I have four pesticide applicator trainings scheduled for February. All of these trainings will be held at the Faulkner County Cooperative Extension Service Office located at 844 Faulkner Street in Conway. I have moved the trainings into our classroom, so come in the front door on the Faulkner St side of the building.

Participants must wear a mask into the room, but once seated you may take off the mask. If you decide to get up and leave you will have to put your mask back on. This is a requirement to be able to hold this meeting.

Thursday, February 18 at 5:30 pm - FULL

This training is limited to 9 people. If you want to attend these trainings you MUST pre-register. I will only take the first 9 people.

To register you can call the office at 501-329-8344 or email my administrative assistant Mindy Beard at rbeard@uaex.edu.

The training will cost $20. If you bring a check please make it out to Faulkner County Extension Office.

The online course is still an option also. If you want to use the online options, the link is below.

The last online row crop production meeting will be for soybeans next week February 2 starting at 1:00.

To register and see the recordings of the previous production meetings click the link below.

Producers that will be using Enlist must go through the certification process every year. This course is available through the Extension Courses website. The link is below.

The following is a message from Courtney Weatherbee from the National Pesticide Safety Education Center.

Effective December 31, 2020, new regulations mandate that any paraquat products under 120 gallons distributed or sold by paraquat registrants require a closed system and do not allow jar testing. However, dealers and distributors are permitted to continue to sell paraquat products that do not meet the closed-system requirement until their stocks run out, and pesticide applicators may continue to use existing stocks according to the directions on the label of the product in their possession.

The Arkansas Corn and Grain Sorghum Performance Tests 2020 is now available for download. This is the final report with yields and information about corn and grain sorghum hybrids evaluated by the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Variety Testing Program, which provides unbiased information about the adaptability and performance of crop varieties in Arkansas' diverse environments.

This years River Valley Beef Cattle Conference will be a virtual webinar. The conference will be held February 23, 2021 starting at 1:00 p.m.

The final agenda is still being worked on but as soon as I get the final agenda and registration link I will post it here.

This week I want to focus on our Grazon products which include Grazon P+D and GrazonNext.

Grazon P+D is a combination of the two active ingredients picloram (P) and 2,4-D (D). P+D is a broadleaf herbicide that is used more in the summertime to battle weeds in pastures and hay fields. P+D will get all those weeds that 2,4-D will get but you can get added control for weeds like horseweed, pigweed, smartweed and curly dock. The one weed I really like it on though is horsenettle. Grazon P+D applied between bloom and fruit set has very good control. Although you won't initially get 100% control, after 3 years of spraying Grazon P+D you can reach 90 to 100% control. Rates range from 1 to 4 pints per acre. The most common application rate is 1 quart (2 pints) per acre.

GrazonNext is a also a combination herbicide. The active ingredients in GrazonNext are 2,4-D and aminopyralid. GrazonNext is going to have less activity on horseweed, pigweed, bullthistle and curly dock than Grazon P+D but you will have better activity on common and lanceleaf ragweed. GrazonNext can be applied either as a spray or it can be impregnated on fertilizer. I have put out a few demonstrations comparing the spray application versus a fertilizer application and every time the spray application looks better than the fertilizer application. Both types of applications are very good for buttercup control so if that is the weed you are after, you can go ether way. If putting it on fertilizer, I would just put it on potassium and/or DAP (phosphorous). The timing of winter weed control is not good timing for nitrogen applications, so any fertilizer that contains nitrogen will be wasted.

Grazon P+D is a federally restricted use pesticide and GrazonNext is not federally restricted but since it has 2,4-D as an ingredient it falls under the states 2,4-D laws and you still have to have a license to purchase it. There are no grazing restrictions on beef cattle for both herbicides but there are restrictions on harvesting hay behind an application. There is a 30 day restriction on cutting hay behind a Grazon P+D application but it is only 7 days on GrazonNext.

In this edition of Cattle Market Notes Weekly Dr. Josh Maples goes over the January 1 Cattle on Feed.

The weekly livestock market report is available on the Arkansas Department of Agriculture website.

Winter Production Meeting Webinars - Each webinar starts at 1:00 p.m. To register and see the agenda click here.

Pesticide Applicator Training - February 18 at 5:30, February 20 at 9:30 and again at 1:00 and February 25 at 2:00 at the Faulkner County Extension Office, 844 Faulkner Street Conway. Open to the first 9 participants that register per training. To register call 501-329-8344 or email Mindy Beard at rbeard@uaex.edu.

River Valley Beef Cattle Conference - February 23 at 1:00. More details later.

For more updates on upcoming events and to keep up with what's going on in agriculture in Faulkner County follow me on Facebook and Twitter

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