The Alabama Cooperative Extension System Cotton Scouting School is iconic. For 60 years, Extension scientists taught the Scouting School in person and hands-on. But the 61st Cotton Scouting School is going digital — pushed to an online version because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The short course will be July 24 from 8 a.m. to noon EDT. via Zoom. Growers, consultants, ... Read More »
Insect Control
Unusual weather, unusual year for cotton insects
Mild winter weather, cool spring days and a handful of heat-filled scorchers combined to create an interesting situation with cotton insects this spring and summer. Alabama Cooperative Extension System crop entomologists are keeping a close eye on the evolving situation. Alabama Extension’s Ron Smith and Scott Graham have been working with busy cotton producers all spring. Now they have focused ... Read More »
Mid-Season Focus On Management
The 2020 season has been a challenging one thus far to say the least. As I write this June 2, our acreage is noticeably down due to prices and especially to the abnormally uncooperative planting weather throughout the large majority of our planting season. Many of our acres fell to prevented planting, other crops (primarily soybean), or both, although it ... Read More »
Industry News July 2020
Field-To-Market’s Newest Technology Partner Named The Seam has been approved as a qualified data management partner with Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture. This completes an integration of sustainability metrics powered by Field to Market’s Fieldprint Platform into The Seam’s latest technology suite, allowing farmers to assess the environmental performance of their management practices against regional, state and ... Read More »
Good Guys, Bad Guys
Consider The Use Of ‘Natural Enemies’ To Help Control Western Cotton Pests • By Carroll Smith, Editor • In the Arizona cotton insect arena, the most notorious villains are Lygus bugs and sweetpotato or silverleaf whiteflies. Lygus damage squares with their piercing-sucking mouthparts, which can adversely affect potential yield. Whiteflies are also piercing, sucking pests. But they primarily cause cotton ... Read More »
It’s big, but it’s not a ‘murder hornet’
Texas A&M AgriLife experts say Texans mistakenly identifying cicada killer wasps as Asian giant hornets. • By Kay Ledbetter • Since the release of information about Asian giant hornets, Texas A&M AgriLife entomologists are being inundated with cicada killers and other lookalike insects submitted for identification as a possible “murder hornet,” which thus far has only been found in Washington ... Read More »
California OKs new BASF insecticide
The California Department of Pesticide Regulation recently registered Sefina Inscalis insecticide from BASF for use on cotton. Containing the active ingredient Inscalis, the brand name for afidopyropen, the product is both an insecticide and ovicide. It is labeled for whiteflies and aphids in cotton and carries a seven-day preharvest interval. Sefina is active against egg, early instar and adult whitefly ... Read More »