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Plain Language Summary: White‐tailed deer damage is a common occurrence for cotton producers in the Southeastern United States, but in 2023, deer feeding on cotton and other crops was abnormally high. To determine how bad the perceived white‐tailed deer problem is in cotton, producers, county extension agents, and crop consultants were surveyed. Growers, county agents, and consultants agree that white‐tailed deer are an economic pest of cotton. The same groups reported that 33% to 41% of acres are affected by deer annually, while 34% to 42% yield loss is observed on affected acres. Additionally, $51 to $73 per acre are spent on mitigation measures according to growers, county agents, and consultants in an attempt to reduce deer damage. According to these answers, all three groups perceive white‐tailed deer to be the biggest pest of cotton compared to other common, problematic pests. This paper is the first to demonstrate the severity of this issue in cotton and serves as a starting point for research on deer damage in cotton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To explore whether synergistic epidemics of measles and scarlet fever in 1860s–1870s Victoria, Australia could be characterized as syndemics, we apply the methods of Sawchuk, Tripp, and Samakaroon (Social Science & Medicine 2022, 295, 112956) to quantify the impact of each of the two major co‐occurring epidemic events (1867, 1875) in terms of life expectancy (LE) changes. Sawchuk et al. posit the presence of a harvesting effect, indicated by a statistically significant increase in LE in the immediate post‐epidemic "fallow period", as a criterion for identification of a historical syndemic. We test an alternate hypothesis that the same methods can identify a short‐term scarring effect. Materials and Methods: Using annual age‐ and cause‐specific death statistics and census population data, we constructed abridged period life tables for baseline period, potential syndemic year, and "fallow" year for each of the two periods (1860s and 1870s). We compared LE at birth using Z‐tests. We decomposed age‐cause‐specific mortality according to Arriaga's method to identify age—and cause‐specific contributions to LE change. Results: LE was significantly lower than baseline (1864–1865) in 1867 but not in the "fallow" year (1869). LE in 1875 and the 1878 "fallow" year were both significantly below baseline (1871–1873). Age‐cause‐specific decomposition showed similar patterns for 1867 and 1875 for measles and scarlet fever combined effects. Discussion: Evidence of a scarring effect following the 1875 measles/scarlet fever combined peak supports the interpretation of this event as a syndemic. We suggest the short‐term scarring effect can be a useful additional criterion for identifying historical syndemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With grower interest in skip and wide row cotton systems, varietal performance in such systems has become a major question. An experiment was conducted in 2022 and 2023 in Tifton and Midville, GA, evaluating three row arrangements (standard 91‐cm row spacing, 2 × 1 skip row, and 183‐cm row spacing or wide row) and four commercially available varieties (Stoneville [ST] 5091 Bollgard 3 Xtendflex [B3XF], Phytogen [PHY] 400 Widestrike 3 Roundup Flex Enlist [W3FE], DynaGro [DG] 3799 B3XF, and Deltapine [DP] 1840 B3XF). There were no interactions between variety and row arrangement for any response variable, indicating the best variety for standard row spacings would also be the best variety in alternative row arrangements. Plant populations were reduced 32% and 53% in 2 × 1 skip‐row and wide‐row systems, respectively, compared to standard row arrangements, which accomplishes the major goal of these systems in reducing seed cost. Boll rot and hard lock were reduced in wide row treatments only, which could benefit cotton growers in the lower Southeast. However, reductions in lint yield were associated with 2 × 1 skip row (all site years) and wide row arrangements (three out of four site‐years) compared to the grower standard. Differences among varieties were observed in plant heights, lint yield, and fiber quality, which is to be expected. These results confirm much of the work conducted on skip and wide row cotton systems and indicate that for growers in the lower Southeast to achieve maximum lint yields, standard row arrangements are superior to alternative row arrangements. Core Ideas: Cotton growers remain interested in skip‐ and wide‐row systems to reduce input costs.Plant population was reduced 32% and 53% in 2 × 1 skip and wide row treatments, respectively.Boll rot and hard lock was reduced in wide row arrangements, but not in 2 × 1 skip row treatments.In all four site‐years, lint yield was reduced in 2 × 1 skip row arrangements by 14%–32%.In three out of four site‐years, lint yield was reduced in wide row arrangements by 13%–31%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigated the potential involvement of endogenous viral elements (EVEs) in the development of apical tissue necrosis, resulting in the terminal abortion of upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) in Georgia. The high-throughput sequence analysis of symptomatic and asymptomatic plant tissue samples revealed near-complete EVE-Georgia (EVE-GA) sequences closely related to caulimoviruses. The analysis of EVE-GA's putative open reading frames (ORFs) compared to cotton virus A and endogenous cotton pararetroviral elements (eCPRVE) revealed their similarity in putative ORFs 1–4. However, in the ORF 5 and ORF 6 encoding putative coat protein and reverse transcriptase, respectively, the sequences from EVE-GA have stop codons similar to eCPRVE sequences from Mississippi. In silico mining of the cotton genome database using EVE-GA as a query uncovered near-complete viral sequence insertions in the genomes of G. hirsutum species (~7 kb) but partial in G. tomentosum (~5.3 kb) and G. mustelinum (~5.1 kb) species. Furthermore, cotton EVEs' episomal forms and messenger RNA (mRNA) transcripts were detected in both symptomatic and asymptomatic plants collected from cotton fields. No significant yield difference was observed between symptomatic and asymptomatic plants of the two varieties evaluated in the experimental plot. Additionally, EVEs were also detected in cotton seeds and seedlings. This study emphasizes the need for future research on EVE sequences, their coding capacity, and any potential role in host immunity or pathogenicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]