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Faulkner County Agriculture Update

July 5, 2024

4-H Foundation Fish Fry


Our 4-H Foundation Fish Fry Fund raiser is coming up on August 9th at the Conway Cowboy Church. Come on out for some good food and good fun!

General Conditions

Weather


Heat and rain have been the main weather topics of this week. We had a good chance last Sunday but it was spotty. Some people got well over an inch while some parts of the county got nothing. The places that got rain, things look great, but where there was no rain you could see the heat taking affect. Yesterday brought some more spotty rains, and as I am writing this it looks like more of the county is getting a rain with more on the way. So by the end of this weekend maybe everyone will have gotten some kind of significant rain.

There is a good chance of rain for the rest of the week with cooler weather coming in. Highs for the week will mainly be in the 80's with lows in the high 60's.

Arkansas River
Drought Monitor
US Drought Monitor
Row Crop

Rice


Fungicide and midseason nitrogen went out on rice in the county this week. Most of the rice is at the right timing for an application of propiconazole for kernel smut and false smut. Sheath blight and blast are still light but we still need to be on the look out.


I established a kernel and false smut demonstration this week. There are three timings with 6 and 10 ounces of propiconazole. We sprayed the first timing on Monday July 1 which was mid boot. The second spray should be this Monday which is late boot, and then one application at boot split. Hopefully we will see some differences that we can look at later.


Below is a link to Dr. Hardke's Arkansas Rice Update from last Friday.

Arkansas Rice Update 6/28/2024

Soybeans


Late planted soybeans are coming up and anyone that missed the rain Sunday have started the pivots. Hopefully they are getting rain today. The earlier planted soybeans are putting on pods so we need to keep an eye out for insects. The moth trap counts increased slightly this week so watch out for earworms. We can take some defoliation but once it eats a pod it is gone.

Corn


The first planted corn is starting to dent as we have reached R5. We start the slow process now of watching the starch line move down the kernel. It usually takes about 24 days to go from R5 to R6 which is physiological maturity or black layer. That means we are about 14 days out on row watering and 21 days out on pivot irrigation before we are done. These rains are helping out on irrigation, but realize that a 1 inch rain right now is good for about 3 days as the plant is using 0.33 inches of water a day. The kernel in the pictures shows some of the earliest planted corn is at about R5.1 which is about 10% starch line movement.


We accumulated 212 heat units this week which brings us up to 2131 total heat units since April 1. That would put corn between R4 and R5.

Corn Earworm Moth Traps


We saw a small uptick in numbers in the moth trap that is across from the sand plant. This could be the start of moths coming out of the corn. We need to watch these numbers as soybeans start to pod.

2024 County Trap Catches
Herbicide Trainings

Anyone that applies Enlist, Dicamba, or Paraquat are required to go through additional education hours. The Enlist and Dicamba training is done online through the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. Paraquat is done through the National Pesticide Safety Education Center and there is a $25 charge.

For Enlist and Dicamba follow the link to our Pesticide Training Page. On the left side of the screen there is a menu that links you to Enlist and Dicamba training. I have also added the link to the NPSEC website for the Paraquat training.
UADA Pest Education and Training Page
NPSEC Paraquat Training
Beef, Small Ruminants, & Forages

Faulkner and Perry County Grazing Field Day


Please make sure you register by July 10! Also remember bring your lawn chair.


The Faulkner and Perry County Grazing Field Day will be held on July 13th at the Jeff Owen Farm just north of Enola on Heffington Cemetery Road.


The farm is located 2.7 miles north of the Enola Store on Highway 107. Turn east on Heffington Cemetery Road and then the farm is the first road to the north. It is located right on the corner of 107 and Heffington Cemetery Road.


Registration will start at 8:30 with the program starting at 9:00 and concluding with a lunch provided by the Faulkner County Conservation District.


Topics to be covered:

  • Electric Fencing
  • Water Tanks
  • Rotational Grazing
  • Calibration of Sprayers and Drills
  • Updates from NRCS


For anyone that has an EQIP contract and need to attend an educational meeting, this will count for that.


Please register by July 10 by calling either the Faulkner County Extension Office at 501-329-8344 or the Perry County Extension Office at 501-889-2661.

Asian Longhorn Tick Webinar


Please join us Thursday, July 11th at 6:00pm for an informational webinar on the Asian Longhorn Tick. In this webinar we will be joined by Drs. Kelly Loftin and Emily McDermott from UADA along with Drs. John Nilz and Josh Moffett from the Arkansas Department of Agriculture to discuss Theileria in cattle and the Asian Longhorn Tick.

 

This webinar will cover topics such as how to distinguish species and control tick populations along with disease symptoms and diagnostic testing. This webinar is for all livestock producers, veterinarians, agents and anyone wanting to learn more about the Asian Longhorn Tick. 


Registration link:

https://uada.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_LsL7Bu7wRfaSCKix5o_rkg#/registration

Armyworms in Faulkner County


We are now spraying for armyworms in Faulkner County! We sprayed our hay verification field on Wednesday. We had a big population of various sizes of worms. The field could have been harvested for hay, but with the forecast we decided to spray it. The field was sprayed with 4 ounces of a 1 pound lambda cy plus 2 ounces of Dimilin.


These rains could possibly bring out more worms so make sure to keep an eye out. They love signal grass and crab grass so that is the first place I would start looking. Small worms don't eat near as much as the bigger worms, so if you have small ones you have more time to get to a harvest without spraying, but if you have big ones, they need to be controlled as soon as possible.

First Cutting Hay Quality


I have taken in several hay samples this year. Some of those samples were from cool season hay fields which included mostly ryegrass fields. The first cutting warm season grasses included bermuda, bahia and dallis grass fields. I summarized all of these samples and put them into our quality calculator that shows where these bales would fit in a feeding program.


On average cool season hay has averaged 8% crude protein and 50% TDN while warm season grasses have averaged 10% and 54% respectively. In the table, if the box is green you are meeting more than 90% of the cattle's nutritional requirements, but if it is red you are below that. The number is the actual percentage of the requirement that you are meeting.


The table below shows how just that little bit of increase in protein and TDN will allow you to meet nutritional requirements of late gestation and lactating cattle. I have been impressed with our first cutting of warm season grasses this year, usually this is our lowest quality cutting. I have had some disappointed producers with their ryegrass hay. This is typical of trying to cut cool season grasses for hay, if you don't get them at the proper growth stage, you will have poorer quality hay. Ryegrass hay is better suited for haylage, where you can harvest at a proper timing even if the weather isn't cooperating.

Cattle Market Notes Weekly
Livestock Market Report

The weekly livestock market report is available on the Arkansas Department of Agriculture website.
ADA Livestock Market Report
Upcoming Events

Faulkner/Perry Grazing Field Day - July 13, 2024, 9:00 - 12:00 at Jeff Owen Farm in Enola.

Contact Kevin Lawson, County Extension Agent–Agriculture, Faulkner County | Kevin Lawson
uaex.uada.edu/faulkner