Bt Cotton Fact Sheet Available for 2017 IPM Plans
It has been
several seasons since we have had full tilt bollworm problems on the Texas High
Plains. That just has not been so in
other parts of the cotton belt. While they
have been “away,” they have come up with some nasty habits. Things such as developing an increased resistance to pyrethroids
and sneaking through Bts for likely multiple reasons including varying levels
of resistance. Quite a bit of research
has been done elsewhere on this pest and every bit of it is pertinent to our
cotton production here. This is because,
just like 2016, when and if we have economic issues with bollworms, most area
agricultural entomologist estimate that 50-98% of our offending worms migrate
to our fields from elsewhere during the growing season to cause our issues here
and we usually do not have beneficials that can clean them out so easily, or
cheaply, as we did last season.
So, with the
herbicide technology taking center stage for our 2017 IPM plans, I urge area
producers to at least familiarize themselves with exactly what type of Bt, if
any, is tagged with your herbicide technology of choice, and to analyze how
much benefit (there is still solid benefit to all types of Bt in cotton) you
can expect from that Bt and exactly which pest it is truly targeted for. To help us with
this Dr. David Kerns, Texas IPM Coordinator, and Dr. Suhas Vyavhare, district 2
cotton entomologist, have just this week released a Bt Cotton Fact Sheet for
2017.
http://lubbock.tamu.edu/files/2017/03/Bt-Cotton_ENTO067-1.pdf
Within this fact
sheet, you should see the definition of Bt, all the currently available types
of Bt in cotton, the frequently asked questions about Bt, and the current and
studied efficacy rate of the various traits against all the target Lepidopteran
species.
Blayne
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