Seeking Cooperators for the Small Grain Pest and Disease Survey

May 17, 2021

By Jochum Wiersma and Jared Goplen

The University Minnesota Extension has conducted a small grains pest and disease survey for more than a decade. This effort has been funded by your check-off dollars to inform producers and the research community of the presence of disease and pest problems, a first step to effective and timely management.

Rather than relying on random fields, we plan to visit only fields that you have volunteered, and we have written permission to scout. I ask your cooperation by volunteering some of your wheat fields now.

We will select a subset of all submitted fields such that we have a good representation across the region. We will inform you if one of your fields has been selected. Our scouts will visit only the selected fields this coming summer. The anonymous data will be used to generate the weekly pest, and disease updates in cooperation with NDSU. Unfortunately, we can’t share the data we collect in your fields with you individually.

The form will ask for your name, the latitude and longitude of the field in decimal degrees, the previous crop in that particular field, and asks whether you agree to grant the University of Minnesota Extension permission to enter the field.

Source : umn.edu

Video: Dicamba Returns for Georgia Farmers: What the New EPA Ruling Means for Cotton Growers

After being unavailable in 2024 due to registration issues, dicamba products are returning for Georgia farmers this growing season — but under strict new conditions.

In this report from Tifton, Extension Weed Specialist Stanley Culpepper explains the updated EPA ruling, including new application limits, mandatory training requirements, and the need for a restricted use pesticide license. Among the key changes: a cap of two ½-pound applications per year and the required use of an approved volatility reduction agent with every application.

For Georgia cotton producers, the ruling is significant. According to Taylor Sills with the Georgia Cotton Commission, the vast majority of cotton planted in the state carries the dicamba-tolerant trait — meaning farmers had been paying for technology they couldn’t use.

While environmental groups have expressed concerns over spray drift, Georgia growers have reduced off-target pesticide movement by more than 91% over the past decade. Still, this two-year registration period will come with increased scrutiny, making stewardship and compliance more important than ever.