agriculture

At a minimum, Floyd, Crosby and Lubbock counties now have sorghum fields at the economic threshold of 50 to 125 sugarcane aphids per leaf and insecticide applications started over the weekend. Blayne Reed, Extension Agent - IPM in Hale, Swisher and Floyd counties said that private consultants called in the first Floyd County applications today. Monti Vandiver, Syngenta Crop Protection and former Extension Agent - IPM, said that the aphids in Crosby and Lubbock counties are now at treatable levels.  This is in no way meant to imply that the other infested counties don't have fields at threshold level, so it is imperative that all sorghum fields on the Southern High Plains be scouted. This aphid can go from barely noticeable to exceeding the economic threshold in as little as 5 days .  All of the scouting procedures, treatment threshold and insecticide information is presented here:  http://www.texasinsects.org/sorghum.html  .  This is a reprint of a news article ...

Fall armyworm in corn and sorghum Fall armyworm trap captures at Lubbock are up this week and we are on course to approximate the high numbers experienced in 2014. FAW trap capture as of 7/8/15. Click for a larger view.  Larvae feed on corn ears and ear shanks and behind leaf collars. Our recent research at Lubbock has shown that one fall armyworm larva, when boring through the side of an ear, causes an average of 0.20 lbs. of yield loss per ear through direct kernel injury and damage by associated fungi. In our experiments the mycotoxin (fumonisin) levels in grain greatly increased in ears damaged by fall armyworm side entry damage. Heavy infestations may result in substantial yield losses because larvae feed directly on the ear. Additional losses can occur when shank feeding causes ears to drop and when stalks lodge as a result of feeding damage to the nodes.  Non-Bt corn and single toxin Bt corn (Cry1F Herculex) should be scouted carefully as it approaches silking and ...

By  Tommy Doederlein, Pat Porter, Blayne Reed and Kerry Siders Sugarcane aphid arrived early in south Texas this year but its northward expansion was apparently slowed by the record rainfall. However, in the last two weeks it has made a rapid advance and was found in Lubbock County on June 29 th .   This is two months earlier than the August 27 th , 2014 first detection by Blayne Reed in Floyd County. Last year�s late arrival allowed us to avoid making insecticide applications. While it is still too early to guess how severe the problem might be this year, we would like to provide some information on management practices prior to boot stage. When on whorl stage sorghum, economic populations of sugarcane aphid s can result in near total yield loss because it destroys leaf cells that provide nutrition to keep the plant growing, exert the panicle and fill the grain. The worst case is a heavy sugarcane aphid infestation on whorl stage plants. Later infestations on headed sorghum a...

Things have been quiet on the fall armyworm front since the large trap captures earlier in the season. However, Greg Cronholm, Independent Crop Consultant and Extension Agent - IPM (retired), called earlier in the week to report finding very heavy egg deposition on small corn in Hale County. Greg said that the eggs were from a species in the armyworm group but he did not think they were fall armyworm. Yellowstriped and beet armyworms are a possibility as is a different armyworm species. We will try to rear out some larvae to determine the species.