The recent November freeze came at a good time for South Plains cotton, which was running about 10 days to two weeks behind normal because of cooler weather, late plantings and wet conditions in early fall, reports Southwest Farm Press.
“It was time for it,” said Mark Kelley, AgriLife Extension cotton specialist. “We had a lot of crops that we were having a difficult time getting killed because of the moisture we received earlier in the fall. This freeze shut everything down, terminated the crop, and hopefully opened up some bolls that weren’t open yet.”
Kelley expects the harvest to start “hot and heavy” once conditions have dried down after the light snow and freeze.
The bit of moisture from the snow shouldn’t affect quality. Approximately 5 to 10 percent of the region’s crop was harvested before the freeze.