July Crop Update

Posted

Cotton – cotton last week was around 4-6 nodes above white flower.  It has really started to come on and bloom over the past 2 weeks…especially on the dryland.  We are still behind and most bolls we add from here on will likely not be viable.  We could start to see some fruit shedding this week and in the upcoming weeks.  We have had heavy amounts of the same bug (cotton bollworm, corn earworm and sorghum headworm) being active over the past few weeks, so if you have Bollgard II or less cotton you may want to scout for bollworm damage. 

Corn – corn is maturing well.  Most fields have seen favorable pollination weather.  We do have areas tipping back from possible N leaching and denitrification.  I also suspect with all of the early rain we have had, we could have some shallow roots that may have mislead us some on irrigation.  Any fields untreated with a fungicide are dealing with heavy rust issues this year and are drying down prematurely.  We are starting to wind up irrigation on some of the 1st planted corn.  No reports or signs of spidermites this year, but corn earworm have been very heavy…doing damage to any genetics less than Viptera. 

Grain Sorghum – this crop is looking very good in my opinion.  Like this year’s wheat, we probably don’t see this kind of start with moisture in this area.  I have found significant Sugarcane Aphids in scattered fields, so if you have not treated, it may be a good idea to go check several spots looking on the undersides of the leaves.  Here are some pictures from a few fields last week.

Wheat – we finally have the ’21 crop out and looking to put ’22 in.  I have some very good local variety trial information available.  So please contact if you would like our most recent variety trial information.  Also, our Amarillo agronomist Dr. Jourdan Bell has some good figures on yield decreases as you move from Certified seed to 4 year “bin run” wheat. 

General – top moisture is starting to decrease in places…rainfall has been mostly plentiful, but this week has warmed up and dried out.  Input costs continue to increase….it may be a good time to look at alternative input options for fertility and possibly look for pre-buy discounts.