Research Update (August 10, 2013)

Diligence Technologies Inc., West Tennessee

Overall, the weather continues to be wet and cool for early August.  While that sure makes life easier for those doing research, we could probably use a bit more heat to move our cotton crop along.  Considering that we were late in getting the cotton crop planted and the slow progress we have seen since then, this would not be the year for an early frost.  On the positive side, the corn and soybean plots are in great shape with plenty of moisture since planting.

Grey leaf spot pressure in corn continues to intensify and we should be able to get some excellent ratings in the coming weeks.  While we have had some "low level" frogeye leaf spot pressure for a while, the disease has really taken off over the past week and we appear to be in good shape for soybean fungicide evaluations.

Since the frequent rains this spring and summer have significantly reduced the residual of our soil-applied herbicides, hoeing pigweeds has become a frequent pastime this season.  I can assure you the crew will be happy to get that part of the season behind them.

We have had a lot of visitors over the last couple of weeks including MANA, Valent, Brandt, the University of Tennessee, SePro, FMC, Americot, and Syngenta.  Some days we feel like we are running a guide service, but I will admit that it gives me the chance to catch up with a lot of friends that I don't get see often enough.

This past week was the last one for Zac Carpenter.  Zac is an agronomy student at Mississippi State University and has helped us out over the past three summers.  While we are sad to see him done for the summer, we wish him the best in his studies.  I guess Jeff, Jesse, and Kevin will have to pick up the slack.

Cotton defoliation season is closer than it seems, so let us know if you have defoliation protocols that need a home.

Proverbs 12:27

… the substance of the diligent man is precious.

Research Update (June 8, 2013)

Diligence Technologies Inc., West Tennessee

It was basically a week of grinding out trials.  We missed the rains on Thursday (which may be the first ones we have missed this year), and spent the week playing catch-up.  Considering the slow start to the season, we may be playing catch-up for quite some time.

Yielded cotton trials are largely off and running.  Now we are switching our attention to soybeans as well as weed and bug trials.  We have a long line of those to get started.  Efforts are slowed to some extent because we are having to go back in and clean up fields again in order to initiate trials.  Some of the fields are pretty wooly since it has been a while since we did our initial field preparations.

The pest problem of choice right now is extreme thrip pressure in cotton.  Judging for the counts obtained in our thrip trials, this could very well be the heaviest thrip population I can recall.  Almost every cotton trial I have that is out of the ground received a postemergence application for thrips this past week.  Would not be surprising if we get to do it again next week.

Thanks to our friends from Syngenta Seeds and Brandt that stopped by for visits this past week.

Also, thanks to all our customers for their patience as we have slowly limped into this season.  Most things have been behind schedule but we will keep working to get your data rolling in as soon as we can.

Proverbs 10:4

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