Posted by Tyson Raper on behalf of the author, Dr. Aaron Smith
It’s a challenging time for crop producers to manage input price risk. Input prices for fertilizer, crop protection (chemicals), machinery, fuel, labor, rent, and insurance are up substantially compared to last year at this time. Additionally, availability and timeliness of delivery are a major concern. Fertilizer prices highlight this dramatic increase in the cost of production (graphs above). Most common fertilizers have more than doubled compared to last year. As such, producers are seeking strategies to reduce input costs. Two recommendations, as a starting point, are soil sampling (know what you’ve got) and crop selection (know current relative cost and revenue relationships for commodities produced on your farm). Unfortunately, there is no “silver bullet” to mitigate rising input costs and availability concerns. So, producers will need to be creative in their approach and consider numerous strategies. Continue reading
We can learn a great deal by comparing notes. Slicing bolls is one of the best ways to time defoliation- and most agree on what represents a ‘mature’ boll (dark seed coat color, no jelly in seed, hard to slice with a sharp knife). But when it comes down to it, there is a large amount of variation in what each of us, as agronomists, consider to be a boll that could potentially be opened by ethephon. With cool temperatures in the forecast on what remains a late crop, many are trying to figure out which bolls might be opened with an application and when to start. To get the conversation started, I texted the above picture to a few dozen individuals within the industry to get their thoughts on this question- what is the lowest number boll you believe you can open with ethephon? 
In the past month, I’ve had the opportunity to walk several excellent fields that will likely be defoliated in September and many of our later planted acres have narrowed the maturity gap despite the weather continuing to fall below our 30 year average for heat unit accumulation. On farm visits throughout this summer, I often found myself repeating the old verbiage about ‘cotton knowing how long it has left in the season’- half to provide a positive outlook on the crop, and half to convince myself that some of this top crop had a chance. We still have a ways to go, but in the last few weeks, that saying about cotton knowing where it is in the season again appears to be true. In this blog, I share a few last-minute management thoughts, make a few comments about defoliating some of our earliest cotton, and highlight a field day coming up next Monday, Sept. 13th in Fayette County.
Over the past few weeks, several have reported poor retention in an area just northwest of Jackson. I’ve spent several days walking some of the impacted fields- this crosses multiple growers and a substantial number of acres- and the cause is becoming more clear. The adjacent image is characteristic of retention and growth noted within the impacted area. In this blog, I attempt to describe the mechanisms that drive environmental shed, our current hypothesis on the cause of poor retention in the area just north of Jackson, and the decisions you’ll need to make if you see this on one of your farms.