Home » Cotton experts to meet at Agricenter

Cotton experts to meet at Agricenter

Oct 6, 2005 8:56 AM

The Mid-South IPM Conference, for the men and women who provide advice to cotton producers, will be held at Agricenter International in Memphis, Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. The program will begin on the morning of Nov. 1.

One coordinator of the conference, LSU AgCenter entomologist Ralph Bagwell, said keeping up with new technology is a constant challenge for the consultants, agents, and field people who make many critical management decisions for cotton growers.

He noted that cotton production has changed dramatically in recent years with boll weevil eradication, transgenic cotton, GPS technology, Cotman, new classes of pesticides, and other technology changing the way cotton is produced in the Mid-South.

“Whether it is Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana or the Bootheel of Missouri, we share many production and pest management problems. We have the same pest complex and use essentially the same cotton varieties and management practices.”

The meeting program, which is not yet finalized, will address integrated pest management, insect, weed and disease management, primarily in cotton. The conference has been developed through a joint venture of the universities of Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana State and Mississippi State, private consultants, and industry representatives.

The coordinators’ intent is to provide a hands-on, interactive training experience that targets 300 to 400 consultants, distributors, Extension agents and other pest management decision-makers. Areas of interest include:

• Nematode biology, identification, scouting/sampling.

•Advances in seed treatments (including new and innovative chemistry technology).

• Cotton disease, insect, and weed recognition and management.

• Technology updates.

• Soybean rust identification, biology and control.

The format will be concurrent with some repeating presentations, manned displays and discussions. For more information, contact Ralph Bagwell, 318-435-2908.