Tropical Storm Francine timing ‘couldn’t be worse’ for Arkansas crops

LITTLE ROCK — With rice ready to harvest and cotton bolls open, Tropical Storm Francine is set to hit Arkansas crops at the worst possible time.

LODGED — With rice dried down and ready to harvest, Francine could cause lodging, broken panicles and harvest delays.

“We never want to gripe about rain, but this timing couldn’t be worse,” said Zachary Treadway, extension cotton and peanut agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. “We’ve got guys trying to get rice out, guys trying to get beans out, we’re trying to get cotton defoliated. It’s definitely not a good time for a tropical storm.”

The National Hurricane Center was forecasting Francine to intensify into a hurricane Tuesday, with landfall on Wednesday afternoon in Louisiana. Hurricane warnings were posted for the Louisiana gulf coast on Tuesday, with tropical storm warnings extending into Texas.

The storm was expected to weaken into a tropical depression by the time it reaches Arkansas on Thursday. Tuesday’s forecast cone covered the eastern half of Arkansas.

“The system is expected to continue towards the state bringing the chance for heavy rainfall, gusty winds, and possibly a few tornadoes Wednesday night through Friday afternoon,” the National Weather Service at Little Rock said.

Cotton 

With cotton, Treadway’s main concerns stem from cotton plants being blown over.

“Bolls that come in close proximity with the soil are at risk for rot or hard lock,” Treadway said. “Plants that are blown over will straighten up some, but for those that get tangled up, this could take longer.”

Hard lock refers to cotton bolls that either will not open or open very little due to bacteria or fungus.

But the heavy winds aren’t the only issue. With most of Arkansas’ cotton bolls open, rain could threaten exposed cotton.

“If we have a lot of rain on open bolls, the cotton will fall out of the boll. Wet cotton almost looks like it’s dripping off the plant,” Treadway said. “It can dry, but it lowers the cotton quality and makes it harder to pick.”

With cotton harvest around the corner, Treadway said the rain could also keep farmers out of the field when they were set to apply harvest aids, delaying harvest and lowering quality.

Rice

As for rice, it will be race to Wednesday night for most growers, especially those in the Delta region.

“The entire Delta, top to bottom is set to be on the western side of the eye, which is where we see the most rain,” said Jarrod Hardke, extension rice agronomist for the Division of Agriculture. “From a rainfall standpoint, the bulk of the concern is Wednesday night going into Thursday.”

With Arkansas rice on pace for its earliest crop since 2010, Hardke said the dry, mature plants are at their most vulnerable state right now.

“This is the exact kind of storm that is worst for rice that has been drained and is ready to harvest,” Hardke said. “We don’t have a lot of stalk integrity left. It’s a great thing we took advantage of that early planting window, we did the right thing, but as it goes we planted quicker than we can harvest, creating a bad recipe for those acres that are left.”

According to Monday’s Crop Progress Report, 56% of rice in Arkansas has been harvested, leaving almost half of the state’s crop still out in the field. For rice growers in the Delta, it will be a race to harvest what acres they can before Wednesday night.

“We’ll be pushing it on the early side of harvest for some fields,” Hardke said. “It’ really a game of prioritizing what needs to be harvested first.”

Hardke said high winds and excessive rain could cause lodging, broken panicles and delayed harvest. All coming at peak harvest season for this year’s rice crop.

“Two weeks ago, when plants were greener and not as dry, I wouldn’t have been as worried. Two weeks from now wouldn’t have been so bad,” Hardke said. “But with where our rice is now, I’m just hoping we get lucky and dodge most of it.”

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

Cotton, soybeans are up, corn tumbles, seed shortage moves rice toward medium grain

By Mary Hightower
U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

LITTLE ROCK — The June “Acreage” report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed cotton with its highest acreage in more than a decade and soybeans on the rise, while corn tumbled and rice shuffled between long and medium grain acres in Arkansas.

Scot Stiles: “June Acreage is more or less a reality check for the March ‘Planting Intentions’ report.” (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Kerry Rodtnick) 

Friday’s report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, proved a hot property, with users crashing the servers shortly after its 11 a.m. CDT release.

Graph showing information about Arkansas crops from the June 28, 2024, Acreage report from NASS. (U of A System Division of Agriculture image by Scott Stiles)

“June Acreage is more or less a reality check for the March ‘Planting Intentions’ report,” said Scott Stiles, extension agricultural economics program associate for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Principle crops planted, acreage down 0.8 percent to 7.156 million acres in Arkansas; total planted in US is 315 billion acres, down 1.4 percent from previous year, NASS said.

CORN

Corn acres dropped 27.1 percent to 620,000 acres, unchanged from the March planting intentions.

“Corn prices have been on downward slide for much of the past year,” Stiles said. “Futures prices for new crop corn were about 20 percent below the previous year when NASS surveyed growers in early March.” 

Jason Kelley, extension wheat and feed grains agronomist for the Division of Agriculture, said he wasn’t surprised by the Acreage report.

“Lower grain prices, combined with less-than-ideal planting conditions for some led to the drop in Arkansas acres,” he said. “The spring was too wet, especially in the southern half of the state.

“Northeast Arkansas overall had better planting conditions than the rest of the state, with dry weather in late March and early April,” Kelley said.

COTTON

Cotton acres were up 31.4 percent to 670,000 acres in Arkansas, while total U.S. acres were also up 14.1 percent.

“The huge surprise in today’s report was NASS’ cotton acreage number,” Stiles said. “In March, growers indicated they would increase acres by a modest 30,000 acres to 540,000.”

However, “in June, acres are expected to be 670,000; up 160,000 from last year,” Stiles said. “This would be the highest cotton acreage for the state since 2011, which saw 680,000 acres that year. 

He said that while there were solid indications we have 610,000 to 620,000 acres in the state, “the 670,000-acre print is surprisingly high.

“Cotton prices started a nosedive in early April, losing about 13 cents by mid-June. Prices fell from the low 80 cent level to 70 cents,” Stiles said, “But, cotton yields in the state continue to climb and growers exited 2023 with record yields.  And the crop insurance price of 82 cents this year may have played a role in adding acres.  There was some shifting from corn to cotton going on as well.” 

“In terms of cotton we're in good shape,” said Zachary Treadway, extension cotton and peanut agronomist for the Division of Agriculture. “Some guys are in the first week of bloom and some are into the second week of bloom, but what’s really important right now is water.

“It’s getting hot and dry and want to keep putting moisture on the crop so we’re not stressing it,” he said.

PEANUTS

“Peanuts remained the same, which is what I was expecting based on what growers were saying,” Treadway said.

NASS pinned peanuts at 35,000 acres, same as in 2023.

“The peanut crop is in pretty good shape,” Treadway said. “We had some growers that had to go back and replant after extensive rainfall. Some growers are reporting their crop pegging.”

In pegging, the embryonic peanut grows downward into the soil.

RICE

Overall, total rice acres were down 15,000 acres from last year in NASS' findings to 1.42 million acres, compared to just under 1.44 million acres in 2023.

Stiles said he was a little surprised by the 40,000-acre decline in long-grain rice acres from March.

“The June survey results are a little puzzling considering the planting progress this year and the rice market rally that kicked off in early April,” he said.

“Generally, in years when planting progresses at a faster than average pace, we tend to see a higher acreage number in June,” Stiles said. “USDA did increase medium grain acres by 10,000 above their March number.”

Jarrod Hardke, rice extension agronomist for the Division of Agriculture, said he too was a little  surprised by the dip, but said it was within his range of expectations between 1.4 million and 1.5 million acres.

A shortage of long-grain seed shortage played into the shuffling of acres over to medium grain, he said.

“One of the hardest things to gauge every year is the expected long and medium grain acreage, and then with a seed shortage out of the gate, that changed the mix. And it got very, very weird,” he said.

There were also some missed planting opportunities during good weather windows as growers unable to get the seed they wanted, scrambled to find varieties to plant.

SOYBEANS

NASS lowered Arkansas soybean acres by 50,000 from the March intentions to 3.05 million, however that was still up 2.3 percent from 2023. U.S. total was up 3 percent to 86.1 billion acres.

“This is still an increase of 2 percent or 70,000 acres over last year,” Stiles said. “Considering the sharp drop in corn acres, some resulting increase in soybeans is not a surprise. 

“Similar to corn, soybean prices have trended lower over the past year as well,” he said. “As planting kicked off in the state, soybean prices were about 13 to 14 percent lower compared to the prior year.  November ‘24 soybeans settled at $11.04 today.  A year ago the November contract traded at $12.66, right ahead of a summer rally that carried prices above $14 last July. A very bearish feel to the soybean and corn markets this year.”

Jeremy Ross, extension soybean agronomist, said “the estimates were in line with what I was expecting. We had another really good start with early plantings similar to the 2023 season. 

“This year’s soybean crop ranges from early planted fields beginning to fill pods to fields that were planted within the last two days,” he said on Sunday. “With the drop in soybean prices compared to last year, I’m getting a few more calls with farmers and consultants asking about different inputs preserving or increasing soybean yields.”

WINTER WHEAT

Winter wheat acres declined 39.1 percent from 2024 to 140,000 acres. That followed the larger national trend with U.S. winter wheat falling down 7.9 percent to 33.8 billion acres.

Kelley said the decline was likely due to “lower prices for grain and lower relative profitability compared to other crops.”

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk. 

Tomato, corn pests in town for the 4th of July

By Sarah Cato
U of A System Division of Agriculture

LITTLE ROCK – As summer moves along, the season is running according to plan for many Arkansas crops – including annual pest issues.

FOURTH OF JULY FLIGHT – Extension specialists and county agents say growers should expect an influx of the Helicoverpa zea, also known as the corn earworm, cotton bollworm or tomato fruitworm, with a main concern for corn and tomato crops. (Division of Agriculture photo.)

Extension specialists and county agents across Arkansas are seeing an increase in Helicoverpa zea, also known as the corn earworm, cotton bollworm or tomato fruitworm. But specialists say this influx is to be expected this time of year.

“This is what we call the Fourth of July flight,” said Ben Thrash, extension entomologist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. “Our moth trap numbers have been up the past couple weeks, and growers should be keeping an eye out.”

With soybeans and cotton still early in the season, the main concern with this flight is corn and tomatoes.

“Tomatoes and sweet corn are a prime target for serious losses due to tomato fruitworm feeding,” said Aaron Cato, horticulture integrated pest management specialist for the Division of Agriculture. “It’s important for growers to get out and scout tomatoes as soon as possible so control can be achieved prior to those larvae moving on to their second, third, or fourth fruit to munch on. Anyone with sweet corn that isn’t Attribute Plus or Attribute II needs to be applying insecticides at two- to three-day intervals, after silks are seen, to prevent significant infestations.”

Although cotton and soybean may not be a worry yet, Thrash said the worms could be moving into those fields soon.

“Bollworms are in cotton fields south of us in Texas and Louisiana,” he said. “The worms we’re seeing now will be coming out of corn into cotton and soybeans in about 28 days, maybe a little earlier. We usually see issues about the third or fourth week of July.”

As the growing season continues, it’s important for producers to be aware of annual insect pest issues. Data from moth traps for Helicoverpa zea and other common Arkansas pests are tracked and uploaded into interactive maps. Find up-to-date data and resources below:

Horticulture insect pest monitoring, interactive map

2023 county trap catches for Arkansas row crop pests

MP144 for insecticide recommendations, also available at county extension offices.

Mention of product names does not imply endorsement by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu/. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.