Although not a major pest, the threecornered alfalfa hopper (TCAH) causes occasional damage by girdling the main stems of seedling plants (typically those < 10 inches tall). They will feed around the perimeter of the stem with their beak, eventually creating a swollen callus. By itself, this injury does not affect yield, but Continue reading
Recent Updates
Herbicide Burn on Cotton and Soybean More of an Issue This Spring
There have been a lot of phone calls in the past few days with folks concerned about POST applied herbicide tankmix burn on cotton and soybeans. We see burn from POST applied tankmixtures every spring but the crop response from applications over the past 10 days has been more pronounced. Continue reading
Crop Progress – Tennessee and U.S.
GREAT PROGRESS ON FIRST CUTTINGS OF HAY, WHEAT HARVEST
Overall, weather conditions were advantageous to both crop development and harvest, with both showing considerable progress over last week and year. Producers made pronounced progress with first cuttings of hay and wheat harvest under favorable conditions for both crops. Also on a positive note, both cattle and pastures were reported to be in mostly good to excellent condition. There were 5.4 days suitable for field work. Topsoil moisture was 1 percent very short, 9 percent short, 80 percent adequate and 10 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture was 1 percent very short, 4 percent short, 83 percent adequate and 12 percent surplus. Continue reading at TN_06_12_17. The U.S. Crop Progress report can be read at CropProg-06-12-2017.
Tennessee Market Highlights
Corn, soybeans, and wheat were up; cotton was down for the week. Today the USDA released its monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) and Crop Production reports. A full summary of the reports for corn, cotton, soybeans, and wheat can be found at: http://economics.ag.utk.edu/outlook.html.
Corn: No changes were made to the domestic balance sheet this month. 2017/18 foreign stocks were decreased by 37 million bushels from the previous month. The USDA is projecting a decrease in global corn stocks of 1.192 billion bushels from the 2016/17 marketing year to the 2017/18 marketing year. Continue reading at Tennessee Market Highlights.
Comments on USDA WASDE and Profitability Update
June 9, 2017 – USDA World Supply and Demand Estimates
Corn
Market Reaction: July 2017 corn futures closed up 2 cents at $3.87 ¾ with a trading range for the day of $3.80 ¾ to $3.89 ½. December 2017 corn futures closed up 2 ¼ cents at $4.06 with a trading range for the day of $3.98 ½ to $4.07. USDA is currently projecting global corn ending stocks to contract over 1 billion bushels from 2016/17 to 2017/18. This is positive to long term price prospects; however US growing conditions and production will be important if this reduction is to materialize. Continue reading at June 9, 2017 USDA World Supply & Demand Estimates.
Cover Crops for Weed Control
Larry Steckel visits a farm where a cereal rye cover crop has been effectively used to control weeds. UTIA research says cover crops can often save farmers 2 herbicide applications.
Fire Ant Mounds in Soybean Fields
Please see the update at the bottom of this article …
Every so often, I get questions about reducing fire ant mounds in reduced-tillage soybean fields, particularly from the southern counties of the state where this occurs most commonly. Fire ants enjoyed our mild winter, so I have had a couple of questions already. This insect causes problems during harvest when Continue reading
Dicamba Performance – Expectation vs. Reality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNs4I2vIDP4&feature=youtu.be
In this video, we go back to the Mississippi River bottom with Dr. Larry Steckel. He’ll evaluate Xtendimax performance on Palmer amaranth and provide weed management recommendations.