As many of you know, Dr. Angela McClure, our Extension Corn and Soybean Specialist, retired at the end of June after 20 years of service.  Dr. McClure will be greatly missed.  We are actively searching for a replacement and hope to have the position filled quickly.  In the meantime, my colleagues and I will do our best to cover these commodities until the position is filled.

Rainfall (or lack thereof) has been the main topic of conversation in double crop soybean, full season soybean and corn.  Several specific questions have arisen lately on irrigation management and how to maximize returns during 2022.  With help from several of my colleagues, I’ve worked to update a previous post of Dr. McClure’s with information from 2022. Continue reading →

The 2021 Tennessee Cotton Variety Trial Results Publication (PB 1742) is now available online.  Included within these results are ten large strip trials (CSTs) testing 15 XtendFlex commercial varieties, three large strip trials (CSTs) testing 5 Enlist commercial varieties, and six small plot trials (OVTs) testing 41 experimental and commercial varieties. Special thanks to all of the agents and producers who helped generate this data.  Additionally, thanks to the USDA Classing Office in Memphis for assisting with this effort.  If you have any questions on location response or variety placement, please do not hesitate to reach out directly to your county agent.

Preliminary data from the 2021 TN Cotton CSTs is now available.  We are releasing an average table for the XtendFlex trials and the Enlist trials today and hope to release the quality and individual location results in the near future.  Keep in mind the XtendFlex and Enlist trials are conducted separately, so direct comparisons between tables cannot be made from this dataset.  Also, stay tuned for the OVT small plot trial data average table which includes 41 commercial and pre-commercial varieties.  Continue reading →

A great big THANK YOU to our County Agents and cooperating growers for getting in and out this year’s County Standardized Trials Wheat Test.  With Covid ramped up last fall, we had fewer entries into our trials because of issues with supply and workers in the warehouses.  I was happy to see such good yields across the state for a lot of growers.  Looking at our plant dates, early planted wheat had an advantage over planting middle to the latter part of November.  We had a few scares across the northern counties with the late freeze, and across much of the state during grain fill we were cooler and wetter than desired.  Our target varieties seem to be more tolerant to these stressors and in most cases, overcame.

The table below has the results from 8 County Trials, testing 13 varieties.  Our average range in yield was from 62 bushel to 131 bushel per acre with an overall average of 94 bu/ac.  UT recommendations are to select varieties in the “A” group as our top performers.

-MS (mean separation) Varieties with the same letter are not significantly different

-Orange Blocks show varieties’ yield above the location’s average

-% ≥ Avg. is the % of locations that variety is at or above the field 2021 wheat

Click on table for a full PDF

Preliminary data from the 2020 TN Cotton CST Data is now available.  We are releasing an average table for the XtendFlex trials and the Enlist trials today.  We only tested the XtendFlex and Enlist varieties together in a handful of locations.  I will release the average tables from those locations later, along with results from each individual location.  Also, stay tuned for the OVT small plot trial data average table which includes 44 commercial and pre-commercial varieties.  The last of the OVT samples should gin during the first of next week. Continue reading →