The weather forecast, if accurate, suggests next week will dry up enough where we all can get back in the field. Everyone will need to be running sprayers as weeds have not stopped growing. I know everyone will be in a rush, but please, please take the time to be good stewards and apply herbicides as directed by the labels. Continue reading
UT’s Soybean Scout Schools will be held in July (see details below). These field-side programs cover the basics of soybean growth, scouting, pest identification, and general management. Pesticide recertification and CCA CEU points will be available. Scout Schools are offered free of charge with sponsorship from the Tennessee Soybean Promotion Board. Registration is not required. Participants will receive a scouting notebook and a sweep net while supplies last.
West TN – Madison County, July 15th, 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM. This school will be held at the West TN Research and Education Center, 605 Airways Blvd. Jackson TN, 38301. Signs will be up at the station to direct you to the field. Contact Sebe Brown for more information. 318-498-1283, sbrow175@utk.edu.
Middle TN – Robertson County, July 17th, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM. This school will be held at 5233 Belt Rd, Springfield, TN 37172. Contact Timmy Mann for more information. 615-384-7936, tmann1@utk.edu.
East TN – Monroe County, July 16th, 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM. This school will be held at 501 Main Street, Madisonville, TN 37354. Contact Jonathan Rhea for more information. 423-442-2433, jrhea@utk.edu.
JACKSON, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture will host the annual Weed Tour June 18 at the West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center. The guided tour will feature 60 weed management research tests in cotton, corn and soybean.
Weed Tour runs from 9 – 11:30 a.m., with registration opening at 8:30 a.m. Continue reading
How do you accurately growth-stage corn once the coleoptile has fallen off? Grab your favorite knife and slice a few plants… 
Due to little time and very few good spray days, some corn fields have yet to have their layby application. Corn is putting on a new leaf every 3 days with all the heat and water. Therefore, time is short before it will be too mature to apply many herbicides safely over the top. Continue reading
JACKSON, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture will host the annual Weed Tour June 18 at the West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center. The guided tour will feature 60 weed management research tests in cotton, corn and soybean.
Weed Tour runs from 9 – 11:30 a.m., with registration opening at 8:30 a.m. Continue reading
Crops injured by off-target herbicides have been too numerous for this early in the year! The most frequent problem has been corn injured by clethodim. There have been more reports and observations of this in the past 3 weeks than I can recall cumulative the past 20 years.
In my opinion, there are three reasons. First, with glyphosate no longer working on 5 grass species, clethodim is now used like never before as the “go to” for burndown. Second, with all the frequent rain there have been few days to spray causing applicators to rush. This in turn leads to higher probability of poor sprayer clean out and applications in less than ideal conditions. Third, small corn is highly susceptible to clethodim and it takes very little exposure to kill corn (Picture 1). It takes even less to cause bleaching and malformed whorls. Corn with these symptoms often will not die but may not produce an ear (Picture 2).
TDA has also gotten numerous complaints about 2,4-D drift. Most of this has been drift from pasture applications or burndowns.
Finally, a few dicamba drift issues have just recently been reported. The soybeans I have witnessed showing dicamba injury apparently were from burndown applications nearby.
I bring all this up to note that we are now in June. This is the most difficult month to keep herbicides in the targeted field as not only can they depart with wind but also through volatility with the higher temperatures this month.
Judging from the issues in May, we clearly need to up our game with respect to stewarding herbicide applications so the correct herbicide goes on the correct field. Remember the fundamentals of good herbicide stewardship: Wind speed, wind direction, applications with drift reduction agents added, sprayer boom height within 24” of the crop, etc.
Most importantly, use herbicides LABELED for use on the particular crop in the field. Only use Enlist One in Enlist crops. Never use the ester formulation of 2,4-D on pastures in the summer (Ester before Easter).
Finally, dicamba no longer has a label to be applied over Xtend crops and should not be used. Fortunately, Liberty Ultra in our research and also in fields I have walked has performed much better on pigweed so far this year than I would have anticipated. That new formulation looks to be providing more consistent Palmer amaranth control across various environmental conditions than the older 280 formulations.
This has been a tough week, with many walking cotton planted in mid to late May to find stands thinner with more gaps than acres planted in April. The number of cotton acres within the state appears to be decreasing despite several growers still planting. Subsequently, in the past few days, I’ve had calls complaining about seedling vigor of every commercial cultivar. Unfortunately for us, seedling vigor and seed quality have almost nothing to do with the failed stands from our last planting window- even marble-sized seed of the highest quality will drown when forced to suffer through prolonged saturated conditions. That said, a few callers this week pointed to one cultural practice as the saving grace on their acres, with others mentioning their desire to incorporate the practice on some of their acres in the future. In this blog, I’ll describe the underlying reasons for why that practice may only fit a portion of our acres- but for the acres on which it fits, it rarely results in the need for a replant. I’ll also talk briefly about the lessons those who cannot use the practice might apply to their acres.
The slider above includes two pictures of cotton planted by the same planter, on the same day (May 22, 2025), within the same field (Milan, TN)- the two areas are approximately 200 ft apart. Click and hold your pointer over the dividing line and slide it back and forth to see the striking differences associated with bedded versus flat ground this year. Continue reading