UGA Cooperative Extension

Terrell County Extension Office:
News & Events

• Area Crop Production Meeting Schedule

Please contact the County Extension Office that is hosting the meeting to get the location of the meeting and make a reservation; most of these meetings are catered meals and they need an accurate count of how many will be attending.

• Kudzu Bug

Click here for more information on the kudzu bug, Megacopta cribraria. Dr. Jared Whitaker recently observed high numbers of adults infesting soybeans on the station in Midville.

• Drought Stress: Forage Information

Dr. Dennis Hancock, Extension Forage Specialist

"You don't need a weatherman to tell you when it is raining. And, you sure don't need me to tell you when it is dry. But, once again we find ourselves dealing with drought stress all across Georgia. South Georgia and most of Central Georgia has been dealing with this dry weather all spring. North Georgia has just started entering into moderate drought stress.

As we collectively deal with these conditions, I want to bring your attention to a few sources of information about how to react to and deal with drought in our forage crops. The main "clearinghouse" for information on drought-stress in forage-based livestock systems can be found here. I would like to point out one specific publication (among the 30+ articles on that page) which helps you to identify how severe the drought stress is by using your forage as a clue to determine which management steps to consider. That publication is entitled "Forage Use and Grazing Herd Management during a Drought" and it is located here .

At the very least, I would recommend that you identify (and use) sacrifice pastures/paddocks so that you can begin to confine the damage to one or two small areas rather than overgrazing the entire farm. Further, those of you who have been dealing with drought for several weeks now, begin seriously identifying those animals that should be culled. Remember, it is less expensive to cull and depopulate than it will be to feed lots of hay and/or destroy your pasture stands.

Most of us remember droughts that were as severe or more severe than this one (e.g., 2007-08) and we can make it through this one, too. BUT!, take steps now to ensure that the mistakes of the past aren't repeated and that poor decisions made now won't haunt you in the future."

• NEMATODE CONTROL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A WORLD WITHOUT TEMIK

Choose more-resistant varieties where appropriate. (NOTE that varieties with resistance to “southern root-knot nematodes” WILL NOT protect against other nematodes like “reniform” and “Columbia lance”). For peanuts we have ‘Tifguard’. For cotton we have ST 5458B2RF and PHY 367WFR. For soybeans we have a number of varieties. Further note that resistance in ‘Tifguard’ peanut approaches immunity; resistance on cotton and soybeans is “partial resistance to root-knot nematodes”.

Consider use of Telone II especially on peanuts and cotton. NOTE: supply of Telone could be limited in 2011.

Consider use of seed treatments like AVICTA Complete Cotton and AVICTA Complete Bean and AERIS Seed Applied System. There should be plenty of seed treatment available; however there will be a huge rush on trying to get the seed treated in time!! Temik 15G at 5 lb/A has performed better in trials under more severe nematode pressure than do seed treatments, that may not matter much now.

For added protection on cotton, growers may use a post emergent application of Vydate CLV.

On peanut, we also have NemOut biological nematicide (looks promising in limited trials) and Enclosure (iprodione) which we continue to evaluate and have not yet established a recommendation for.