Rain, Harmful or Beneficial

by Eric

imagesRain, rain, rain and lots of it. While here in West Texas we will seldom turn down a good rain, with rain totals over eight inches in some places in Gaines County and as little as two inches in parts of Terry County, as of Tuesday morning, we ask the question, will this be beneficial to the local farmers?

As local farmers assess what damage may have been caused from the recent rainfall, TownTalk asked local farmers what this rain does for their crops?

Ryan Dill said, “ As far as cotton goes, the later cotton that is just now blooming hard will benefit from this rain as long as the temperature can go back up. We really need it to be back in the 90s so we can have the heat units. Without heat units the amount of irrigation or rain doesn’t matter. The earlier cotton is trying to finish out so this rain may cause it to abort the young squares (which later turn in to the cotton boll) and have another growth spurt.” This could cause problems not only with defoliation, the process of getting the cotton ready for harvest, but the young squares it is throwing off could have had time to produce.

To help reduce the risk of regrowth some farmers such as, Roger Bennett, are putting on Pix. Pix is a plant growth regulator and will help stop the growth of the plant and promote the maturity of the fruits.

TownTalk asked Dill what other crops he has and what the rain will do to them. He said, “I have peanuts and the biggest concern we have right now is possibility of disease in certain varieties because of the cool weather that has followed the rainfall. Pod rot is the biggest issue we are going to face.” Pod rot is where peanuts start to rot under the ground. Peanuts are classified by segs when they are brought in the warehouse from the field with seg-1s being the best. Dill explained that “it only take 2.5% of seg-2 peanuts to ruin an entire truck load.”

Bennett echoed Dill’s comments and said he is also worried about leaf spot and pod rot in peanuts. Both Bennett and Dill are pleased with the rainfall because of the benefits it provides for our soil and the fact that you get to save on electric cost by turning off the pivots. Bennett laughed and said, “Farmers are hard to please.”

TownTalk also talked to Tyler Mays, local IPM agent, to get his thoughts on the recent rainfall. Mays said, “As of 8/25 Terry County was categorized as being in moderate drought but with the recent rains that could be downgraded to abnormally dry or even to the out of drought condition.” Mays also talked about the benefit the rains will have on the soil and the moisture it will establish for our winter crops.

Just like Ryan, Mays is worried about diseases but he is concerned with both cotton and peanuts.

Mays said, “In cotton my biggest concern is bacterial blight, verticillium wilt, boll rot and Alternaria leaf spot (mainly in Pima cotton). Unfortunately, there is not a lot that can be done this year for these diseases. The best thing we can do is make note and next year plant cotton the has traits to fight theses diseases.” Just like Dill, Mays is concerned that the rain will cause young bolls to be dropped from the plants.

In peanuts Mays also said, “We have to watch out for leaf spot and pod rot. With leaf spot if you are coming into this rainy spell without any fungicide prevention, farmers will need to keep an eye out and may have to apply some.”

There are two types of pod rot, Pythium and Rhizoctoina that Mays explained to TownTalk. Mays said, “According to Jason Woodward, Plant Pathologist for the area Pythium pod rot typically favors hot weather so the biggest concern is Rhizoctoina. Luckily with peanuts there are things we can do to combat the diseases.”

If anyone has any questions about disease control please contact Tyler Mays at 806-637-4060 or 979-482-0111.

related articles