Missouri Cotton News
August, 2002

Delta Center Annual Field Day
The Annual Delta Center Field Day will be held on August 30 at the Lee farm east of Portageville. Tours will run from 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. The farm is located two miles south of Portageville and five miles east at the intersection of highways T and TT.

Cotton Variety Test Field Day
It will be held on September 10, 2002 starting at Johnny Hux’s farm located 3 miles south of Sikeston on old highway 61 at 9:00 a.m. The tour will then proceed to the Lee Farm at Portageville. The leading varieties and promising new varieties are represented in trials. We will observe the silt loam trial and the Roundup Ready trial. The Roundup Ready varieties can be observed where Roundup was used. This will be followed by lunch.

DD60’s and Cotman
Attached you will find the weather data for last year and this year in order to compare the total number of DD60’s for both years. The present recommendation of the Cotman method of terminating insectcide application says the bolls are past injury by boll feeding insects when 350 DD60’s are reached after cutout, 5 nodes above white flower. The 350 DD60’s from cutout can be determined by checking the chart for the DD60’s of the cutout date. Subtract this number from the present number of DD60’s and this will yield the number of DD60’s received since cutout.

2001 Weather Excel File

2002 Weather Excel File

Hal Lewis Method
Research at the Delta Center over three years has shown that the Hal Lewis Method for determining defoliation is superior to 60% open, 4 nodes above cracked boll, and the Cotman method. In the attached chart is an explanation of how to collect the samples. The Delta Center will test these samples for $10.00 per sample in the soils lab. This year with a wide variety of early planted, late planted, and drought stressed cotton, the micronaire will vary over a wide range which makes the test very valuable. The Hal Lewis Method can be an excellent aid in scheduling harvest. The method doesn’t change the cost of defoliation it just changes the timing. At today’s low prices discounts of 4.25 to 6.25 cent per pound make it very important to control the micronaire. The Lewis method helps maximize lint yield and protest the quality.

Hal Lewis Method