A few days ago, I posted a planting advisory ahead of our forecasted cold snap. The concern was mainly around the potential of 30+ degree temperatures and rain to cause chilling damage to newly planted corn and soybean seed that were in the early stages of germination. Continue reading
The constant word I am hearing from retailers is that many herbicides are in tight or limited supply going into the spring. This all started back in late January when the most commonly used spring wheat herbicide, Axial Bold, sold out quickly and was followed shortly by Osprey. This was followed with reports of 2,4-D being in short supply. Continue reading
Tennessee fields annually turn a purple color around April 1. The weed henbit (Lamium amplexicaule L.) is the main cause for this color. It has distinct purple flowers and is one of the most commonly found plants in our row crop fields. However, there is a close cousin to henbit, purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum L.), that is also adding to the purple color in many fields. Continue reading
Ready or not burndown season is here! There has been very little burndown applied to date. Weather permitting some would like to start corn planting before April 1.
Early Burndown. The challenge to burning down grasses before planting has become increasingly difficult in the last half dozen years. There are two reasons for the sketchy grass control with the traditional burndown application of glyphosate + dicamba. First, the continued evolution of glyphosate resistance in ryegrass, junglerice, johnsongrass and goosegrass have made that “go-to” burndown application inconsistent. Second, we have now documented that dicamba is consistently causing glyphosate to provide poor grass control. As such our recommendation has been to change the “go-to” burndown from glyphosate + dicamba to glyphosate + clethodim.
The problem with using glyphosate + clethodim is that the burndown will miss, or be weak on, some broadleaf weeds, most notably glyphosate-resistant horseweed. During the meeting circuit this winter, several have asked “Is there a herbicide that can be added to glyphosate + clethodim that will provide horseweed control while not sacrificing grass control?” This caused me to go back and examine burndown research we conducted 4 and 5 years ago with Elevore and Verdict. Continue reading
If you haven’t noticed, our UTcrops.com website has gotten a facelift. You may not recognize it when you first visit us at https://utcrops.com/. However, it’s organized similarly to the old version. I’m sure there are a few bugs that need to be fixed, but take a look! This site gives you ready access to essentially all UT resources related to row crop production.
A special thanks to all cooperators, agents, and all others who make the County Standardized Trials Program a success.
With Covid limiting in-person meetings and office visits, I want to make available the 2020 CST handout. The above link is available for you to use in assisting variety/hybrid selection for the coming season. Agents, feel free to print and send out or send this attachment to your row crop producers via email. The full report above contains data from 2019 and 2020 for corn and soybean, 2020 Wheat, and 2020 Cotton.
The following links are segments of the full report to simplify searches through all 2020 CST data.
The Feb 4th Virtual Tennessee Grain and Soybean conference is now open for registration. Continue reading