Weeds AR Wild S6 Ep5: Cotton and Peanut Programs (6-15-26)

In this episode extension weed scientist Dr. Tom Barber and extension agronomist Dr. Zachary Treadway discuss cotton and peanut programs.

Transcript

[00:01] Intro/Outro

Arkansas Row Crops Radio, providing up to date information and timely recommendations on row

crop production in Arkansas.

[00:11] Tom Barber

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Weeds AR Wild podcast on Arkansas Row Crops Radio. My

name is Tom Barber. I'm one of the hosts of this show that we try to put out at least bi weekly or

weekly. And today I have our cotton specialist extension cotton specialist, Doctor Zachary Treadway,

as a guest on the show. So good afternoon. Zachary.

[00:36] Zachary Treadway

Hey, Tom. Good afternoon. How are you doing?

[00:38] Tom Barber

Good, man. Doing good. I've been asking you for a while to do one of these on cotton. We've kind of

beat rice and beans to death on the podcast lately, but we've had a lot of stuff going on in those

crops, and so I wanted to take some time and focus on cotton and peanuts with this one. And I guess

I'll just kick it off with you and get us started on what the crops looking like. You know, for cotton,

how many acres, crop condition, that sort of thing. What are you hearing out there?

[01:08] Zachary Treadway

Yeah. So we, last year we had we had a half a million acres of cotton last year. I don't think there's

any way we're going to be able to touch that number again this year. But kind of the problem we're

encountering and kind of where there's a little uncertainty depending on who you talk to and what

numbers you look at, seems to be kind of a moving target on the acreage of cotton that we'll have

this year. So we got a survey from National Cotton Council back in February or March. That survey

said that they were looking for around 325,000 acres of cotton.

Later on in the March, USDA released that perspective planting survey, and they have that number up

to 470,000 acres. Talking to Scott Stiles, our economist, and just kind of knowing what we know from

the last couple of years, I just don't think we'll hit that 470,000 acre mark. If I had to ballpark it right

now, we're still, you know, we're doing this on June the 15th, where we're right at two weeks away

from the release of those certified acres from USDA. I'm still going to ballpark. We're somewhere in

the 400,000 acre range. Nationwide, I think acres are going to be up. But I do think in Arkansas we're

going to decrease.

We're going to come off that half million acres we saw last year. What I do think happened, the

reason I'm I've moved my ballpark up to that 400,000 acre range just here in the middle of May, we

saw cotton take a run, and we topped out somewhere around $0.84 a pound, which is as high as high

as we've seen it in a long time. I checked right before we got on here, Tom, and we're we're still at

$0.76 a pound, which is, you know, where we've been the last year, 76 is still pretty good. So I think

when we hit that $0.84 about a month ago, I do think we have some producers might have might

have found some cotton ground.They might have might have moved some ground back into cotton because the price got as good as

we've seen it in a long time.

[03:04] Tom Barber

Yeah, I heard a lot of guys there later in the planting window. Talk about increasing cotton acres there

at the end. And because of some, you know, the pricing points. And, you know, nobody really talks

about gin rebates and what's offered here or there. But there's other there's other money in cotton I

guess, other than what's the trade value is I guess, or what's what's traded on the board.

[03:26] Zachary Treadway

So yeah. And we just put out an article this morning, several of us and we have actually seen, we've

seen fertilizer prices come down a little bit. We’ve seen urea prices come down off that real high they

were back in April. So for our producers that that didn't book the fertilizer early, you know we still

have some producers who still have some N to put out, be able to take advantage of these this

decrease in prices, which will definitely, definitely be a welcome, a welcome change from what we've

been staring at the past year or so.

[03:55] Tom Barber

So what would you give? What would you rate the crop right now, Zachary, if we had to hold you

down? I mean, are we sitting on a good start, a poor start or somewhere all across the board, I guess?

[04:06] Zachary Treadway

Well, I, this crop, I mean, the I think we kind of had two starts on this crop. It's one of the issues we

saw, I think the I think the second start that we're on right now. Yeah, I, I think we're in the, we're in

the majority in the good range. You know we get that crop condition report. And I think most of our

crop is sitting in the good to what I might even call good plus range. What we ran into, you know, we

were, our planting weather was very kind to us in April, in April and on into May and even towards

the end of March for some of those guys planting corn.

And we had those producers get out there and they got all their corn in the ground really quick. And

and you grew up around farmers like I did, and farmers can't sit idle once they hook a planter up. And

so they got a lot of that corn in and they and they turned to planting cotton middle of April, even

here in northeast Arkansas. And I know some of that cotton ground that got planted early had to get

planted again. We we kind of turned off cool, turned off wet there mid to late April. And we had to

come back and kind of hit restart on that crop. But once we got the crop in the crop is moving along

really well.

I've been speaking with a consultant this morning down in South Arkansas, and they're really close to

laying that crop by. So, so for that crop down there, it's moving along really quick. And we're getting

on into the season real fast.

[05:24] Tom Barber

Yeah that's right. And you know for any weed control part of this discussion I guess it's already been

done in South Arkansas for the most part. We're sitting right there, like you say, trying to lay it by andget it through to the end of the year. What what are you thinking about nitrogen application? So are

we still splitting nitrogen applications? Nitrogen. Potash I mean, those all still going out early, or are

we at the point of the season where we're getting to that?

[05:54] Zachary Treadway

Yeah, I'm, I'm I'm still a fan of splitting that nitrogen applications. I think for some of that, some of

that that crop that's been laid by you know, I'm, I'm sure a chunk of that crop is probably already

gotten all the N it's going to get the deal. And this is no kind of no, no rocket science. I try to tell folks

that our whole deal with nitrogen and we try to run out of gas as the wheels hit the ground. Last

thing we want to do is carry excess N on throughout the year and then make defoliation a lot harder

than it has to be, because it's already it's already quite the science itself trying to get it done.

And so we tried to try to alleviate that problem and not have a crop with excess N. So yeah, I still like

splitting that up. Coming coming through with two applications of nitrogen.

[06:42] Tom Barber

Okay. Well I know I don't know where your calls have been lately, but unfortunately and this is just

typical of, I guess, the weed science trade. But the last couple of weeks in every crop, our calls have

been either drift or tank contamination or what's this on my crop top calls and and so to me this year

it hasn't been as bad overall in cotton. But I mean, we still get contaminated totes and, you know,

contaminated with just about you name it or contaminated sprayers. That seems to be the biggest

thing I'm going on right now and and following behind. And, and I think it's just, you know, part of the

process, really.

I mean, I hate to say that we just live with some of that now, but when we're farming a diversity of

crops like we are throughout the state, and we've got these big sprayers covering a lot thousands and

thousands of acres of it's hard to keep straight, I guess. So what you've been spraying and where

you're going and making sure that we not only clean out the sprayer, but we also clean out any

mixing equipment that we have on site or at the shop, any, you know, type of holding tanks that we

mix into or product tanks. And so and just the lines that get transferred from one to the other.

And sometimes we forget that, I mean, a 100ft line can hold a lot of pesticide residue if we don't, you

know, do the proper follow the proper techniques to clean it out. So I've been looking at a lot of crop

damage just based on that. The good thing is, for the most part, cotton is really strong. Once it gets a

certain size, I guess it can kind of overcompensate and it'll hang in there, and I don't. I've learned to

never count a cotton crop out. But you know, when I look at just weed control calls now, we're a little

later in the season, to be honest with you.

One of my number ones is volunteer soybeans or it has been lately, and it may be some of that later

crop that was planted that might have got switched to cotton or, you know, for whatever reason,

they were just a little later getting it planted, you know, for volunteer soybeans for me Envoke at

once the cotton has five true leaves, which I would assume most of our cotton does at this point, is

probably the best answer for volunteer soybean. Now, if those soybean are STS, we're not likely to kill

them with the Envoke.But from what work we've done, if we mix liberty or glufosinate in with that Envoke, we can at least

make them wish they were dead long enough to let the cotton more or less outcompete them. And

so they we may get some suppression there at best, but it's better than nothing if they're bolt beans

and they're volunteers. Good luck. I don't have a good solution of what a plow can't get. So it's either

a plow or pull them, or be really, really careful with some paraquat and some hoods, I guess. But that

that's about all we've got for volunteer beans. The other you know, what's really come on.

And it sounds funny for me to say it because we've always had trouble in the past. But for me,

Johnson grass calls have skyrocketed this year in cotton and some of our other crops. And so really

probably more glyphosate resistant Johnson grass than, you know, we've actually tested out there in

the real world. But, you know, we really don't have a handle on how much that has spread, I guess,

recently.

So I would treat some of it like it's resistant to glyphosate, because I know there are some hot spots

out there in the Delta, but for me, a liberty or glufosinate plus a roundup or glyphosate combination

has been some of the best things we've used to to knock some of that out. But a lot of times we just

burn it down to the soil line and it just comes back. So again, we're just trying to outcompete it till the

end of the year.

But you know, being right now at the lay by time of Zachary, one of the things that we've seen a little

increase on, if the if some guy still has some fertilizer to put out is putting Zidua or pyroxasulfone on

the fertilizer, and I think, you know, number one, it's way better than nothing. If that's the only

residual I can get out at lay by, then I'll take it. Pyroxasulfone is really good on our Palmer amaranth

populations in the state. If we can get that reined in, I think we're going to be money ahead towards

the end of the year. As far as the number of Palmer we're dealing with at harvest.

But I would really rather have a lay by bar or a lay by rig or something moving through the field with

Zidua or Anthem Flex in there, that's fine, but getting it a really good coverage application in between

those rows can give us a little better results, and we can put Diuron or something else with it. That

helps as well. But if we're not going to do that, I know most people have parked their lay by rigs, but,

you know, putting that pyroxasulfone on the fertilizer in this last pass is a good way to get some

residual out there, at least in the middles. So have you heard of any anybody doing that kind of thing?

[12:21] Zachary Treadway

Yeah. Yes, yes. I mean I just even even back to my time just knowing you guys and listen to you guys

when I was coming up through school and then even in the now that that impregnation of fertilizer

with pyroxasulfone seems to be something that's, that's getting some legs and gaining some steam

and, and like you said, the pryroxasulfone can really, really a jammed up residual. And so being able

to get that down, get it down to the soil surface and get it incorporated is really a kind of a bullet we

have in the chamber in terms of original herbicides. Yeah.

[12:52] Tom Barber

And then one thing I was going to talk about, and there's really nothing to talk about, I guess, but I, I

know some growers out there have tried the accent flex cotton this year as far as the variety

standpoint. Unfortunately, I have no updates on any herbicides that are labeled or going to belabeled or trying to get a label in that technology. So verdict is still out on that. And as we get

updates, I'll let you know. But, you know, for now, for this season, we're pretty much done. You

know, for all intents and purposes, from spraying over the top, at least close to done probably

anyway. So not going to have it for this year.

But again, we hope to have that. I've been saying that we've hoped to have that for the next season

for the last five seasons. So I don't I don't even know what to say anymore. But hopefully again, we'll

get some of that move through the the EPA and get a label for that technology. Anything else? Oh,

we need to talk about? What about the jassid? What about the cotton jassid?

[13:58] Zachary Treadway

Well, let me stop you and back up. I don't think you covered it yet. I've got a few calls on sedge. It

seems to be just tough to kill. What? What are we recommending for sedge control right now, Tom?

[14:12] Tom Barber

That's a great question. So if the cotton is is fifth true leaf roundup and Envoke are pretty good on

yellow nut sedge Envokes a good nut sedge product. I like it better at 0.15 ounces than I do probably

0.1. So 0.15 ounces mixed with roundup or mixed with liberty to me, does a pretty good job on our

yellow nut sedge. One thing I will caution you and we talked about using Envoke for volunteer

soybean, but one thing that I would caution you is, Envoke can act like a plant growth regulator. And

what I mean is, if we spray that, you better count on it being about like eight ounces of Pix.

So expect some of the internodes in the top of the cotton to stack a little, like you would see from a

plant growth regulator, and expect that cotton to turn a light shade of yellow. And we see a little

more crop response when we put it with liberty. I will tell you if you've got sida and nutsedge and

some of the like Spurred Anoda, some of these weird broadleaf weeds, or morning glories, adding

Envoke in with Liberty is an excellent program for all of those things. So for past the fifth True Leaf,

that might be a decent option where we have some of these nutsedge problems.

And I got to be honest with you, you know, a lot of us weed scientists anyway, back in the fall and in

the spring, we were really on this fkumioxazin kick, put two ounces of valor out because it cost us less

than two bucks to the acre when we put a burn down out. And it's worked really well controlling from

a residual standpoint, our winter annuals. If we put it out in February early March, we can get winter

annual control. Keep those winter annuals like horse weed down. It'll give us a little bit of residual

ryegrass activity. We get good residual on a lot of our spring and summer broadleaf weeds.

The problem is it's it can be a release program for yellow nutsedge. And so in all of our residual plots

that we have there at Marianna, I mean they are eaten up with nutsedge. And so, we've put a lot of

nutsedge work trials out this year. You know, one thing that's different in the Xtend technology now

is that we can actually by label anyway, mix a glufosinate and Dicamba together. And we hadn't done

a lot of that in our plots in the past, just because we thought that would not really ever be labeled. I

guess it's kind of the approach we took with that, but we have looked at some of that and and side by

side.And to me, I still like the Round-Up Liberty combo better on Yellow Nutsedge, I do like a Liberty

Dicamba, but both can be effective. I will say that on Yellow Nutsedge and if it's a thick population,

really we're in a two shot program. I mean, we're going to beat it up and suppress it in the first

application, but generally it takes two to really take it out. But it is a very competitive weed, and if we

don't get it out of there, we'll lose yield early with any crop, but especially cotton because cotton is a

weak competitor coming up out of the ground. So as you know.

So anyway, with that, that and Johnson grass, those two things are in the field when we plant. I mean

that's the two weeds that are up.

[17:44] Zachary Treadway

So yeah. And you you mentioned the jassid and I didn't want to I wanted to touch on it just for just

for a second. And what I can say right now is no news is good news. So we haven't heard of any

confirmation of the jassid in Arkansas. I did see a new a 2026 confirmation of jassid in Alabama. I

haven't I haven't heard of Mississippi yet. I need to reach out with those guys and see if there's been

a confirmation. But just all of that to say that just because it hasn't been confirmed here is no need to

not be vigilant. Stay on top of our scouting. Be looking for those indicator plants.

I've talked about a lot of my winter meetings, and I'll talk about it here. To the cotton jassid seem to

kind of attract to those what we call indicator plants, plants on the edge of on the edge of the field,

plants that may be spaced off the end of a row of foot or two. They seem to kind of flock to those

first. So if you see those indicator plants, see that hopper burn, flip the leaf, see some jassid, it's time

to first load the sprayer and make a spray. But also call someone. Call myself, call Tom. Call Ben, call

someone with university so we can get out there and get that mark and hope it never comes to that.

But all that to say, just stay vigilant and stay on top of that. And just so we can keep a small problem

from becoming from becoming a large yield loss problem.

[19:09] Tom Barber

Right. And we hope that thing stays away. I would like to make one point of clarification. Don't call

me. I love to blame stuff on other things like diseases and insects especially. So that would actually be

fun because we get blamed for everything. It's always a herbicide. It's always herbicide causing

problem.s But anyway, what about peanuts? Let's shift gears a little bit. Talk. Tell us about the peanut

crop, where you think acreage is and and what are you hearing out there?

[19:36] Zachary Treadway

Yeah. So I'll, I'll start again by backtracking the last year just to cover where we've been. So last year

we saw 46,000 acres of peanuts, which was a couple thousand acre increase from my first year here.

So we're moving the right direction. I thought in 2025, we also saw 5,000 pound per acre yield

average, which once again, you know, for two years straight since I've been here have put us up there

near the top with some of those other peanut producing states in terms of average yield. So so our

acreage isn't up there with Georgia and Texas, but our average yield is really good. We we grow a

really good crop.We're very good at growing peanuts here in Arkansas moving forward into 2026, I do see a fairly

significant decrease in acres. USDA said 37,000. There's actually actually predict a nationwide

decrease in peanut acres, so that 37 to 40,000 may be about where we fall. So I think we'll be down

some. But I do still expect a pretty a pretty good yield, just with the history of how well our peanut

growers manage that crop. Crops in really good shape. Got the crop in, got the crop up. Haven't got a

lot of calls on the crop, which as Tom knows, if you're if you're not getting calls things things seem to

be going well.

When your phone starts blowing up there, there tend to be problems with the crop. So the crops and

the crops and good majority of the crops in really good shape this year. Looking forward to trying to

get that crop pushed on out. The the name of the game with the peanut crop, especially in weed

control was to get to canopy. So the name of the game and try to get that crop pushed out and on

into canopy and to finish up the year. Something that I wanted to mention, Tom especially, this is a

really good time to have this podcast here on June the 15th with a majority of the crop.

We are now with that window where the crop will begin to tell us if we had a failed inoculation. So at

about 4 to 5 weeks after planting, if we go out, we're seeing chlorosis. We're seeing yellowing of

those plants. It's a solid indication there could be or could have been a failed inoculation. So if we do

see those symptoms, it's time to start checking nodules to confirm if that is in fact what happened. So

just a few steps. You know, checking that nodular checking for a fatal is pretty easy. If you see those

that crosses go out and dig up some plants, don't pull them. Go dig them up.

So we keep the roots and any nodules that may be there intact. What I like to do is dig up a few

plants, and then have a bucket of water to swirl those roots around in, or even a bottle of water,

maybe to spray those roots off. Just get the excess soil off those roots. Then we can start looking for

nodules. So ideally we want to look on the taproot. We're not as much concerned about the lateral

roots, but on the tap roots want to be looking for 15 to 25 active nodules. What I mean by active

nodules. Want to pop those nodules off, slice them in half of the pocket knife. Or you can you can do

it with your fingernail even really.

But open those nodules up at half with the inside of that nodule to be a pinkish red, like a good

medium rare steak. The inside of that nodule is pinkish red. That nodule is active and it's fixing

nitrogen. So if we have 15 to 25 active nodules on our taproot, we're good. Inoculation has taken. But

if we don't, if we are lacking nodules, if we're if we don't have any nodules, if our nodule number is

low, if our nodules are there but inactive, then we begin to look at, hey, I think we might have had a

failed innoculation. And so then what do we do? So with failed inoculation, we have to come in with

what we call a rescue shot of nitrogen.

We come in with somewhere between 100 to 150 units of N. We apply that. And basically all that

does that just saves us from catastrophe. Very rarely I go as far to say, never will you come in and

apply nitrogen and be able to attain the same yield you would have attained if we had proper

inoculation. All this rescue shot does is get some yield there, period, just to keep us from not having

anything at all. All the research has kind of shown that in terms of nitrogen sources, AMS ammonia

sulfate seems to be our best end source. When it's time for that rescue shot, you know, fingers

crossed. Hopefully all our inoculation went well.But that inoculum is a living. It's a it's full of that living bacteria. It's very finicky. Has to be handled

almost with kid gloves. So you know I would I would I would guarantee there's going to be some

failed innoculation out there this year. So just be ready to apply that rescue nitrogen and just do the

best we can with a bad situation.

[24:29] Tom Barber

Just yeah you're just kind of spoon feeding it like we talk about spoon feeding and rice. I guess at that

point just trying to make sure you have enough to finish out the year. Yeah. And so that that can that

can be problematic. I know. And it's, you know, weed control can be problematic too, if we don't do a

good job in the very beginning. And so to me and peanuts, one thing I've learned over the last, I don't

know how long I've done this, probably 5 or 10 years looking at peanuts now and weed control. But

but if we don't start with a good foundational pre emerge weed control program, then it's very hard

to salvage a peanut crop.

We can we can spend a lot of money going after weeds post emergence. And really never number

one get them all into. You know we can really beat the peanuts up trying to do it, I guess. So it's but

for most part I haven't you know, I haven't got a ton of calls in peanuts this year. We've, some folks

have sent me some pictures of pre emerge injury from various things on sandyier soul or obviously

most of the peanut ground Sandy, but the real sandy soils and maybe areas that were recently

leveled. But for the most part we do that good 2 or 3 way pre emerged program up front and we get

a good foundation.

Our plots right now where we have done that and I can mix several things together to do that. It

doesn't you know it can be valor strong arm outlook. It can be valor Break. It can be outlook break. It

can. There's several combinations we can we can use. But the key to all that to me is coming back

within between 14 and 21 days and hitting it with some pyroxasulfobne over the top. And at that

point, we need some help with Mother Nature and get a little rain and then just keep overlapping

those group 15. And so, that's my pigweed program in peanuts.

And the reason we have to do it that way is because 11oz of Gramoxone is not that great on a

pigweed. It will help us with some other things in my favorite mix. If we do have to come out post

with paraquat, is that 11oz mixed with at least a pint of Ultra Blazer and eight ounces of Basagran.

And you know, to me that helps from a peanut tolerant standpoint that helps the peanuts recover

from from the paraquat application, but it also helps us kill some of those weeds every year. Zachary,

I get asked about sicklepod control, and there still is no really silver bullet for sicklepod. I know we try

the the Cadre. Some tried at four ounces, which is better in my opinion, and in our plots, but some

usually cut that rateback a little bit in fear of carry over to the next year's cotton crop, which is a real

thing. I will say. And so but that's the only herbicide we have that has great activity. I say great

loosely, it's good activity. And suppressive activity on sicklepod, sicklepod is one of those tough ones

that that if we're in a field with a lot of them, probably just be good to not plant peanuts there and

rotate to something else. So one note on the Cadre and I haven't walked it this year, but I've walked

at the previous 2 or 3.

If you're doing that and make absolutely sure that that sprayer has been cleaned, the mixing station,

whether it's a trailer or at the shop or again, those mixed tanks make sure they have been cleanedbecause it does not take too much, very much Cadre at all to ruin a cotton crop. So that's one of

those contaminations that can be really ugly if we're not watching what we're doing. So, what else on

peanuts Zachary?

[28:37] Zachary Treadway

Yeah. So I think we we don't. It's why it's so important that we layer those residuals and those group

15 or really our best friend, because in peanut we don't really have the luxury of of really hot post

options that our crop is tolerant to. Right. We don't we don't have the dicamba or the roundup or the

Liberty. So you know, always kind of preach to me from the beginning is you have to start clean to

stay clean. And then I think with those group 15, you know, if I'm coming across the field spraying

herbicides out on peanuts, I'm going to try to put some type of group 15 in the tank.

I think you just I don't think you should you should go across a peanut acre without putting a Group

15 in the tank.

[29:14] Tom Barber

No, I agree and and and you know, that is one question we get later. And and I know Travis is our

pathologist and he's not here on the podcast today, but but I get a lot of questions. Can I mix these

with fungicides. You know, and I don't know all the fungicides, but, you have any experience with

that? I mean, personally, I haven't seen it affect the weed control side of things. You may get more

flash or something. Maybe on the peanuts from just the oil and the solvents and that kind of thing.

But you had much experience with that.

[29:48] Zachary Treadway

You, you know, not a ton. I kind of wish I'd known way to cover this, that we probably should have

hollered at Travis to get on here with us, but but but yeah, I mean, not not really. I think it's always

safe to read. Definitely read your label and reach out if you have any specific questions on that. But

but yeah, you know, haven't seen a lot of problem with it right now. And if we're going to be coming

across the field and kind of one of the deals to being an Arkansas, we're on kind of a shorter fungicide

program than they are in some of the other peanut states, we we start a little later with our fungicide

and they do in other places.

So a lot of our herbicides are going out before we even get into our fungicide program. So so end up

not having a ton of overlap anyway.

[30:30] Tom Barber

Yeah, I think a lot of it really is trying to get some escape grass or something. You know, there may be

some grasses that escaped pigweed escapes late. We're just going to have pigweed when we dig the

peanuts. I mean, there's not just a whole lot we can do there. So I've been a little bit of work on

some, electric zapping rigs, I guess, trying to zap the escape pigweed. And I think if there's certain size

that might work a little bit. But really, we probably have more escapes and peanuts than any other

crop that we grow.[31:07] Zachary Treadway

I think if you mentioned in just you saying certain size, I did have here on kind of the, on the notes I

put together and kind of circle back that we don't really have the luxury of, of a bunch of post

options. It's making sure we spray those weeds at, at, I mean, I like to say four inches or less ideally.

Right. If those weeds get bigger than four inches, it's really hard for any of our post options to take

care of them. So so so being able to get out there early and get them sprayed is really key.

[31:32] Tom Barber

That's the key to it. And most labels that's what they say. They say four inches. So four inches or less.

So okay. Well any last final words of advice before we wrap this up?

[31:45] Zachary Treadway

Yeah. Before we head out of here, I didn't want to talk about talk about growth regulator. Still get a

lot of calls on that. We still do a bunch of research on that every year. Had a pretty good trial here in

Poinsett County this past year. So what we're still seeing right now is, is we're seeing a a very

consistent decrease in the foliage. Less vines, less leaves. We're able to pick up speed getting through

there with both a combine and a picker. And some of the in the work we did last year, we saw a

pretty good yield increase. We're doing work again this year, and I can't I can't promise we'll see the

same yield increase.

And that's the problem as we always see the foliage decrease. The yield increase seems to be a little

more inconsistent. But but what I say right now and and this is talking to producers, not just me

talking. They, they seem to be very content with the, the foliage decrease because it increases in

efficiency in harvest. You know, whether they get the yield bump or not. They seem to be pretty

happy with the increase in harvest efficiency, which, you know, knock on wood, we got lucky last

year. Harvest kind of went off smooth.

The Gulf stayed really quiet for us, but it seems like more times than not, there's always something

brewing in the Gulf that kind of kicks us into high gear. We're trying to race the weather to get

harvest finished, so anything that speeds us up in harvest increases our efficiency. I think it's

definitely something worth looking at. And we'll have another, you know, when we all meet for

winter meetings again, the end of this year, first part of next year, we'll have a fresh set of data to see

if we can't nail down, the best way to make that growth regulator work on our our own farm stuff.

We're still following the label.

We're just putting out different rates, but we're putting it out at that 50% laterals touching. And then

two weeks, 2 to 3 weeks later or 100% laterals touching. But we're also here on the research station.

We're doing some small plot work. We're looking at some more novel application, some more novel

timings. We're looking at kind of what some what they're calling microdosing. We're putting out very

small doses several times throughout the year. We're going to have some plots where we put out

based on days alone, which that's gets tricky because, you know, not all crops are going to grow with

the same rate.

So if we're putting stuff out based on days, we could, we could kind of get out of whack on that. But

just trying to attack it from all angles, because I definitely think there's some advantages to to puttingout that prohexadine calcium growth regulator on your peanuts. We're just trying to attack it to find

the best way to bring to you, the producer, to to increase that ROI and make it the best for you. Yeah.

[34:21] Tom Barber

Okay. Well, and finally, I may wrap this up with a very tentative and I repeat, tentative date. We're

going to try this year's actually to have a field day at the Jackson County Extension Center for

peanuts, a peanut field day there at Newport, Jackson County Extension Center. And I'm thinking

right now we've almost nailed this down, but August 5th, it looks like it's going to be August 5th, and

we're going to try to do it in the evening. And I don't know, you know, we don't do a lot of these in

the evening.

But for me, with the scheduling this year, with all the other field days and everything's going on one,

that's about the only time we could do it. And then two, I mean, I don't know anybody that's ever

turned away a a good dinner in the evening dinner or something like that. And so, yes, we're going to

try to bribe people with food to get them in to listen to the peanut program. So not going to spend a

tremendous amount of time in the field, maybe four stops, you know, maybe an hour, hour and 30

tops just from leaving to coming back and and then we'll all meet and have a good meal there.

And again, we're thinking August 5th, the Jackson County Extension Center there in Newport. So with

that anything else Zachary? We good?

[35:36] Zachary Treadway

I think it's good. I think I think we hit I think we hit a bunch of points and yeah, I think we're good.

[35:41] Tom Barber

All right. Well we want to thank all of you all for listening and tuning in. If you've got any questions

about anything we discussed today or questions in general, reach out to your county agent. They can

reach out to us and and we'll get out there on your on your farm or just in the in the conversation

with the with you and and hope try to help you anyway we can. So thanks everybody for tuning in to

this episode of The Weeds AR Wild podcast on Arkansas Row Crops Radio.

[36:11] Intro/Outro

Arkansas Row Crops Radio is a production of the University of Arkansas System Division of

Agriculture. For more information, please contact your local County Extension Agent or visit

uaex.uada.edu.