Crops in the Lower Rio Grande Valley recently received beneficial rains from Tropical Storm Dolly and only the area’s cotton harvest was interrupted.
According to AgriLife Today, the Sept. 3 rains kept growers from harvesting about 5,000 of the 145,000 acres of cotton. Fields should dry quickly to continue the cotton harvest after a couple of days of hot, windy weather.
“After a dry spell of 30 to 45 days, the widespread rains were a huge blessing for agriculture,” said Brad Cowan, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service (AgriLife) agent in Hidalgo County. “Some areas got as much as 5 inches, others only 1 to 2 inches. It was a real benefit to crops that needed watering at this time of the year, like citrus and sugarcane.”
The downside is the cotton that is not yet harvested. If those fields receive any additional rainfall, it could result in yield losses or degrade fiber quality.
“I don’t anticipate a lot of problems,” said John Norman, AgriLife entomologist in Weslaco. “Anytime rain falls on open cotton bolls it can’t be good, but our harvest was almost over and there’s always some late cotton.”