Science Over Noise: Saving Tools, Fields, And Future Cotton

The weeds aren’t waiting—and neither are the courtrooms. We sat down with Dr. Stanley Culpepper to unpack why the biggest threats to your herbicide toolbox aren’t just resistance anymore, but activist lawsuits, policy shifts, and social narratives that ignore on-farm reality. From dicamba’s re-registration to smarter, structured labels, we trace how grower voices and evidence-based comments turned a bleak outlook into workable rules that keep fields cleaner and neighbors safer.

We get tactical fast. If you want to save money this year, start clean and stay ahead: no troublesome weeds at planting, overlap residuals, and hit early post windows before antagonism drags down grass control. We dig into troublesome weeds at burndown, including ryegrass and horseweed - which can cause serious problems in conservation tillage systems. You’ll also hear why droplet size, VRAs and DRAs, and tank-mix choices matter more than ever under the new dicamba labels. Licensing and mandatory training aren’t busywork; they’re your insurance policy for safe, legal, on-target applications.

Late-season strategy still pays. A focused layby application can break the cycle on nutsedge and tropical spiderwort, both perennials that quietly build underground banks within weeks of emerging. Morningglory cleanup, Palmer amaranth insurance, and precise directed sprays can protect yield and keep your program sustainable. Beyond the field edge, we talk about how farmer-led advocacy moves ESA implementation toward science, unlocks stalled chemistries, and speeds innovation when labels are clear and stewardship is tight.

If you care about keeping effective tools on the farm—and using them in ways that cut costs and conflict—this conversation delivers the why and the how.

Transcript

Why This Update Matters Now

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Bringing you all things cotton production and pest management. This is the Talking Cotton Podcast with the University of Georgia Cotton Team. Let's get into the whys of putting on, throwing off, and cutting out. Okay, so this is uh episode of uh Talking Cotton Podcast. We're here, we're recording this on February the 18th, which is a little bit later than some of the other updates we've recorded and kind of been releasing throughout the springtime, but there is a reason for that. And so uh we'll get into that in a second. But just want to remind folks, this is uh what we're calling a county meeting update type episode, not intended to replace county meetings, but to serve as a resource because people can't make it to every meeting in the county, or they may not have uh you know this specific specialist in their county this this year, it might be every other year or whatever it is. So um just as a resource, something uh that you can look at this time of year, or even revisit as we get closer to planting season, of course, uh we still want to encourage folks to come to meetings, visit with everybody, you know, because that's when real business is done, right? Is is at the meeting and just visiting. It's not necessarily the PowerPoint presentation that everybody shows, it's just the conversations that happen informally at these meetings. So, but on this particular episode, we have Dr. Stanley Culpepper. Dr. Culpepper, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Doing great, doing great, doing for doing this, get it. Yeah, so we uh of course I already alluded to uh we're recording this one. Most of them we recorded before Christmas. This one got pushback because we were kind of waiting on something. We're gonna talk about that, right? But uh it also is just a general update episode, and so there's a lot of things to talk about uh with respect to weed management going into 2026, and and of course, some of the things that we don't need to forget, right? Going into this coming up season, it's gonna be another tough year. I know a lot of people are looking at ways to cut, and so there's there's a lot of things to discuss, but I'll hand it off to uh Dr. Culpeper and I'll just jump in. Yeah, absolutely.

The Pest Management Toolbox At Risk

Activism, Courts, And Policy Reality

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Hit me up. I I'll kind of just give you you guys an overview. Uh, so I'm doing something a little bit different this year in our weed management meetings, at least my portion of that with Dr. Prosco. I actually start my presentation talking about the pest management toolbox. As you know, Camp, I've been to DC way more than I even want to acknowledge. And there's a lot going on in that world. But I talk about that pest management toolbox, then we talk about give a DICAMBA update, and then we talk about that cotton weed control program, highlighting where the best dollar spent is the greatest return. Yeah. We're all not, you know, we got great programs, especially now, but we may not have the resources or the time to do it. So understanding that program is something that we focus on. But but one area that really I'm not sure we've ever done in the county meetings, and and I'd really encourage you to attend a meeting if you get a chance to get there, because we we really need help from our growers, our ag advisors, our county agents, our consultants, you know, even folks like you when you you think about the pest management toolbox. Historically, when you think about the tools that I have in a toolbox and the threat to losing them, is focused around resistance, right? That's what we've done for 25 years with glyphosate resistant palm ramranth, right? You helped me with a tremendous amount of this with palm or amranth. But what we need are our farmers and our agricultural community to realize is resistance, at least in my numbering now, isn't even in the top three. That is not the in the top three threats to the tools in your toolbox. It's actually number one, I would say, are the activist lawsuits. Yeah. And the decisions being made by the courts that lack any scientific merit. I mean, if you don't think that's impacting you, you're absolutely wrong. It's impacting every single grower in the state of Georgia. I don't care what crop you're growing, everybody. So uh that's huge. And then we talk uh well, so we talk a lot about that. We want to make sure you know what's going on, and then we want your input and your help because we've got to come up with some federal uh solutions. Uh we can st we're working really hard at the state, uh, but we've got to come up with something federally to to help um these groups that are suing the tools and the registration of the tools better understand what our farmers do and why they need these tools, the value of the tool, right? Ever every one of our listeners probably understands the importance of a of a giving given plant protection tool. But you know what? Folks in Atlanta don't have a clue. Whose fault is that? Is that our fault or their fault? Right? Maybe it's our fault. We need to generate the information to help them better understand because they're the ones that are voting on bills that determine the future use of these tools. Right. Right? So so our focus on that, and then I actually spent a lot of time talking about Maha. As you know, I I was invited to DC, sat on the Maha round table, got to sit beside RFK Jr. It it was really exciting, but I think what most of our audience doesn't understand, there's a significant portion within Maha, Make America Healthy Again, that is uh quite anti-pesticide. Yeah. And again, if you don't understand what farmers do and you don't understand the value of the tool, the safety that goes into these tools, you know, that yeah, that's a lot. And we we have to change the way we have the discussion, or again, we're gonna not have a very plentiful and effective toolbox. Right. Right. So no matter how many research plots I do trying to figure out how to use a tool, if the tool never gets in the toolbox, what value is it? Yeah. Right. So we have got to collectively come together. I'm talking about everybody, our ag stakeholders, the cotton commission, yeah, you know, Farm Bureau, uh, anybody and everybody, and we've got to come come together and start figuring out how to do things that we haven't done in the past. And that's from us generating data in a different format that communicates with soccer mom and pop, right? Yeah. Uh all the way to our legislative leaders, both locally and federally. And then, of course, the farmer continue to bring the tool the farm. So I do spend five or eight minutes on that, and it's really to get their input. I take just a minute or two to talk about ESA to thank everybody for their input last year. Many of our growers helped us with a survey. We took that information straight to Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. has taken that information and they continue to improve the Endangered Species Act and the requirements on us. Of course, uh, Dr. Singleton is all over that um with us. Uh, but we're making great progress with that. And it's gonna take three to five years, but I'm at least at the point today, much better than two years ago. Two years ago, I basically said, hey, if if what is proposed is put on these plant protection tools, we're not gonna be able to use one of them. Yeah. So you better convince 80% of the population to go back to the farm and help us pull weeds because we ain't we ain't gonna feed nobody. Yeah, right. But where we're at today, I actually am very optimistic we're gonna do it. We're gonna do it in a way that doesn't cost our growers money. It will cost time, and it will definitely make them say a few words we can't say on here. So it's I'm not suggesting it's gonna be easy because no way, no how. Uh, but we are at a point where at least the decisions are being made by science. And and don't forget, agriculture is not scared of science. We're never scared of science. Uh, we want decisions made by science, and that's in those activist lawsuits, that's with Maha, and that's with ESA, right? So I kind of do that part. That part's a little bit different, and and I've been getting some interesting feedback, but the most important thing is to make sure our viewers understand the real world. Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Right. Right. But it's really happen because I mean, I I don't know what it is. I feel like I've been getting targeted on like social media or whatever it is. Like I've seen stuff and it like just sits with me and like I stew over it and stuff like that. But it's a lot of this, like I saw one on Twitter the other day where it was a toxicologist or something talking about the new farm bill, and there was some provision in there that that talked about label uniformity. And I know that that's something that you guys have been fighting so hard for. And I mean it's important, like for people that read pesticide labels to know exactly where to go in each one of them to find a re-entry interval would be so awesome to be able to find it on page three, section two, whatever. And they uh spun it as it it's protecting the chemical companies from any lawsuits, right? This toxicologist said that. And I was just like infuriated, you know, because it's just like you have never had to read a pesticide label for an hour trying to find what you need, you know, and and it just drives me up to wall that people have this misperception about the things that are supposed to help us, the people that are supposed to help the practitioners in the field, and they're they're just spinning it in a way to make it sound like to soccer mom and pop that this is a really bad thing.

Maha, Misperceptions, And Science

ESA Progress And Science-Based Rules

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Right, right. You know, and you're you're exactly right. And and I think um you brought up two really good points. Um and I'll tell you, some some of my friends from from Washington, D.C. are hounding me, saying, Hey, you need to get your farmers on social media so they can combat this stuff. Yeah. And I'm start I start like, have you met my farmer? Right? I'm not I'm not that kind of that kind of scares me a little bit with some of the farmers I'm close with. But but that that is where we are getting pummeled. All right. We we will win with the science. We are strong with the science, but when you get in the the social media world that I stay out of because you can imagine why, we're we're very vulnerable. So that's so that's the first thing. The second thing, your structured label comment. Um, it's really timely that you brought that up, right? So our ultimate goal in the the We Science Society, and we're trying to really push this initiative along. We can't do it without our manufacturers. They are the key. So if you're listening, please help me by screaming at the manufacturers. But exactly what you you said. We want every pesticide label to look exactly the same. We want the same table contents order, right? If you want the REI, it's at the same place on every label. We want labels with tables and as few words as possible, not 45,000 words that you don't even know what the heck they mean. Right. Right? So, so here's what's kind of exciting. So the three in-crop dicambas that just got registered, right? They are following that structured label. Okay, that's awesome. So we would love, love, kind of, kind of pilot program, test subject. We would love for our growers to actually take the time to look at those labels. Number one, I hope you say, well, this is better. Uh so that would be great. But give us your feedback. Right. Right. And then help me scream at all of our manufacturers, say we want every label to look exactly the same so we can find the dang information we need. Because if you do that, you know what happens? We're better stewards of the pesticides. We we're safer to ourselves and the environment, right? And better pest management because we're better putting it on target and keeping it there. Yeah. Better resistance management. Yep. Who doesn't want that? Right. Who doesn't want it? Yeah. Those people on social media that just want to find something to make negative. That's right. That is it. That is it. That is 100% positive. It is very costly to uh registrants. And let me throw another one you probably hadn't thought about. If we have structured labels, what if the US EPA creates some kind of AI reader where they can read that label? Now, instead of an awesome scientist reviewing a label to see if somebody changed something, AI does it. AI will let you know if something's different than it should be. That scientist now is working to get you a product to the field more quickly. Right. So maybe instead of a product getting to the field now, it takes about 13 years and$300 million, which is not sustainable. Right. What if you got it to the field in seven years? Yeah. I mean, think about that. Think about where we can go with that. So again, I I don't talk a lot about that in a county meeting, but that is such a great subject to talk about. But after after I kind of give an update on these subjects, because again, everything else we do behind this doesn't matter if we don't change the way we do things. Yeah. Right. Right. Our consumers are different. And we they they are our consumers. We have got to figure out how to communicate with our consumers and combat all this information that is number one, not even accurate. Yeah. Number two, it has a direct twist just to try to convince you of something, and they have nothing behind that to support it, right? Then we do go into what is huge. February 6th, uh, what camp and I have been waiting on to record this. You know, that was a huge day. I uh it doesn't matter if you apply in crop die cambels or not, but it was a huge day just for the fact that it was registered by the US EPA. Uh, I am sure all of our listeners understand, number one, what that product, those products have been through since really the first time we used them in 2017. Uh it's unprecedented, it's unfortunate, it's it's a lot of negatives in there. But you know what? The one positive is the Georgia grower and the Georgia applicator. And and I know we're being recorded, I'll say this, and and you can prove me wrong, but uh, if it wasn't for the Georgia farmer and maybe a couple of other states, we wouldn't be having the discussion that that this product's back. Now, this is this is my opinion, but this is probably it. So we've got to figure out how to get farmers across the country to do what our committed like our farmers. Number one, our farmers got to be more committed than ever uh ever, but we've got to get everybody else to do that. And if we don't, if we don't do that, this will be short-lived. And some of us, um, you know, my investment into keeping that tool in the toolbox for the farmer isn't measured in days, weeks, or months. I mean, it truly is measured in years, and and I we just can't keep doing this, right? Yeah, so the farmers have to drive the bus. Yeah. And uh I I'm riding from here on out. Yeah. So I I think that's important. But it it was a great day, a great day just for the fact for us getting um that back for our growers. What what I would think about, what I talk about right now, is a couple of things to think about. Number one, you think about if you potentially want to implement a dai camba program. We know how good it is in a cotton system, but again, it's it's up to you. That's your decision. If you want a few positives, more more negatives, more negatives. Rem remember, this isn't a uh a label written for Georgia. This is a label written for the country. We can't touch that label at least this year because of the challenges with Maha and the activist lawsuits. If we can make it through this year, maybe we can do something to specifically help our growers. And really, we don't have the time to try to change that. So things to think about, it will these products, and again, I will mention Extendemax. That name is gone. It's called Striaks. Mm-hmm. Ingenia and then and then Tavium. So, right, you you're very comfortable with with that format.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

They are one other thing, like go going back to I think we recorded an episode in August, wasn't that? Yeah. Whenever we talked about some of the proposed label changes. So even though there are negatives, it's better than what was proposed.

Social Media Battles And Labels

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Oh my God. Oh, good. No, that's a great point. Uh oh, we we are 95% better than we are. And and man, you keep bringing up great points. Why is that? Yeah. I would encourage you to search the EPA's uh release, and what you will see is cotton, cotton and cotton mentioned the south, the south, the south. Yeah. The comments that came out of Cotton Country were phenomenal. I'll highlight the Georgia Cotton Commission. I'll highlight over 30 UGA extension agents that submitted comments. If you want to make a change, I'm not kidding. The comment period and us investing time into communicating with our regulatory partners through the comment period is the way you influence the outcome. Yeah. So every one of you that joined a county agent, every one of you, quite a few farmers wrote their own information. You guys that did that, you made the change. Not only did you make the change of getting the tool to the market, uh, the the negatives are 90% less than they were. Now, there's still some bad stuff that we're gonna have to focus on, and we'll help you do that. But as of today, number one, determine if you think, if you think you might want to do that, and then remember this will these will continue to be restricted to use pesticides, which means the applicator has to have their own license. Don't make it complicated. If you're driving a sprayer, you have to have a license. Otherwise, you're not legal if you do that. That's simple. Reach out to your county agent, go ahead and get that done if you got new people on the farm. They need to have the license anyway. Yeah, that's true. Let's let's be honest. In this day in this world, you want your pesticide applicator to have their license that protects you as a farmer. Right. That's important. Number two, they're gonna have to attend uh a mandatory training that's focused specifically on the label and the label changes. Now, I was hoping today we would tell you for sure it's gonna be using pesticides wisely, our UPW program that our growers have really embraced. Uh, I can't tell you for certain today that decision is above my pay grade. Hopefully, by the end of the week, that decision will be made. I'm about 95, 98% sure it will be us. Um, I kind of hope it will be because we're gonna do it in person. I know you hate to travel, but man, this stuff is too important. We need to be looking at each other just like what you said for the county meeting. We need to be looking at each other, and and we're gonna we're gonna do it a little bit different than anybody else would, of course, because that's the way we are. Number one, Dr. Singleton is gonna talk to you about pesticide safety. We don't do that enough. I mean, we have got to make sure you, the applicator, the farmer, are protected. There are things you need to know, understand, and know to make decisions to protect you and your family. We are gonna bring that to you in a in a good way because she's giving that presentation and not me. Uh, then we're gonna focus on the die camba, the changes on the die camble label. But again, we're not gonna just tell you what the change is, we're gonna tell you the science behind the change. Now, we're in a difficult situation with the economy. Some of these changes would cost you money. You will have to make your own decisions, but we will tell you why that change is what it is. And I'll give you one example. So if you go read that label, what you will see is a change in the droplet size requirement. In the past, we always said you have got to use the ultra-course droplet, right? It's big, it's fat, it's heavy, it goes straight to the ground. Yeah. Where do we want it to go? We want it to go to your pest on the ground, right? Well, you'll see where it now allows you to do a coarse droplet. By allowing you to use a coarse droplet, it also would potentially allow you to put liberty with it. Well, what you need to understand is if you put liberty with DICAMB, you just increase the potential of volatility and drift significantly. Yeah. Now you might say, well, well, how why is the label let me do that? Well, the label lets you do that because it's gonna cost you to to double the VRA. All right. So you have to put twice as much of the VRA you did in the past, and then you have to put a DRA in with every application. Yeah. But let's say you're busy and you forgot to forgot to put the VRA in. Yeah, right. Right. The liability you just put on yourself is off this world. So that's the kind of kind of meeting we're gonna have. Uh whether you put these products out or not, and you want to learn about uh, you know, precision applications, putting products on target and keeping them there, that that's where we'll focus. So we we do do an update in the meeting, uh the county meeting, um, but we're really gonna go into it if we if we're the ones that do UPW. Reach out to your county agent. Hopefully by the end of this week, you said today was what, the 18th? The 18th. By the end of this week, first of next week, not only will you hear about them, um maybe we'll have all the locations set up. And please, please understand we can't do that in every county like we do the county meeting. We just don't have time, so we're probably gonna have to pick 15 sites. We're sorry you have to drive, uh, but you got to help us out a little bit on this scenario.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Well, especially having your back against the wall like this, right? I mean, if it had come out January 1st, we could be talking a totally different ballgame. But it's February 18th, and this has got to get done before cotton starts going in the ground.

Structured Labels And Stewardship

SPEAKER_00 19:35

That's exactly right. And we would have actually switched our weed meetings to be part of UPW, right? But I still as of today, I I I still can't say we're doing UPW. Right. Right. So I have to set all this stuff up, turn it around, and get you trained literally, probably in less than a month on the map. So, but please forgive us on that because we know you guys are challenged and we're trying to help everyone whatever way we can. So the last thing I talk about in the county meetings is the program. You know, I I always say now, uh I am I am so excited about the weed management program. Um, man, we certainly need some help on the value of our product. Yeah, golly. Right. Yeah. But if we can if we can stay sustainable and we can stay in there, in fact, we could before the end of this year have three new herbicides in our toolbox for the cotton farmer. I'm not even counting, but the three we just got back. Right. Right. So we got the three back. Now, I will footnote this. We should have already had these three. Yeah. But Maha and the impact of Maha has delayed all of this. So when we talk about Maha and these activist lawsuits, I'm not kidding it's serious. But but I'm excited about that part. But we we talk about the program, we remind you of important things, right? If if you want to save money, which you have to do this year, that there are three really, really important things. You know, number one, no, I don't want to say no weeds in the field at planting, but no troublesome weeds in the field at planting. I don't care if chickweed is in the field at planting, but I don't want Palmer Amarhith. I don't want spider ward. I don't want, you know, Goosegrass. Oh, good one. Yeah, absolutely. Man, goosegrass is killing us. Yeah. So, so that's number one if you want to make money, right? We have tons of options for burn down, whether it's tillage, whether it's herbicides. You and I right now could come up with 50 different burn down programs, right? I love Roundup 240 and Violor if I don't know what you're doing because radish and primrose are everywhere, and that's 240's strong point. But look, if that's not what you want to do, we can definitely get you something that works. But I but I do highlight two weeds I want on your radar in the meeting. Number one, uh, you've heard about it, um, Canadian horseweed. Yeah. One of our past colleagues, Jared Whitaker, was wearing me out last year, and we went and did some research, and he and he has identified a weed that is very difficult to control. Yeah. You're not gonna control it with Roundup, you're probably not gonna control it with my favorite Roundup 24D violer. Oh my god. Yeah. So we show you some pictures of that. Um, we show you how difficult it is to control even at one inch, much less four inches. And the big point of this is we want you to catch this on the side. Of the field or in a spot and get it gone and not let it get established. Yeah. That is what we what we don't want to do. Because again, I think I'd at one inch with Roundup 24D in Valor, I was getting about 65% control. Yeah. Terrible. So Canadian horseweed, um, look it up on your phone or go get with your county agent. The other one is ryegrass. You guys, if you're tilling, don't worry about it. But if you're if you are not tilling and you're in conservation tillage, we have rye grass. You will not kill with any rate of Roundup in the greenhouse. You cannot freaking drown it to death. You can't kill it. That will put you out of conservation tillage. Right. So you've got to be thinking about that long term, and you must understand if you don't implement a sound program, not just a spray, you can't just go spray select or liberty or parquet right before you plant it's big weed, right? That might be a band-aid that gets us through this year, but in two to three years, you lose that tool. Right. And then you're gonna lose every tool, right? So you've got to have a sustainable program. And I actually show a picture from my farm in North Carolina. It's my number one problem. And if I don't address it, I'm gonna be at a conservation tillage. So what we actually did this year is we we planted wheat because I want the competition from the wheat. Then I had great herbicides and wheat like zidua. Yeah. Put the zidua out, right? So I'm using the herbicide with the competition of the cover crop, and that's how I'm trying to address it. And at least right now, it looks fantastic, right? Yeah. But we got to think about things differently. Those two weeds get on your radar, other weeds you're comfortable with. After that, the third thing I'll tell you uh you know, for years we've always talked about being timely. Your definition and my definition of timely are probably pretty accurate, but it's quite a bit different than most farmers. Uh, but the approach I take this year is I actually say, look, let's go early, because if we start early, maybe we finish timely. Yeah, yeah. But think about it. How are you successful? And some of your great graduate work and Taylor's work supported your work. What are the keys to economical success and weed control? Number one, you do not see the weed overlap your residuals. You might think it's crazy, but that is where you make money. Yeah. Number two is timely applications or going early. And what we actually focus on, we generated some really cool data this past year on antagonism. So with Roundup and Dicamba or with Roundup Liberty, almost every time that a grower goes out and sprays, we get antagonism. All right. So let's explain antagonism. So we put, let's say we'll use Roundup and Dicamba, for example. So, and we'll use Texas Millet, for example. So we go out and we put Roundup. Roundup's gonna be a hundred. Yeah. Say five inch sexes millet. It's gonna be a hundred. All right, we put die camble with it. Now all of a sudden we got 85% control. Right? The the neat thing is that day 10, it looks as dead as Roundup alone. But by day 20, it's suckered back out.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Yeah.

Dicamba Returns: What Changed

SPEAKER_00 24:35

And it you never killed it. You thought you killed it if you went and looked, but you never killed it. By day 30, it's at 50% control, right? So how do you overcome antagonism? Now I use Texas millet. Goose grass. Oh, it's 10 times worse. 10 times worse. I'm glad you brought up goosegrass because you're exactly right. But if you go early, you have less antagonism. So for example, I never have antagonism on any Texas millet plant smaller than three inches. So from less than three, I've never seen it. From three to eight, about 50% of the time, bigger than eight inch when you spray? Every time. Yeah. So go time go early. Yeah. And that's the key. So they're they're kind of the things that we focus on. Again, I always scream about the lay by. I know you don't have the resources. I don't know. I know you don't have the time, but there's certain weeds I don't think you can manage without a lay by. Number one is Nuts Edge. Man, I can't kill flipping nuts edge. Something is going on with Nuts Edge. It's a different game without the lay by. You're in trouble with the lay by. Boy, we can napalm that stuff, right? Vital Wart's another one. I don't know how you're sustainable if you don't run that in there. You know, depending on your pig weed program, if you overlap your residuals, you may not even need a lay by for pigweed, um, but we can certainly clean it up if you get there. So again, it it's a resource that's available for you. We continue to have the duals, uh, the products that are in there um that are effective for you. So that's kind of that's kind of the gist of what we do in the county meeting. Um and and like you said, it's it's more about how can we help you, what questions you have, and and and that's that's really what we're here to do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

So and you know, thinking about a lay by program for spiderwort and nut sedge versus pigweed, to me it's it's totally different, right? Because it's two perennial weeds versus something that you're trying to keep from producing pigweed from producing a seed as an annual weed. Right. Right. And so if that tropical spider wart or nut's edge even comes up, then it's gonna be a problem next year, right? Versus a pigweed that might germinate and then may not have enough time to produce a seed head, you may not have to worry as much about that.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

That's an excellent point, because because both of those those two weeds are generating uh seeds or tubers under underground. And you're absolutely right. Now, the cool thing is it we can we can give you a lay-by treatment to get it all.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Right. Right. So that's the cool thing about the toolbox in in regards to that, at least today. But you that's a very good point. I've really never thought about that. But keep this in mind, uh, one of our colleagues, um, Dr. Webster, back in the day, uh, one of the coolest pieces of information that I always use for my vegetable farmers, because because obviously nuts is is probably number one or number two across all vegetable crops, but within 30 days of seeing the plant itself, it's producing tubers below ground. Right. Within 30 days now, and then it just goes haywire from from there. So so you're exactly right on managing it, understanding that it's a perennial and what it's gonna do, and it'll continue in the shade, just like spider wheel, you're not gonna shade it out kind of thing. And yeah, and of course, morning glory, right? Morning glory is one of the biggest problems on the late season, but we can absolutely clean the house with that.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Right. Right. And and again, you can put together a program that'll hit all of them. All of them. We get all of them.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

And so it just yeah. Well, and let me tell you this last thing. I I know it's it's dismal. All of our farms, including including ours, uh, you know, we're struggling, there's no doubt whatsoever. But one it's always good to hear some positive things. If the technology that is proposed reaches the field by the end of the decade that you actually know more about than I do, the the greatest challenge in weed control is gonna be, oh my gosh, I have so many options. What do I want? Yeah, is that not crazy? It's gonna be like corn. It's really gonna be like so. Now the footnote is Maha and these activist lawsuits can kill all of that. But but the potential that's there with what is proposed in these technologies from the weed control arena that'll go right along with all the agronomic stuff that that you're already doing is is gonna be so wonderful and so cool. Yeah.

Training, Licensing, And Compliance

SPEAKER_01 28:30

You know, I I feel like it's pretty well known that this elite ISO's tied up and all this stuff. And and I mean that I'm sure that's one of the ones you're talking about, right? That's just kind of sitting in limbo right now. We've been expecting I whenever I started graduate school with you, it was like we were getting to look at it, and hey, in the next couple years we'll have it. Well, here we are, and it's like I I started in 2018 and now it's 2026, and we still don't have it, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:55

Yeah, yeah, no, that that's interesting because and he's talking about Elite ISO, which is which is a soxiflutol, right? I can remember the first uh industry point of when it was gonna be out was 2020.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

Now I kind of knew that wasn't gonna happen, but I was thinking 23, 24. But but even this past Thanksgiving, when I'm in Washington, DC, I'm leaving and I'm like, okay, this is this is coming out in the next next week. Right. It it that is absolutely one of them that's tied up and it's it's tied up by these groups and the power of social media by these groups that have agendas. And you know what? I I'm not suggesting these these people are doing this on purpose. I I am more of the opinion that most of them simply don't understand. Right. They truly they they believe that we're just out spraying for the fun of spraying. And you and I think, I mean, that is insanity. Yeah. But how do you communicate with these people? And I'll tell you what I've learned in Washington, D.C., and I hope this this sticks with some of you. The most respected uh individual or entity in agriculture is the farmer.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

It is the farmer. And if you, the farmer, don't speak up for us, we're in trouble. You have got to understand how much they I'm I don't care. I don't care if I'm on the heel. I don't care if I'm in the US EPA's headquarters. Man, they respect the farmer, and that makes me feel really, really good. But we have to take advantage of that. And you know, Bart from the Content Commission does so much for us, right? But but that has got to become the standard, and and man, I, you know, I need to I need to carry some of our farmers. I need to start carrying our farmers to DC with me when I go. They're great when we bring DC down, right? It's changed the game. But we we have got to we have got to learn how to to do it. We can't be overwhelming every state carries, everybody all the time, right? That would backfire. Right. But we have to strategically work together to and again, I'm not saying the ag stakeholders aren't aren't priceless because they are, but the dang farmer can change can change the discussion. Yeah. They truly can. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Well, and I mean it just it's it I think I I remember it was a couple years ago they did that big fly-in, and it was like every commodity in the country went to Washington, D.C. and it was pretty much on a whim just to explain the situation on the farm. And that was some of the reason that a lot of the stuff got included in the continuing resolution. I I can't remember if that was that was two years ago, I guess, and tw at the end of 24 going into 25. And it was because growers went up there and they were able to look them in the face and say, look, I'm telling you, like last year, whenever we say last year was the second best cotton crop in Georgia history and we still lost money, you know, we mean it, right? But whenever you have the person there that's talking about they made the best crop they ever have on their farm and still didn't make any money, that makes the difference.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

Well, well, you just highlighted what is important, right? You you the farmer is the one that they listen to, but then they need the diet the data to make the decision. Right. So they need you to hand the data over that says, okay, what that grower just told me, here's the science behind that, right? That because you and I know the regulatory agency has to make a decision based on science, and that's what we want, right? But understanding what the farmer do does, understanding the challenge that that is priceless in having the discussion with the scientist. And I don't get to the table if the farmer doesn't get me to the table. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

And we we don't want it to become an emotional argument. That's right. Right. That's that's that's what's happening in social media right now, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Everybody that's anti-pesticide, that isn't an emotional argument. We don't want that. We want science. You know what? We lose with science, we win with science, but the science is where the decision needs to go. Right. And that and and I'll be glad to say that the US EPA should make their decisions based on science, yeah, not emotion, right? And and and that may not be where we're at on some decisions, and and that's why we need to get our farmers more engaged and more involved. It says, hey, this is the real world. But you know what? Look at the science. Yeah. That that that is a win for us.

Droplets, Tank Mixes, And Risk

SPEAKER_01 32:59

Right, right. So we are recording this on February 18th. There are still some more weed meetings to go to, right? And then there's still some more cotton meetings over the next couple weeks. So um still come out, visit with us, make suggestions, right? Offer up to go to DC, maybe. Absolutely. If you want to go to D.C., let Dr. Culpepper know. He'd be happy to take you on one of his thousand trips over the next year. But, you know, come out to the meeting, visit with us, ask questions, all that good stuff. But um certainly hope that you guys find this helpful. Uh stay in the loop with your county agent in terms of uh UPW and things like that. Once that's available, uh, we'll be sure to share it as well on the cotton team website and stuff like that. But uh just reach out to your county agent, and if you have any other questions, they'll be able to answer them for you. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of Talking Cotton with the UGA Cotton Team. If you have any questions about anything we talked about today, or if there's anything you'd like for us to talk about in the future, please contact your local UGA County Extension agent. And as always, you can find us on all major podcast platforms. Be sure to like, share with your friends, and subscribe so you can stay up to date.