Tomatoes struggling with fungal disease
Heavy rainfall in the spring promoted the spread of a fungal disease in central Arkansas' tomato crops.
The disease, called late blight, causes rapid plant death and can affect tomato, potato, pepper and eggplant crops. So far, most cases have appeared in tomato crops.
Most years, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture's plant diagnostic lab sees three plants with the fungal disease. This year the lab has found 20 infected plants.
Jackie Lee, the horticulture integrated pest management specialist for the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, said the fungal infection is often called the "bottom up disease." The disease starts by causing the bottom leaves to turn brown and wither before spreading up the plant.
So far the disease is present in counties including Clark, Lee, Hot Spring, Independence, Boone, Conway, Dallas, Garland, Bradley, , Pulaski, Grant and White counties.
-- Stephanie Lamm
Murphy Oil sells off interest in oil sands
Murphy Oil Corp.'s Canadian subsidiary has closed on the sale of its take in an oil sands mining venture in Alberta, Canada, the El Dorado-based company said this week.
Murphy Oil said in April it would sell its 5 percent, nonoperating working interest in Syncrude Canada Ltd., a joint venture operation, to Suncor Energy Inc. for more than $746.8 million.
The Syncrude venture extracts bitumen from oil sands and processes it to light synthetic crude.
Murphy Oil said that because of the sale of the asset and recent wildfires in the area, the company's second quarter oil production guidance will be reduced by 8,400 barrels per day.
-- Jessica Seaman
Arkansas Index falls 10.41 to close week
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 10.41 to 318.22 Friday.
Arkansas-based bank stocks fared poorly Friday. Shares of Simmons First fell 7 percent. Home Bancshares fell 8.3 percent.
For the week, 10 stocks declined and eight advanced.
Murphy Oil had the best week, climbing 4 percent. P.A.M. Transportation Services lost 16.6 percent for the week.
Total volume for the index was 30.8 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 06/25/2016