Research Update (February 2, 2026)

 

Research Update (February 2, 2026)

 

 Diligence Technologies Inc., West Tennessee

EVENTS FROM THE PAST MONTH:

We look forward to January because it means its time for the NAICC annual meeting.  This year’s meeting in Orlando allowed us to escape the snow (if not the cold weather) for a few days.  More importantly, we were able to catch up with old friends.  It is one of the few opportunities we have to talk to many of the others in our industry as well as begin the planning process for upcoming trials.  We are blessed to know so many wonderful people involved in agriculture.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• West TN Grain Conference
  February 5 | Dyersburg, TN
• Cotton & Rice Conference
  February 5–6 | Jonesboro, AR
• Cotton Focus
  February 19 | Jackson, TN
• Mid-South Farm & Gin Show
  February 27–28 | Memphis, TN
• CPDA
  April 27-29 | Austin, TX

 

CROPPING SEASONS:

Things are quiet in the field right now.  Winter wheat is dormant and nothing else is in season.  Instead of planting and spraying, we continue to repair equipment and expand our application options with the hope of being more efficient in the coming season.  Several of our team have also taken it on themselves to help eliminate excess waterfowl in the surrounding area but those efforts have just wrapped up.  Time to get back to business.

 

GREENHOUSE ACTIVITIES:

In contrast to the field, February and March are traditionally some our most active months in the greenhouse.  We continue to make progress finishing up early trials and starting others.  We have some of our more popular test subjects (corn, cotton, soybean, various weeds) growing continuously throughout the winter.  If you are looking for a postemergence application of some sort, there is a good chance we can make it happen in short order.

Also note that we currently have aphids for testing in the greenhouse.  Let us know soon if you need aphid data since we never know when the populations will crash.

 

UPCOMING TRIAL REMINDERS:

 

LATE WINTER GREENHOUSE TRIALS

We have approximately three months of greenhouse season left before we shut it down and move back to full-time field work.  Since most trials require some preparation ahead of trial initiation (growing out plants, acquiring test materials, etc.), we generally need to start our last greenhouse trials in March.  That will give us time to complete the evaluations before we are overwhelmed by spring planting and other field activities.

We welcome a strong finish to our greenhouse trial season, so please do not hesitate to bring us any ideas or projects you may have.  However, please let us know soon so we can get them started in a timely manner.

 

CORN (YIELDED TRIALS)

We generally target early April to begin planting yielded corn trials.  Note that this does not include corn fungicide trials.  We plant corn fungicide trials later in the season (approximately mid-May) to increase disease pressure.  For all other yielded corn trials, we try to get planting done before the end of April where possible.

Yielded corn fertility trials, biostimulant trials, and a host of other corn trials are targeted for planting in this April planting window.  As is always the case, weather is the largest variable.  This is particularly true in April where cooler temperatures often lead to extended drying times in the field after a spring rain.

Please contact us as soon as possible if you require a site that does not receive a standard spring fertilizer program.  It is much easier to block those off now than to go look for a site after the fertilizer truck has run.

 

HERBICIDE TRIALS (CORN)

We generally target late April to begin establishing corn herbicide trials.  We will have corn seed for hybrids tolerant to glyphosate and glufosinate in stock.  If you have trials that require corn with a different trait package, please let us know as soon as possible.  Sometimes it can take a while to import corn hybrids that are not readily available in this area.

Most corn herbicide protocols that we receive call for conventionally tilled ground.  Therefore, we generally till several fields early in the season to be ready.  However, we do have no-till ground available when the need arises.  If you are planning any corn herbicide trials in no-till, please let us know so that we can reserve you a spot.

For those looking to run trials on a specific soil type, almost all the soils in this area are classified as silt loams (medium texture) and tend to have organic matter in the 2% range.

 

WEATHER INFO:

We had a week of uncharacteristic warm weather in early January with highs around 70 degrees.  Talk about giving us all false hope.  Like a lot of the south, we later got hit with freezing rain, snow, and sleet followed by an unusually long stretch of cold weather that will not let it melt.  The “wait till tomorrow and it’ll be gone” method we normally use for dealing with snow has failed us in a big way.

 

PEST INFO:

Pests in the field are pretty much limited to winter annual weeds and a few aphids in the wheat.  Otherwise, things are quiet and we do not expect much excitement until it is time to spray postemergence wheat herbicide trials (think ryegrass) and burndown trials.

 

We are truly blessed to have so many friends among our list of customers.  Thanks for your support in the past and let us know how we can serve you in the coming year.

Tim, Jackson, Jake, Will, Jim, & JT

 

Proverbs 10:4

He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.