1. Economic Impacts of Termination Timing for Irrigation and Plant Bug Control Juan Monge* Diana M. Danforth* Tina Gray Teague** Mark J. Cochran* J. L. Lund** T. J. Sangepogudavid** *Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville **Department of Entomology, University of Arkansas at Arkansas State University

2. Introduction

3. Problem Statement Circumstances Pest pressure: Bugs – 535,326 cotton bales Constant draught: Worst in 20 years Rising energy prices Achieve appropriate earliness Consequences Frequent irrigation and insecticide application Higher production costs

4. Objectives Determining if longer periods of irrigation and insecticide control reward producers through: Higher yields Fiber attribute values Profits Establishing economically profitable termination guidelines based on crop maturity

5. Data Sources and Methods

6. Experimental Design Yield and fiber quality data Three-year experiment at U of A Lon Mann Cotton Research Station Designed as a split plot Main plot: Irrigation termination (5 levels) Rainfall in 2005 and 2006 Sub plot: Insect control termination (4 levels)

7. Experimental Design

8. Nodes Above White Flower (NAWF) Monitored using COTMAN HVI fiber quality determinations International Textile Center at Texas Tech University More technical information: Teague et al. (2005) Danforth et al. (2006)

9. Lint Values Market adjust the price of cotton 2004, 2005 and 2006 CCC loan schedules Micronaire, color/leaf grade, fiber length, uniformity and strength Base loan rate: 52.00 cents per pound

10. Irrigation and insecticide costs Irrigation costs Furrow irrigation $7.96 per acre per application Insecticide costs Applied with a 60-foot John Deer Hi-Boy $1.04 per acre Insecticide prices are constant

11. Irrigation and insecticide costs

12. Statistical analysis Variables analyzed using ANOVA for the different irrigation and insect control treatments Yields (lbs/acre) Lint values ($/lb) Profits ($/acre) Mean separation – Fisher’s Least Significant Difference

13. Results

14. 2004 experiment

15. Irrigation termination 2004

16. Insect control termination 2004

17. 2005 experiment

18. 2006 experiment

19. Irrigation termination 2006 *Termination at NAWF=5 + 166 DD60s is equivalent to NAWF=5 + 366 DD60s because of rainfall.

20. Insect control termination 2006

21. Conclusions

22. Problem Statement Insect control termination NAWF = 5 + 280 DD60s Yield and profits did not increase beyond 280 DD60s COTMAN guideline (350 DD60s) can economically be applied to tarnished plant bug Irrigation termination NAWF = 5 + 360 DD60s Yield and profits did not increase beyond 360 DD60s Irrigation termination based on COTMAN monitoring is feasible

23. Acknowledgments

24. Questions