Soya meal

Limestone. Majorly Calcium carbonate, source of calcium

Sorry for the late reply. Time is a a challenge

Wheat offals

Early morning bloom

Being weeded

Unit 4
Still leafing

Unit 3
Maize intercrop, currently being weeded

Unit 2.

Delayed weeding caused them not to spread hand much but as rain is doing here, which I've got mixed reaction on, they might do.

Pods above the canopy

Unit 1. Closed up already, minimal weeds present and weeding not a necessity now but could be handpicked

OK. Let me start with the pictures now.

There are two farms, four units.

Farm A

Unit 1= flowering and fruiting stage
Unit 2= early flowering stage

Farm B

Unit 3 (Cowpea intercrop with (few) maize
= preparing to spread hand (don't forget, they're semi erect), some preparing to flower

Unit 4= bringing their 4th -5th leaves (4th -5th trifoliate)

This is physical control.

Till now, we have not sprayed the beans with insecticides and little insect pests infestation


The pictures now

Chemical and physical controls

Physical is anything you can use visible contact to solve. You can kill, pick, wash off or chase off the insect.
Currently, on my cowpea farm, there is this black insect resembling soldier ant and they're molding sand around the beans plants and sometimes the flowers.
Normally, I would have used insecticides on them but No I didn't. Why? Because, with little shaking, they fall off even with wind, there are not feasible harm they're causing, and rain washes them off, which these days, it's like June. I am not ready to overwhelm the beans with chemicals

Chemical Control you always be your last resolve when all the above fails or does not make sense as in it is not feasible

2. Biological control
Just like biology. Anything that deals with what? Living things, yeah. You got it.

For examples,
A. Plant early to medium maturing varieties of beans. Their time is short on the farm! No be wetin dey stay too long insects go meet before hin go call hin people come or born plenty children cos food dey available. By the time, dem know wetin sup, he go choke them.

B. Plant varieties that are resistant to insect attack like pod borers etc.
Some places are just endowed with some kind of pest. If you get a new farm, and you won plant beans, ask person wey don tay for that farmland if them don plant beans around before, if hin talk yes, ask wetin be the challenges they face and how many years ago

My brother, anything less than 8 years, try to stand gidigba for that challenge, if na leaf eaters or miners, aphid, talk to people wey sabi all these varieties that are resistant and go for it.

1. The cultural control
Just as how we would say culture is the way of life. Cultural here, the way of doing things. They're just adjustments you make on your farms that is better for your own kind of environment, in order to be successful in your farming business.

We've spoken on various ones here. For examples, divide your farm into parts or segments, if you want to cultivate 5 hectares and above, you can make it 1 hectare located in different parts of the whole farmland, check the crops surrounding your farm to be OK for beans, backdate your planting date for beans etc

Pest

Cowpea has always been known to be attracted to insects, from the black small ones who just clump together (aphid) around it, to the ones that suck the pod, to the ones that destroy the seed, and to several other ones.

Why does insect pests attack crops (which cowpea is part)?

If you have the time, you can refer to my wet season maize dairy where I wrote about the ecosystem.
Nature is in a delicate balance, a balance it is always striving to keep equal.

How can pest be controlled?
We have always known four methods exist
1. Cultural
2. Biological
3. Physical
4. Chemical control

One of those things that take lot of money from cowpea farmers is the cost of chemicals. They forget about the alternatives, and that is why today we have beans that have been battled with various chemicals to the extent of people dying from their consumption

As arranged from 1-4 above are the steps of control on should choose in beans cultivation

I have always be on the point, the major challenges of cowpea cultivation in the south are (1) climate (rain, temperature, sunlight) (2) diseases (3) pests (insects and rodents) (4) weed (5) soil (phosphorus)

We've talked on how the climate could be circumvented. Not much have been said about the diseases but they are least of concern, if you do the right thing.

Tonight, I would like us to look at pest and weed.

Good evening everyone.

I travelled down here (I've got a little break) to my farm and business.

I will be giving updates so far on the cowpea cultivation, and continue the explanations.

Finnish:


Can't find this vaccine in stores here, do you have a picture? I'll ask someone to get it for me

It's might be the name you're calling for them. You know most of these folks who deal with these stuffs just get someone who don't know much about them to stay in their stores.

I'll work on it, lemme put a call through to someone

Finnish:


Today is upon us

I just came back from my cowpea field and due to the work there, I'm so tired then I remembered this. I'll be on farm tomorrow so I just contacted someone now at shop to help me with them.

Attit:

I do not understand. I thought there are ready brands around when you mentioned rice input sellers. If the person has to start searching for them, like how much will the cost? I know the costs of these things, I dont want anything like contract or somewhat. I just want to walk to a store here and get. I really don't want tk rely on someone to source for me as I prefer to import myself. All I want to know is if it is ready available like you mentioned some brands and where I can get them. If I have to be talking to someone and rely on the person to source for me, I dont think I want to do that. I will just continue importing myself.

I have issues with time like I've got to coordinate a lot of things. The person I contacted is my input supplier and her store to my place in the same city, is not a small journey, so if I can't get stuffs at school using lecturers' influence, I contact her. She's very very OK to my judgement.

I decided to tell her I'd be needing one and she told me none was available now but she would see what she could do. It's her job and I really trust her professionalism getting quality stuffs

As I'm typing this, I've not slept since 10:00pm and my eyes are just swollen because I've been lacking good sleep for days now. I've got academic engagements for today.

However it goes, I'd contact you. Or just hit me up on whatsapp

[quote author=shariff84 post=107082224][/quote]

I am glad you're safe Oga Shariff.

Attit:

Thanks bro.

I contacted the person yesterday. Although the person did reply that work is on going on finding it, that was this morning as I was preparing for the day and I would just send my reply this night.

Jonnic1:
Thank you man. Please keep it coming. We are following and learning. I am a cow pea (beans) farmer too. I have about 3 & half hectares of beans planted around Keffi, Nasarawa state.

This is very great sir. I would have loved to come see your farm! I was supposed to be in Akwanga by December, unfortunately I was denied access to what I wanted to come and do.

I'm glad to have you here sir

princenomics:
Thanks for the advice but I have a question, if I apply insecticide during flowering, won't it affect the bees and other pollinators?

Sorry I'm just replying now. We were just informed yesterday at school we will be having our final assessment on Agricultural Journalism and media studies. To kill it all, external journalism professionals were invited, we had to work under pressure to present radio jingles and television drama. I'm just tired right now.

Back to cowpea, (I understand you have knowledge of pollination and pollinators, let's make it clear for the sake of those who don't)

Cowpea is a self pollinating crop .

Pollination is just like the way animals mate, where the male sperm(cum) fertilize (combine) with the female eggs to give babies (in plants, to give seeds contained inside the fruit). But for some crops to mate like that, they need help. Those helpers are the pollinators. Examples are wind and insects majorly. Let's stop it here.

Beans, cowpea, does not need help of such. Beans no need those helpers. That is, it does not require any agents of pollination to produce fruit. It is a self pollinating crop. To run from help, the male organs are hidden away from insect access.

This is why if you plant white and brown beans on the same farmland, they will not affect themselves. Even if you use the same farm plot except the integrity of that hidden male organs are broken.

So no worries sir.


But if someone does bee or fish farming around your side, please don't choose cypermethrin based insecticides. They're very very very toxic to bees and fish

Finnish:


Yeah

No shii bro

Attit:
@Dawson126

Quite detailed. I am very impressed with your work. Hmmm! Seems you have a very good teacher cos of your style. But I am sure you are talking in parables to many. It's why you do not have comments here. This is a good thread. Anyway, for future threads, keep it simple. Do not use technical terms too much. Most people are lost. But you nail it.

Bro, could you kindly give me brands of gibberellin acid available? There are fakes around.

Also, please, are there auxins around too? I am looking iba, iaa and the rest.

I am doing a project (relating to tissue culture), and I want to try and get these hormones here. I usually import, I want to try buy here as I need small quantity. You can imagine the cost of 1kg of 99% gibberellin acid. You should understand me. There are periods one needs small quantity like in your case. In fact, I need it now. Maybe we communicate via email. I can shoot you one.

God bless bro.

I grab bro. Concerning the hormones, for growth stimulation purpose, I think gibberellins are in more in market than auxins, auxins being much as herbicides. Yeah, there are a lot of fakes out there and usually I use a lecturer influence in getting some of these things but I have a contact that is very versatile at securing this stuffs for farming purpose, I will get across to them soon and give you a reply

princenomics:
Thanks for this thread, I planted mine around September 10. Sprayed with Lambda two weeks ago. I just bought two cups of beans from the market. What variety will you recommend.
Thanks for the teaching. I celebrate you.

And from the classification I gave up there, the number of times you might consider to apply insecticides increases from number 1-4. The reason is because as they stay longer to attain maturity, the more insects can attack them.

Let me put it into analogy

You are defecating openly in a bush, the longer you stay while pushing the thing to come out, the more different house flies meet you on it.

Naturally, beans attract insect attacks, so the longer they stay, the more they come.

And in fact you have follow the normal regimen of insecticides application for trailing cowpea, insecticides at 4-5 weeks, (repeat every 2 weeks on, in areas of heavy pest infestations), in low incidence of pest, apply again when flowering after the 4-5 weeks, apply when seed are maturing against seed borers and caterpillars. 10 days to harvesting don't apply insecticides at all

princenomics:
Pic

They're doing OK but they seem trailing, and try to consider weeding them soonest because they might flower soon enough.

There are four basic classifications of cowpea growing habit
1. Erect (they stand alone like vegetable,no crawling at all)

2. Semi erect (they stand and crawl a little, just a little)

3. Prostrate (these ones trail, like melon or watermelon, they won't climb whatever touches them. Yours is likely like that since you bought from the market so we don't know the exact variety to bought and if mixed together could even be varieties)

4. Climbing (I guess you thought as they are trailing, they might eventually need some sort of support for climbing and why you put some sticks near them) these ones trail like melon or watermelon an would climb whatever they touch.

If you plant these four the same time under the same environment, farm practices and weather, they will flower from number one to number four actually

Finnish:


https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/vaccinating-goats-against-enterotoxemia-and-tetanus-is-it-necessary

Have you seen why it is important now?

Finnish:



I can't really pin point your mistake, also I think your goats are "ajebo" , these ones are from village, I think they're grateful with what they've got.

If you're going to feed them with feedstuffs rich in carbohydrates eg the maize, the cassava and proteins get them ENTEROTOXEAMIA VACCINE

Finnish:


Oh good to hear, I've been giving them only corn and I know they must be bored of eating that, they are free range, so they munch of the little cassava growing in the compound, they've finished that now though.

I hope you've put my mistake above in check on your goats?

Finnish:


Ah thank you, one more thing, you grind everything together innit?

Not really because, dusty feed is not too good for goats.