Category Archives: Cotton

08 Jun 2020

Palmer Amaranth Control with all the Uncertainty Around Dicamba

08 Jun 2020
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As most know by now, on June 3rd the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit vacated the labels for XtendiMax, FeXapan and Engenia.  The question since is how do we proceed from here controlling weeds in Xtend cotton and soybean?

The folks at the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) have stated that until they get direction from the Environmental Protection Agency to the contrary, growers can still apply those herbicides according to the label directions. How long this will be is uncertain. It could be just a day, several weeks or depending upon legal maneuvers, well into July. Continue reading →

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04 Jun 2020

Cotton Insect Update … Thrips Be Rolling

04 Jun 2020
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Severe thrips injury on untreated cotton

It’s been a challenge getting our crops in the ground, and our planting dates are really stretched out. It is especially important that our late planted cotton gets off to a good start to make up for a little lost time. Unfortunately, the ‘Thrips Infestation Predictor for Cotton’ (https://climate.ncsu.edu/cottonTIP) appears to be dead on in predicting our heaviest thrips pressure will occur in early June, just as our later planted cotton is most susceptible. I’d suggest making an insecticide application to Continue reading →

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28 May 2020

Basics of the CFAP Direct Payments for Corn, Soybean, and Cotton

28 May 2020
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Posted for Dr. Aaron Smith, Associate Professor and Extension Economist, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture

The USDA has started accepting applications for CFAP payments to producers that have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Continue reading →

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28 May 2020

Reminder – UT Cotton Scout School (8:30, Friday May 29th via Zoom)

28 May 2020
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Because of the COVID-19 situation, the 2020 UT Cotton Scout School will be held by webinar (via Zoom) on May 29th, beginning at 8:30 AM and ending by Noon. Participants will be required to preregister to receive the Zoom password to enter the meeting. To preregister, please email LaDonn Kelso at dkelso2@utk.edu. She will reply to your message with the Zoom meeting password.

Pesticide re-certification points and Continue reading →

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26 May 2020

Suggestions to Minimize Cotton Injury with First POST Applications

26 May 2020
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This week will be the start of the early POST applications in cotton. These applications are often critical to not only curtail weed competition but to combat thrips injury as well. The biggest concern with these applications is injury to the young cotton plants. Continue reading →

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22 May 2020

Cotton Producers’ Prevented Planting Decision

22 May 2020
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Christopher N. Boyer, Tyson B. Raper, and S. Aaron Smith

May 20th (Final Planting date) has come and gone and June 4th (End of Late Planting) is around the corner for cotton producers. If you haven’t planted yet and have Revenue Protection or Yield Protection insurance policies, there are four options:

  1. Plant cotton in the late planting period. This option comes with reduced insurance; the farmer’s production guarantee would decrease 1% per day, for each day of delay after the final planting date until the crop is planted or the end of the late planting period. Production guarantee is the guaranteed revenue amount offered by a crop insurance provider and is calculated by multiplying guaranteed insurance price by actual production history (APH) yield, which is a 4 to 10-year trend adjusted average yield used for future crop insurance purchases, by insurance coverage level.
  2. Take the full prevented planting payment. The full prevented planting payment is the farmer’s production guarantee multiplied by the prevented planting coverage factor. The prevented planting coverage factor for cotton is 50%. This option requires leaving the land fallow or planting a summer cover crop after the late planting period that cannot be harvested or grazed before November 1st. This option does not impact the producer’s APH.
  3. Receive a 35% of their full prevented planting payment for cotton and switch to a second crop. If a partial indemnity payment was received for the first crop, the second crop will be uninsured, and a farmer must wait until after the late planting period for the first crop to plant the second crop.
  4. Forgo the prevented planting payment for cotton and plant a second crop. If a farmer did not receive an indemnity payment for the first crop, they can switch their insurance to a second crop and plant immediately.

In this report, we examine each of these alternatives by assessing the profit-maximizing option using historical crop yield data, and also lay out information producers should consider if they are faced with a prevented planting decision.  Continue reading →

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