mississippi

Mississippi has a good-looking cotton crop in most places, but acreage is down to 520,000 acres because of a rainy planting season and unfavorable market conditions. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Aug. 31 estimated 65% of the state’s crop to be in good or excellent condition. The rest is considered fair, with just 8% in poor condition. State growers ... Read More »

Cotton and corn acreage in Mississippi are more than 30% below March projections, while growers of soybeans and peanuts planted much more than initially forecasted. The U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service released a report at the end of June updating the amount of crop acreage planted statewide. It compared those amounts to how much growers said they ... Read More »

Row crop growers in Mississippi used a relatively dry May to make up for planting time lost earlier in the spring due to wet weather and soggy fields. As of May 24, planting progress for the state’s four major row crops was slightly behind their five-year averages but ahead of where it was at that time in 2019. According to ... Read More »

A sharper focus on the economic impact of the lower Delta backwater flood of 2019 helps predict the implications of continued flooding this year. Mississippi State University Extension Service researchers compiled data on the overlooked costs of the backwater flood that affected the Yazoo Mississippi Delta in 2019. They surveyed residents in the five affected counties in an attempt to ... Read More »

• By Jeff Gore, Angus Catchot, Don Cook and Whitney Crow• The 2019 season was one of the most challenging years we have had from a bollworm standpoint in both cotton and soybeans. The issue was not from a numbers standpoint where the numbers overwhelmed the traits and foliar insecticides. It was more an issue of population dynamics and how ... Read More »

The Mississippi State University Extension Service has a new cotton specialist. Brian Pieralisi was appointed to that role April 1. He replaced Darrin Dodds, who took the helm of the university’s Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. Pieralisi will work with growers to continue to refine cotton production practicesto help them become more profitable. His activities will include cotton variety ... Read More »

Weather always plays a role in the spring planting decisions of Mississippi row-crop producers, but the market impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is another variable they will have to consider in 2020. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Prospective Plantings report released March 31 estimates that growers intend to plant 4.06 million total acres of row crops in Mississippi this ... Read More »