Fighting Roundup-Resistant Pigweed? Remember Wheat Restrictions.

The battle against Roundup resistant Palmer pigweed had what may be an overlooked consequence for farmers this fall: carryover problems in fields where they might want to plant wheat.

Larry Steckel, University of Tennessee Weed Scientist, posted a reminder about that in this week's IPM Newsletter.

"There have been a number of calls about planting wheat this fall after using fomesafen containing herbicides (Prefix, Reflex, Flexstar GT or Flexstar) this spring and summer, " Steckel reported. "The labels say that recrop back to small grains after a fomesafen application is 4 months. I would expect some wheat establishment problems from fomesafen applications made this July for wheat sowed in October or early November. This was not an issue 2 years ago but is another repercussion of trying to manage glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth."

New Species Of Turtle Identified In Pearl River Of Louisiana And Mississippi

I live on Mill Creek in Rankin County, Mississippi, and about 2 miles downstream from where I'm typing right now the creek enters the Pearl River, albeit the Ross Barnett Reservoir impoundment.

So, the following article from the U.S. Geological Survey immediately caught my attention...

A new species of turtle no bigger than a small dinner plate has been discovered, bringing the number of native turtle species in the U.S. to 57.

The Pearl River map turtle, discovered by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, is found only in the Pearl River in Louisiana and Mississippi. It is a relict of sea-level fluctuations between glacial and interglacial periods over 10,000 years ago, which isolated map turtles in different rivers along the Gulf Coast. Eventually, the turtles evolved into unique species confined to a single river system.

USGS scientists Josh Ennen and Jeff Lovich said the turtle, whose new scientific name is Graptemys pearlensis, had previously been confused with another turtle species in a nearby river, the Pascagoula map turtle.

Like the Pascagoula map turtle, the Pearl River map turtle is a native freshwater reptile that lives in large rivers to medium-sized streams. Females are much larger than males, measuring between 6 and 11 inches as adults, and use large crushing surfaces on their jaws to open clams. Males, meanwhile, grow to a comparatively puny 4 to 6 inches and eat some mollusks, but mostly insects and fish.

The discovery, published in Chelonian Conservation and Biology, is a reminder that there are still exciting discoveries to be made – and one doesn’t necessarily have to go far to make them, said Ennen.

“We don’t know as much as we sometimes think we do,” said Ennen. “When people think about discovery and new species, they think of rainforests, or unexplored and isolated countries. Coming from southern Mississippi, I basically found this turtle in my own backyard.”

Ennen discovered the species while doing other research on Graptemys species in the region for his Ph.D. dissertation. “The Pascagoula River map turtle was one of the only map turtle species believed to occur in two major drainages. I thought it was strange that it was such an anomaly. My professors, Brian Kreiser and Carl Qualls at the University of Southern Mississippi, encouraged me to look further, so I started doing genetic research on the turtles from the Pearl River and the turtles from the Pascagoula River.”

Once he started finding significant genetic differences between the two turtles, Ennen called USGS scientist Jeff Lovich onto the scene. Lovich had found, described and named the last two turtle species – also of the genus Graptemys – discovered in the United States in 1992. During his own research in the 80’s, Lovich had noticed subtle differences between the turtles in each river, but had not thought they were different species. “Josh asked me to reanalyze my data on color and the way the turtles look to combine with the genetic data,” Lovich said.

Altogether, the data was enough to make it plain: the Pearl River map turtle and the Pascagoula River map turtle are definitely two different species. The genetic data was clear on this, though the visual differences are more subtle -- one of the most obvious is the Pearl River map turtle sports a continuous black stripe down its back whereas the Pascagoula map turtle has a broken black stripe.

Lovich and Ennen are both excited about the discovery of a new turtle species, but think “it could be a long time before another one is discovered.”

LSU Carved In Rice

LSU sculpted in purple and gold rice, the school's colors.

Louisiana State University has always had a small but important marketing advantage...

Here it is:

No other state begins with the letter L.

That may not seem important, but it's allowed the university's initials to stand alone, uniquely perhaps, to the point that some fairly educated people outside of Louisiana know it as "LSU" without immediately being able to tell you what the initials stand for.

No kidding, a friend in California asked me once if "the S in LSU was for state or something else?"

He did know, without a doubt, that LSU was in Louisiana, which gets us back to this small marketing advantage it has over other universities.

Take MSU, for example...

Which is it? Mississippi State University, Michigan State University, Minnesota State University?

The same goes for ASU. Is it Arizona State or Arkansas State?

When you think about it, only a handful of states have names that begin with an exclusive letter. For example, only Florida starts with an F, only Georgia begins with G.

But the initials UF or UG - for those respective universities - have never gained the same panache as the 3-letter string, LSU. It sounds almost lyrical. Let me add that I didn't attend LSU, didn't send any kids to school there and have never pulled for its football team. I'm not an aging alumnus, just a guy who enjoys playing with words and poking around in their symbolism.

For me, LSU simply has a ring to it. And the initials are loaded with symbolism.

Which made the landscaping in this photo possible. It's the name LSU spelled out in purple and gold rice, the university's colors. It would have taken a while to spell out Mississippi State University with a grain drill, and forming the letters MSU or UA wouldn't have had the same visual punch. And, lest we forget, rice is Louisiana's staple food. It permeates the cuisine, giving foundation to spices and crustaceans, sausage and red beans.

"This living sign is growing on the LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station in Crowley," writes Steve Linscombe, the station's director and a rice breeder, himself.

Linscombe sent us the photo of the sign with additional facts about it.

The purple rice was developed by Dr. Kenneth Gravois, now LSU AgCenter Sugarcane Specialist, while he was working as a rice breeder with the University of Arkansas. The gold leaf line, Linscombe said, is an induced mutant that was obtained from seed at the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Stuttgart, Arkansas.

As signs go, it perhaps is unique. And it's also edible.

- Owen Taylor

Corn Irrigation Webinars From The Land Of Center Pivots

The University of Nebraska has released a series of webinars on corn irrigation.

The series delves into the science of maximizing corn yields and also addresses the variability that growers deal with in terms of rainfall patterns, soil types and such. While the focus is on center-pivot irrigation, the webinars provide insight that also would be helpful to growers who furrow-irrigate their corn.

Here are the links:

• Soil Water Monitoring Part One — A Key to Applying the Optimum Amount of Irrigation
  
• Soil Water Monitoring Part Two — Equipment Preparation and Installation
  
• Soil Water Monitoring Part Three — Data Analysis and Irrigation Scheduling

- Owen Taylor

Rice farmers in the Philippines will get fertilizer advice via text messages

Farmers in the  Philippines will soon have nutrient management advice tailored specifically to their rice crops, and the info will be delivered to their mobile phones, according to an article in Rice Today, pulbished by the International Rice Research Institute, based in the Philippines.
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Dr. Roland Buresh says that after responding to a series of simple questions about their rice paddy, farmers would receive an automated text reply recommending what amounts, sources, and timings of fertilizer are needed for profitable rice production in their paddy. Buresh is part of the IRRI team that joined the Philippine Department of Agriculture to develop the system.

Residents in the Philippines have widely adopted text messaging as a regular means of communications, and it is known in the telecom industry as the "text messaging capital of the world." It was one of the first countries with affordable texting, and the average Filipino cell-phone subscriber sends 10 text messages a day.

- Owen Taylor