Field day to focus on resistant pigweed, insects and economics
July 24, 2009Contact Information:
Fred Bourland, Director, Northeast Research and Extension Center
870-526-2199 (101) / fbourland@uark.edu
Howell Medders, Communication Services, U of A Division of Agriculture
479-575-5647 / hmedders@uark.edu
PROLIFIC PIGWEED – Jason Norsworthy shows a pigweed (palmer amaranth) plant in an experiment to study the rapid rate at which herbicide-resistant pigweed plants can spread in a cotton field at the Arkansas Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Fayetteville.
KEISER, Ark. -- Farmers' struggles to stay ahead of resistant weeds and insect pests will be a theme at a field day Wednesday, Aug. 5, at the Northeast Research and Extension Center at Keiser. The center is a unit of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Indoor presentations on economic issues and a complementary lunch will follow two hours of research plot tours, starting at 9 a.m., center Director Fred Bourland said.
Anders Reynolds, an aide to Congressman Marion Berry, will give a legislative update, and extension specialists will discuss current crop conditions and challenges.
Division of Agriculture weed scientist Ken Smith will discuss research and extension recommendations for dealing with herbicide resistance, particularly pigweed (palmer amaranth) resistance to Round-up in cotton and soybeans.
Entomologists Glenn Studebaker and Tina Teague will focus on tarnished plant bugs (TPB) in cotton and give an update on current insect pest activity in all crops.
Cotton growers are applying less insecticides thanks to boll weevil eradication and bollworm resistant cotton varieties, allowing some pests formerly overshadowed by the "major" pests to increase, Bourland said.
Bourland, a cotton breeder, said "cotton genotypes vary in response to TPB from highly attractive and susceptible to moderately resistant. Depending on movement of TPB, the highly susceptible genotypes may be useful as a trap crop. Multiple sources of resistance have been identified and are being combined. Moderately resistant lines may be used in combinations with other strategies to reduce the impact of this pest."
Discussions of economic issues in the NEREC auditorium will be led by:
-- Archie Flanders, Division of Agriculture economist based at NEREC, on costs and returns for crops as affected by increases in commodity and input prices;
-- Bob Stark, a division economist based at the Southeast Research and Extension Center, Monticello, on the economics of herbicide resistance; and
-- Scott Stiles, a division risk management specialist based at Arkansas State University, on the inherent risk in crop prices and other factors that impact profitability.