Wheat Pest Status February 2, 2015
It
has been a lagging end to the 2014 season.
Luckily pests have been fairly quiet in our area wheat allowing us to
focus on finishing our cotton, corn, and sorghum harvest on the days the
weather permitted us to work in the field.
I received word mid-week last week that some greenbugs were heavy in
wheat and were being treated in Castro and Randle County. This prompted me to make a swinging loop
through Swisher, Hale, and Floyd wheat fields late last week and early this
week for a general pest check. I found a
healthy greenbug population that ranged from moderate in the Happy to Tulia
area, light to moderate in a Plainview to Lockney line, and very light to light
from Hale Center to Cotton Center. In
all general areas the pest population was lower if the wheat was being
grazed. There was no field that I
checked in any situation this week that was near an economic level. Predators, predominantly lady beetles, were also
on the increase helping to keep tabs on the pests. This is not to say that there are not some
fields in the area with economic greenbug issues. Each field needs to be evaluated for its own
pest population and economic situation.
Our
wheat is certainly turning and flourishing behind our recent moisture events,
as are the winter weeds. If they are not
already, producers will be heading to the fields to address these weed problems
soon. It is very tempting, especially in
the current economic situation, to mix an additional pest control application to
this weed control pass trying to eliminate a need for a future pest treatment. I would urge producers to get a good handle
on their specific pest situation in the field before choosing this option. Making a pesticide application when one is
not required at the time often creates more problems in the near and upcoming
future than they ever save.
Our
wheat is currently in some of its last stages before setting its head size and
jointing. I estimate most fields that I
checked are 3 to 7 weeks from that critical stage. While still in this immature stage, wheat can
tolerate quite a bit of damage, both from weather and pests, before any damage
becomes economic. Spraying for a
sub-economic level of greenbugs today will not eliminate the problem, but
rather reduce the greenbug population for a few weeks while killing out the
predator population. The result is
usually a recovering population of greenbugs, and whatever else decides to
invade the field, that does become economic without predator determent at a much
more critical and damage sensitive crop development stage. It has been my experience that this potential
preemptive spray applied now so that a second application will not have to be
made later actually causes either that second, more costly application later
or, if the field is left untreated, causes the loss of profitability for the
field. At the same time we do not want
to miss an economic pest situation that needs to be addressed when we are
making an application now anyway.
Again,
I urge producers to scout their wheat fields this week to have all the
information at hand before making a final decision about their near future
applications.
Thanks,
Blayne
Reed
