T-Y IPM NEWS

news about integrated pest management in Terry and Yoakum counties
Scott A. Russell, EA-IPM
Telephone: (806) 637-4060
Mobile: (806) 893-1041
Fax: (806) 637-2588
E-Mail: sarussel@tamu.edu   http://lubbock.tamu.edu/ipm  
Vol. 3, No. 6
209 South Fifth Street, Brownfield, TX 79316
June 27, 2002

In this issue:
Pesticide Applicator Training
General Situation
Killing Roundup Ready Cotton
New Conservation Money Available


Pesticide Applicator Training and Testing will be conducted July 2, 2002 at the Tokio Coop Gin. We will begin at 9:00AM and conduct the testing immediately following the training. If you are in need of a Texas Department of Agriculture, Private Applicator's License now is the chance. This is the initial training to obtain a license, NOT continuing education units. There is a $10.00 fee for the class study materials.

General Situation:
Cotton has begun to square in nearly all area fields. Those which have not are the later replanted and dryland which is struggling. There have been no insect problems this week. Program fields ranged from five true leaves to pinhead sized squares, with high retention rates. Square loss in fields I examined could not be attributed to insects. I suspect environmental factors. The peanut crop is moving along nicely.

Killing Roundup Ready Cotton:
With the large amount of dryland cotton not establishing an acceptable stand, it might be important to have some information about killing Roundup Ready cotton. The following comments are from Stephen D. Livingston, Extension Agronomist, and appeared in the June 13 issue of Insects and Weeds in Focus, a newsletter out of the Texas Cooperative Extension District office in Corpus Christi.

When the hail or a drought disaster has crippled a cotton field, it may be required to completely destroy those plants to prepare the way for a following crop. When they are RR cotton plants, certainly it would be futile to attempt to use glyphosate (Roundup). Listed here are some "killing products" to use for young cotton, ranked in order of preference. The growth stage of the cotton has a lot to do with the effectiveness of the treatment:
1. Banvel/Atrazine - pre-flowering
2. Paraquat (Gramoxone Extra, Boa, CycloneMax) - non woody cotton
3. Buctril (if the plants are small)- (Pre-squaring)
Paraquat alone will not kill RR-cotton if there is any wood in the plant. As you know, paraquat is a desiccant used at cotton harvest, and fixes and freezes leaves to the cotton plant.

Educational programs conducted by the Texas Agricultural Extension Service serve people of all ages regardless of socioeconomic level, race, color, sex, religion, handicap or national origin. The information given herein is for educational purposes only. References to commercial products or trade names is made with the understanding that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by the Cooperative Extension Service is implied.
The Texas A&M University System, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Commissioners Courts of Texas Cooperating
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Regrowth will occur not long after treatment. The only way to kill mature RR-cotton after it has formed wood is to use one pound of 2,4-D that is labeled for crop stubble usage (to be legal). This can be done two ways:
(1) If you spray immediately after harvest, you can spray the standing stalks when the wood is all skinned-up from the pickers going through it. This will give good results (90%+),
(2) If the stalks are allowed to form regrowth, then it is better to shred-down the stalks and to spray 2, 4-D in a narrow band. Charles Stichler notes that spraying the ragged stubble not only saves product, but the stubble will usually not come back with regrowth.

There are several products that will kill non-RR cotton, but discussion here has been limited to termination of all stages of RR cotton for replanting or to complete stalk destruction requirements. SDL

Cotton destruction is important if you are planting an alternate crop. In order to make boll weevil eradication work we'll have to make sure we clean out that "left-over" cotton and prevent volunteer cotton from providing food and egg laying sites for weevils.

Unless conditions change drastically, there will not be a T-Y IPM News next week. Enjoy the Fourth!

New Conservation Money Available:
Deadlines are approaching fast for several of the USDA programs. The deadline for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQUIP) is June 28. EQUIP is designed to promote agricultural production and environmental quality through technical assistance, cost-share payments and incentive payments.

The 2002 Farm Bill also created additional funding for ground and surface water conservation in the area for land over laying the Ogallala aquifer in Texas. An additional six million dollars is available to producers in this area to update irrigation equipment. The deadline for these applications is July 12. For details, contact the appropriate County office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service ASAP, at one of these numbers: Terry County NRCS, 637-8092 extension 3 or mobile 891-1131; Yoakum County NRCS, 456-3703 extension 3 or mobile 592-1131.

T-Y IPM News is a publication of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service IPM Program in Terry and Yoakum Counties.
Editor: Scott A. Russell
EA-IPM,
Terry & Yoakum Counties		 Production: Bea Pippin


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