Conservation Farmers in North Central Florida are getting their corn crops planted and applying burndown herbicides. They know a thick mulch layer will keep soil temperatures lower and will conserve soil moisture from their non-irrigated fields until peanut and cotton planters roll in a few weeks. We have a wide variety of cover crops and …
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See Video Here: Rye Silage Harvest on YouTube Area farmers are beginning to harvest small grains for silage in North Florida. One of our Columbia County farmers recently had a custom harvester in to mow, fluff, rake, chop, and bag a rye crop which will be fed to dairy and beef cows in the area. While rye is not …
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I continue to see and hear problems from farmers who are growing Oats this winter. Oats are the most susceptible to cold injury of the small grains we grow in the area and a series of nights with temperatures below freezing are have showed the results. The low temperature of 22 F on January 7th is …
We have all talked about how wet it was this year, and the incessant rainfall of the summer. In many ways it seems that we grew attached with the past few dry years, installing irrigation systems and assuming drier conditions are the “new way of life.” I moved to North Florida in 2006, so I …
The State Climatologist of Florida, Dr. David Zierden recently released the Fall/Winter Climate Outlook for Florida and the Southeast. Thanks to Dr. Zierden for keeping us up to date. Many farmers ask me what we “know” about the climate and how it will affect the weather each winter and into spring. Here are a few …
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We have been aggressively fighting Palmer amaranth (pigweed) in the cotton fields of Columbia County. Most of our farmers are planting varieties tolerant to Liberty herbicide, which is no silver bullet, but has at least been a crutch. Our recent efforts have been to apply glyphosate + metolachlor where pigweeds haven’t emerged, and Liberty + metolachlor where we …
Continue reading ‘Palmer Amaranth Control a Challenge in Cotton (Part 1)’ »
While we appear to be winning the battle. I can see we are missing weeds with multiple methods of control, and we need better control to win the war in the long term. One thing I will say, I wish we had some straw or residue on these fields to shade the soil and prevent emergence …
Continue reading ‘Palmer Amaranth a Challenge in Cotton (Part 2)’ »
Here in Columbia County I have been working with a farmers to setup cotton planters and make adjustments. We are setting up this KMC Strip-till rig and John Deere planter to plant about 2.25 seeds per foot, or about 5.5 inches apart in optimum moisture and temperature conditions. This farmer was adjusting vacuum settings trying not to …
Area farmers are rolling winter rye cover crops this week in anticipation of planting spring crops. These photos are from the Brock Family Farm. Kirk Brock constructed a home-built roller to roll down rye. This will be sprayed with Glyphosate and 2,4-D to completely terminate growth of rye and winter annuals. Kirk will no-till or strip …