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Army Worm Invasion

written by

David Fischer

posted on

October 15, 2021

Trying to beat the rain this week. A lot of tractor time this week trying to get everything in the fields knocked out before the rain and cold weather comes today. It was a friendly reminder this week that it is the middle of October and we can't count on these nice warm days for too much longer.

This year, the army worms in our area have done a lot of damage to our pastures. These little guys can do major damage to pastures very quickly. We were unsure why our stand of ryegrass was less than expected but after looking into it further, realized the severity of the army worms in our fields. You may be familiar with them because they can do significant damage to lawns as well. An entomologist at NC State says it is the most widespread they have been in 40 years. We are replanting pastures and hoping to squeeze out enough growing days before winter arrives but are unfortunately significantly behind where we hoped to be at this time. Always something to keep us on our toes!

organic matter

organic farming

army worms

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Ryegrass

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