There is nothing of interest happening with our moth trap catches for corn earworm, tobacco budworm, southwestern corn borer, or beet armyworm. But I wanted to remind everyone that trapping data will be updated weekly throughout the summer. You can link to an Excel file of these data here or under the “Quick Links ” menu.
As far as cotton planting progress goes from this past week, probably the best you can say is we got a good start. State wide my best guess is that we are no more than 15% planted. It is raining now and at best we will be back in the field by May 20. Typically by May 20th we are hoping to be wrapping up cotton planting not really just getting started. Continue reading
Cotton Planting Forecast 5/20 to 5/24: We had a good week to get started planting cotton this past week. Just judging by calls, we have about 5 to 20% of the cotton planted depending upon where you are in the state. Continue reading
As reported by NASS on May 13, 2013
COOL, WET CONDITIONS CONTINUE TO SLOW SPRING PLANTING
Farmers once again struggled to get out into the fields last week due to persistent wet conditions. Almost half of the farmland in the state is reported as having surplus soil moisture levels. These wet conditions have made for a very slow start with corn, cotton, and soybean plantings falling about two weeks below the five year average. Corn growth is also being slowed due to the cooler than normal weather for this time of year. Continue reading
Once it dry’s this looks to be a big week to plant! A few areas got close to 4” last Friday so it will be a few days before some fields will be dry enough to plant. There were a few cotton fields planted last week that may struggle to establish a stand with the cold wet weather. Our colleague, Darren Dodds of Mississippi State University, wrote a great piece recently on cotton replant polices for various cotton seed companies. Click on this link to access his cotton replant cost update http://www.mississippi-crops.com/2013/05/11/cotton-replant-costs/
Click on this link for Dr. Aaron Smith’s Weekly Crop Marketing comments CropComments051013 . Continue reading
Prices have been updated after the May 10th USDA Supply & Demand report. The weather has caused quite a bit of uncertainty for this time of year in regard to planting decisions. However, this will be cleared up this month. Weather more so than profitability may dictate planting decisions this year. Continue reading
Cotton Planting Forecast 5/13 to 5/18: We did have a small window to plant this past week. A little cotton and corn was planted during that time. Hopefully, the cotton will establish a stand with all the rain on Friday. It is hard to imagine right now, with all the rain coming down today (5/10), but this next week is by far the most favorable forecast we have had to plant this spring. Continue reading