Three Mississippi agricultural pest management associations will be holding their annual joint conference meeting Feb. 26-28 at the Charles W. Capps Jr. Entrepreneurial Center, Stoneville, Miss.

On-site registration cost for the joint conference is at least $70, and at most $100, depending upon the choice of membership options for the various pest management associations. For students, registration fees are from $15 to $25, depending upon membership options.

The Mississippi Entomological Association will start the conference at 12:55 p.m., Feb. 26, with a half-day session that concludes at 5 p.m.

Presenters will address various entomological topics about early-season cotton insects including the tarnished plant bug and the use of herbicide burn-down and corn and soybean effects on its management.

Additional presentations will discuss insect pests of corn, wheat, and soybeans, and the impact of plant hosts on pyrethroid susceptibility in bollworms.

Jay Mahaffey, Delta and Pine Land Co., will conclude the entomological session at 4:30 p.m.

The Mississippi Association of Plant Pathologists and Nematologists will meet Feb. 27, beginning at 8 a.m. Topics include blueberry production, mycotoxin contamination of grain products, various soybean pathogens including Asian soybean rust, and diseases of peanuts and putting greens.

Effects of early and normal planting dates on reniform nematode suppression will also be described.

Another panel discussion, beginning at 10:30 a.m., will address corn fungicides.

The MAPPAN business meeting will begin at 11:30 a.m.

The meetings joint session will be the afternoon of Feb. 27, with a series of papers around the conference theme (Implications of a Changing Crop Landscape).

David Waide, president, Mississippi Farm Bureau, will discuss agricultural outlooks in a changing crop landscape. His remarks will be followed by Jim Bone, DuPont, Wilmington, Del., Mike Sanders of Jimmy Sanders, Cleveland, Miss., and Bruce Pitman, Greenwood, Miss., and Will McCarty, Mississippi State University Extension Service, Mississippi State, Miss.

Other Industry updates will be provided by Eric Palmer, Syngenta Crop Protection, Cleveland, Miss.

The conference will close the morning of Feb. 28 with the meeting of the Mississippi Weed Science Society beginning at 8 a.m. Larry Steckel, University of Tennessee, Jackson, Tenn., will discuss weed management in biofuel crops.

David Peterson of Kansas State University, Manhattan will discuss the genetics of pigweed resistance to glyphosate.

Weed management with changes in cropping systems will be addressed by Donnie Miller from the LSU Agricultural Center, St. Joseph, La.

Other papers will cover weed management in switchgrass and corn production systems and the effect of glyphosate-resistant cropping systems on tillage programs.

The Weed Science Society will hold its business meeting at 11 a.m., with adjournment at noon.