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Owen Taylor, Editor

COTTON NEWS:

Closing Cotton, 2-8
:
Cotton Surges Almost Limit, Finishes Strong. (Read More)

Mississippi Field Notes (Central Miss.), 2-8
:
Make sure your planting seed are good. (Read More)

Opening Cotton, 2-8
:
Bounces On Outside Influences. (Read More)

K. Good's Farm Policy, 2-8
:
Budget Issues; Ag Economy; Climate Change; Trade. (Read More)

Arkansas Farm Bureau Bi-Weekly Market Briefings, 2-5
:
Soybeans may have turned the corner; corn is showing bottoming signs; wheat is also due a bounce; rice in process of confirming a temporary low; cotton could come back into the planting mix. (Read More)

Georgia Seminole County E-News, 2-5
:
Still pretty soggy; weed control cost calculator; 2010 Cotton Cost Enterprise Budgets; Crop Performance Variety Tests. (Read More)

Virginia Cotton, 2-5
:
Variety Report Card (Read More)

Georgia Cotton Marketing News, 2-3
:
Cotton Outlook; Market Advice for the 2010 Crop.| (Read More)

Mississippi Field Crops Newsletter, January
:
Cotton has made fairly significant improvement in price during recent weeks, while corn and soybeans remain in doldrums or worse. (Read More)

Diesel Price Declines For Second Week In A Row
:
Down 4 cents per gallon on national average (Read More)

Georgia, Carolinas could be at more hurricane risk in 2010
:
WSI predicts more activity than in super-quiet 2009 hurricane season (Read More)

Cotton Herbicide Programs: What Some Farmers Are Looking At For 2010
:
Farmer comments from Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas (Read More)

Cotton market beginning to test bullish resilience
:
Cotton Marketing News, Don Shurley, University of Georgia (Read More)

Georgia study: why glyphosate stewardship fails to gain ground
:
Farmer resist the idea, despite spreading resistance to Roundup (Read More)

Senator Lincoln, Ag Chair, will keynote Mid-South Farm & Gin Show in Memphis
:
Critical year for region's farmers due to uncertainty, herbicide resistance (Read More)

Tractor sales expected to remain weak in 2010
:
Lower commodity prices and farmer income will depress buying activity (Read More)

Georgia: 10 Questions About Liberty-Link Soybeans
:
Includes overview of Palmer pigweed control fit (Read More)

Nunn Cotton Letter, 1-17
:
Market starts the new week on the defensive (Read More)

Mississippi Field Notes (Central Miss.), 1-18
:
When it comes to proven varieties, some habits are worth keeping (Read More)

Georgia 2010 Crop Comparison Tool (Excel), 1-17
:
Spreadsheet for comparing potential returns with cotton, peanuts and grain crops in irrigated, dryland and various tillage systems (Read More)

Ag Report (E-Central La.), 1-17
:
Cotton variety suggestions in lieu of DPL 555 and 515 (Read More)

DOJ intensifies Monsanto antitrust investigation 1-15
:
Company says it is cooperating in inquiry (Read More)

Virginia Cotton, 1-14
:
Cotton Varieties Look Promising (Read More)

 

Cotton:

Mystery insect damaging Texas cotton

AgFax.Com - Your Online Ag News Source

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WESLACO, Texas, July 3, 2009 -- A new and as yet unidentified insect is causing heavy damage to Lower Rio Grande Valley cotton fields already battered by an extended drought, according to a Texas AgriLife Extension Service cotton expert.

“We know this new pest is what’s commonly called a bean thrips of the genus Caliothrips,” said LeeRoy Rock, a cotton integrated pest management specialist in Weslaco. “What we don’t know yet is its species, but we’re working on it.”

Rock has sent out a special alert advisory to area growers on his electronic mailing list warning them to be on the lookout for the pest.

"It’s a small, sucking insect found on cotton plant leaves,” Rock said. “It relieves the plant of its nutrients and water which causes defoliation and eventually boll loss as well.”

The insect was first detected June 23 in a dryland cotton field west of Lyford and has since been found in a few other fields, Rock said.

For now, he’s recommending growers manage these populations with the same products used to control other thrips found in cotton.

“These insects are easy to miss,” Rock said. “You have to look closely. And the damage they cause resembles the damage caused by spider mites except for one little detail: Spider mites cause leaves to curl downward; this new bean thrips causes them to curl upward.”

He said area U.S. Department of Agriculture personnel, including Drs. Scott Armstrong and John Adamczyk, have sent insect samples to laboratories and universities outside the state for identification.

In an area where in recent years growers routinely planted upwards of 200,000 acres of cotton, only 60,000 acres were planted this year, Rock said.

LeeRoy Rock, a cotton integrated pest management specialist in Weslaco, is advising South Texas cotton growers to be on the lookout for a new as yet unidentified pest that's causing crop damage. (Photo by Rod Santa Ana)


“Low market prices, the drought, and rising input prices have decreased the number of acres planted,” Rock said. “Many growers planted sorghum instead.”

Of the 60,000 acres, only 20,000 acres were planted in irrigated fields, leaving the majority of the crop at the mercy of a relentless heat, high winds and below-average rainfall.

But even irrigated crops are showing signs of stress, according to John Norman, a cotton consultant who along with a colleague, Webb Wallace, first detected the new insect late last month.

Until now, the only good news to report about this year’s crop was the lack of widespread insect damage, likely due to the reduced acreage planted and a good ratio of beneficial insects to damaging insects, according to Rock.

“We’ll have more information soon on this new insect,” he said, “but for now growers are advised to keep a close eye on their crop and if they see infestation, treat this new thrips as they would any of the other thrips that affect cotton, including soybean and Western thrips.”