March brought about some scattered showers. Heading into April we are really heating up with high temperatures reaching into the lower 90s and very strong high winds.
Cotton: Driving through the counties there has been a lot of cotton seedlings emerging. With the recent moisture cotton stands are looking really good. There has been a little bit of replanting going on from cotton planted 3 weeks ago in some areas. According to the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation they have estimated about 131,233 acres of cotton has been planted and are anticipating to have about 150,000 acres for the season.
Herbicide applications have been applied in most fields. No pests to report in cotton this week.
Grain Sorghum: Grain sorghum seedlings are doing well, no presence of sugarcane aphids. Currently about 14 sorghum fields throughout the Valley are being monitored for sugarcane aphids. A couple of grain sorghum fields had some worm issues but other than that fairly clean. Light populations of corn leaf aphids can be found but are being taken care of by lady bugs.
Corn: There have been reports of worms in conventional corn mainly in the bigger corn and is to be expected in the younger corn coming up. Several boll worm moths have been seen in the fields so will be good idea to keep look out for more worm activity in the following weeks.
Farm Bill Meeting: There will be a farm bill meeting taking place on Tuesday April 8th at the Sam Sparks Auditorium at Rio Farms from 8:30am to 12:00pm. The 2014 Farm Bill contains many significant changes that producers will need to understand in order to make the best decisions to support their current farming operations. In order to facilitate these changes a group of experts will be there to give some insight on the changes heading their way.
