer labeling and training changes. For ... Read More »
Four decades ago, Dr. Raymond Sheperd and I were standing in Field 10 in one of his cotton nurseries at the Auburn Plant Breeding Unit. I was a young experiment station superintendent, and I fussed about how short the cotton was. Sheperd was the U.S. Department of Agriculture cotton breeder at Auburn and was developing root-knot resistant cotton lines. He ... Read More »
• By Vicky Boyd, Managing Editor • BASF recently launched an industrywide initiative – “Operation Weed Eradication” – that challenges growers and others within agriculture to take a zero-tolerance approach to ridding fields of devastating weeds. “As an industry, we’ve talked about managing weeds. We need to switch that up to eradicating those weeds in the field,” Scott Kay, vice ... Read More »
• By Stanley Culpepper • Dry conditions across the region are influencing both weed control and cotton injury. Weed Control: Most weeds, especially Palmer amaranth, become more tolerant to topically applied herbicides under dry conditions. A thicker wax layer on the leaf (stem) surface, dust on the leaf surface, and leaf closure or stem rolling can reduce herbicide uptake and ... Read More »
• By Larry Steckel • Many questions continue to be asked on how best to manage grass in cotton. The sketchy performance of glyphosate on goosegrass, junglerice and Johnsongrass in 2018 is the main driver of these questions. One change in weed management some have gone to in cotton due to the poor glyphosate performance is to use Prowl preemergence. ... Read More »
• By Tom Barber • I have fielded several questions over the past week about dicamba regulations and what the rules “mean” and what can be sprayed etc. Most questions revolve around what is “legal to spray” after April 15 for pre-plant burndown, emerged corn, and Xtend soybean or cotton. I will admit the way the rules are written it ... Read More »
Cotton Farming One Grower Publications