Plant Management Network Resources
The Plant Management Network (PMN) is a nonprofit online resource whose mission is to enhance the health, management, and production of crops through quality, science-based crop management information for myriad agricultural practitioners. It partners with numerous agricultural industries, nonprofit organizations, and universities to disseminate information on varied aspects of agricultural production that can be used to help crop producers better manage their operations.
The latest PMN Update Newsletter (Issue 194, Apr. 1, 2019; free signup here) provides two items that are of particular interest to Midsouth soybean producers. A short summary of these items follows.
The first item is the “Focus on Cotton” webcast by USDA-ARS Research Agronomist Dr. Kip Balkcom titled “Cover Crop Management Considerations”. Dr. Balkcom’s presentation deals with managing cover crops on the coarse-textured, low-organic matter soils of the southeastern US. He covers topics dealing with: 1) the myriad benefits derived from incorporating cover crops into a crop production system; 2) biomass production and ways to maximize that production to increase the derived benefits; 3) costs of establishing and terminating cereal, legume, and mixed cover crops; 4) effect of planting date on cover crop performance; 5) methods of establishing and terminating cover crops; 6) how termination time will affect amount of cover crop growth; and 7) how planting date and N rate are confounded in biomass production of the cover crop. He emphasizes that using cover crops to enhance production potential of any following crop is a long-term commitment and investment. The website that can be accessed to find out details about this and other work that is being conducted by members of the Conservation Systems Research unit at the National Soil Dynamics Lab. in Auburn, Alabama is www.ars.usda.gov/sea/nsdl.
The second item that is of special interest to Midsouth producers is the posting of 20 presentations that were made at the Row Crop Short Course hosted by Miss. State Univ. Extension in Dec. 2018. Over half of these presentations have subject matter that either directly or indirectly relates to soybean management issues. They include “Managing Nematodes...” by Dr. Travis Faske of the Univ. of Arkansas, “Cover Crops and Soil Health” by Dr. Bill Robertson of the Univ. of Arkansas, “Tracking Down Off-Target Movement of Herbicides...” by Dr. Eric Webster of Louisiana State Univ., “Detecting Dicamba and 2,4-D in Plant Tissue:...” by Dr. Dan Reynolds of Miss. State Univ., “Herbicide Application Timing: Effect on Weed Control Efficacy” by Dr. Jason Bond of Miss. State Univ., “Management of Caterpillar Pests in Soybean” by Dr. Gus Lorenz of the Univ. of Arkansas, “Impact of Cover Crops on Soybean Insect Management” by Dr. Angus Catchot of Miss. State Univ., “Temperature Inversions and Off-Target Movement of Herbicides” by Dr. Richard Grant of Purdue Univ., “Sulfur Nutrition in Row Crops” by Dr. Ross Bender of the Mosaic Co., and “Soybean Management Considerations for 2019" by Dr. Trent Irby of Miss. State Univ.
Composed by Larry G. Heatherly, Mar. 2019, larryheatherly@bellsouth.net