"At Your Service" Newspaper Column

 

Michael R. Milam

Agronomy Specialist and County Program Director

For Daily Dunklin Democrat-At Your Service

August 16, 2007

Drought continues toll on crops, lawns, and trees

                                    The hot, humid temperatures continue to take a toll on our yards, crops, lawns, and trees. Not only are our electric bill higher, lawns and trees are being adversely affected by the heat. So if your mood is not as cheerful, you know that the heat has something to do with it.

                                    According to the August 12, Missouri Crop Progress and Condition Report, the Missouri average is 42 percent of the topsoil is listed as very short and 42 percent rated as short, 15 percent adequate and 1 percent surplus. On the other hand, the SE region is rated at 65 percent very short, 28 percent short and 7 percent adequate. Unless we have rain, there should be no soils in the adequate category within a week or so.

                                    The U.S. Drought Monitor also continues to show that our drought is getting worse.  The August 14^th graphic posted at http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html shows that we are now rated as moderate to severe drought.  The non-irrigated crops are also being adversely affected by the heat and lack of rainfall.  

                                    While driving around Dunklin County, it’s not hard to see the differences between the center pivots and the field corners. Last year, it was hard to see differences but not this year. 

The good news is that our heat units or growing degree days are much higher than last year and our average. Using the Portageville site and using May 1 as the starting point, we had 1560 heat units accumulated on August 1. This is 150 heat units more than last year; 166 more than 2005, 78 more than 2004; and 285 more than in 2003. Based on the past few weeks, I would suspect that the Portageville site was between 1840 and 1900 heat units. In Missouri, we can make a cotton crop with less than 2000 heat units.

                                    Cotton condition is rated as 9 percent very poor, 23 percent poor, 28 percent fair, 35 percent good, and 5 percent excellent. Thirteen percent of the cotton is opening, which is 10 days ahead of last year and 13 days ahead of the average. The bad news is that small bolls and blooms are being shed.  Under the current climatic conditions, I do not expect much of a top crop in the non-irrigated cotton.

                                    In the SE Region, corn condition is rated as 5 percent poor, 13 percent, poor, 29 percent fair, 42 percent good, and 11 percent excellent.  A few fields have been harvested but many producers are waiting until next week. If we miss the rains, I expect a lot of corn to be harvested. As dry as it is, I would not expect light rains to delay harvest very much.

                                    There have been reports that the Asian Soybean Rust is moving north and has been found in the Mississippi Delta in sentinel plots. The good news is that most of their soybeans are not in susceptible stages and that the hot, dry conditions are not conducive for spreading. 

                                    Even if the soybeans in Missouri are susceptible, the drought conditions would limit the spread. However, with the potential for rainfall from several tropical storms, it is possible that these storms could bring the spores to our area. Once the weather cools, we would need to worry about the soybeans that have not reached the R-6 or full seed stage. This would most likely be the double-cropped soybeans planted behind wheat.

                        I have looked at a number of trees this past week and many of them are suffering. I have seen several dead trees and many that have yellow leaves with some leaf drop. Some of the trees were damaged by the freeze so they having a double stress this year.

 

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