The Collingsworth County Crops Tour was held on September 4, 2015. As always I would like to extend a big thank-you to all of the sponsors of the crops tour; Tri County Co-op, Bayer Crop Sciences, Cross Road Peanut, Western Equipment, Wellington State Bank, Helena Chemical Co., Pilgrim Bank, Farmers Cooperative Society #1, Birdsong Peanut Co., Monsanto, Greenline Equipment, Dow Agro Sciences, Americot/ Nexgen, and BASF- this tour would not be possible without such outstanding support! Additionally thank you to the cooperators putting in the trials we toured; Jason Wischkaemper, and Dan and Rex Henard! A crowd of over sixty producers and industry representatives gathered at the first stop of the day, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Dryland RACE Trial at Jason Wischkaemper’s farm, to discuss the new cotton varieties and hear from seed company representatives. New technologies coming out in seed varieties giving tolerance to dicamba and 2,4-D make every opportunity to learn about how this cotton will perform and how to be proactive and conscientious important to take. Throughout the tour participants were given the chance to look at varieties having the dicamba-safe technology and discuss with representatives from these companies how this might change farming in a big way around here. The next stop was the Helena trial, where we heard from Shae Morris and Kim Nikkel, from Monsanto. This stop a more in-depth picture of the dicamba-safe technology was given; how weed management, especially in regards to glyphosate-resistant pigweeds, would be changed due to the new technologies coming out was discussed. Next up was the extension peanut trial, where peanut varieties and differing cropping systems were evaluated. Dr. Jason Woodward, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Plant Pathologist, spoke about disease pressures seen in peanut crops this year, and gave an overview of the chemical trials being performed on the peanut crop here in Quail. At the last field stop of the day, the extension irrigated RACE trial, Dr. Woodward spoke about cotton disease pressures and treatment options. A representative from AquaSpy, along with Robert Self from the NRCS, spoke about soil moisture probes allowing farmers to be more efficient in water usage- which is still a huge concern for farmers even with the amazing rainfall received this year. Weed management was discussed again as well; the take home message for weed management is to start clean to stay clean. In order for the new technologies to be utilized to their fullest potential the producer must be proactive in their weed management system, not reactive. Weeds need to be caught early and managed at the right stage, make sure to get them when they are in the rosette stage or between 2-4 inches in height for best control. 2,4-D and dicamba are not meant to be “silver bullets” and once a weed population gets established effective control is hard to achieve. The tour then moved to the Quail Community Building where Doug Cossey, Bayer Crop Sciences representative explained Velum Total, a new nematicide product seen in some of the trials aimed at helping control nematode destruction of a crop. Agent Katy White finished up the tour by giving a presentation over TDA laws and regulations, and driving home the point that with the ability of dicamba and 2,4-D tolerant cotton to be planted in the county in the next few years it is especially important to be vigilant in maintaining accurate records and knowing what neighboring farmers are planting.