From staff reports Oklahoma State University Extension Cotton Specialist Jenny Dudak recently spoke about her love of cotton and issues affecting various cotton crops.
Dudak attended Texas A&M University for her undergraduate and master’s degrees where her area of study was controlling reniform nematodes in cotton. She earned her Ph.D. at Oklahoma State University under Todd Baughman, an Extension weed scientist. Upon graduating in May 2024, Dudak became the OSU Cotton Specialist.
She became interested in cotton during her first semester at Texas A&M when she took a class that included a research project, a cotton corn rotation field under a pivot.
“That was the first time I had ever seen a cotton plant and it really intrigued me,” Dudak said. “So, when the student worker position opened up in the Cotton Extension program run by Dr. Gaylon Morgan at the time, I applied, was accepted and the rest is history.”
Dudak’s plans as the OSU cotton specialist include conducting variety trials around the state. She also is implementing a defoliation trial this year and plans to expand defoliation trial demonstrations to on-farm locations next year as well as OSU’s variety trials.
She added that she has spent much of her first summer on the job visiting with producers and looking at the cotton crop across the state. She had observed an unexpected species of nematode which is affecting cotton in southwest Oklahoma.
“There is a nematode species that historically was not known in Oklahoma: the reniform nematode,” Dudak said. “That is what I focused my master’s research on and historically, they were not known to be this far north; however, there have been confirmed cases of reniform nematodes in certain pockets throughout the state.”
She has also observed stinkbugs, which affect setting bolls, and boll worms. She warned producers, “If you didn’t plant one of those varieties of cotton that contain the CRY1 (circadian cryptochrome) 1, CRY2, or Vip, you do want to make sure you are watching for an egg lay and for bollworm damage to make sure that you are spraying on time.”
Dudak stressed the importance of irrigation for cotton.
“If you have irrigation this year, it is saving you,” she said.