The warmer fall weather has greatly helped Texas cotton in the Rolling Plains and High Plains areas catch up on maturity, said a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agronomist.
“Overall, from Haskell and Knox counties, and up to Wilbarger and Motley counties, dryland cotton is definitely going to make an above average crop, said Dr. Gaylon Morgan, AgriLife Extension state cotton specialist, College Station.
Morgan recently inspected Rolling Plains cotton fields and talked with farmers at numerous cotton field days.
“I saw quite a bit of dryland cotton that would make about a bale per acre,” he said. “And irrigated cotton was looking pretty good, too. Although the wet spring delayed planting, the full profile of soil moisture followed by June and early July rains set a good yield potential. However, another rain in August would have made the good crop much better. The irrigated farmers did not really have to irrigate until late July and August, which was a big cost savings.”
Farther south, into the San Angelo area, most dryland cotton was “burned up” due to missing multiple June and July rains, Morgan said.
But overall, the Rolling Plains crop turned out to be in much better shape than was expected a few months ago, he said.
“Considering the type of spring we had, with late planting, there was a lot of concern about cotton not being able to finish out,” Morgan said. “But this open fall with 90-plus degree temperatures and sufficient heat units allowed the crop to mature and open-up, and we will hopefully be able to harvest this crop before the wet weather when the predicted El Niño arrives.”
In the South Plains, cotton is looking promising, Morgan said, after consulting with Mark Kelley, AgriLife Extension agronomist in Lubbock. There, as in the Rolling Plains, the warm weather helped cotton mature.
“We’re expecting three-quarters of a bale per acre on some of the dryland cotton and as much as two-plus bales on the highly irrigated cotton,” Morgan said.
Because of lack of rain, some South Plains dryland cotton burned-up as it did in the southern Rolling Plains, he said. As usual, the rainfall this summer was variable across the High Plains, and the exact number of acres lost to drought has yet to be determined.
“But it is safe to say that yields were certainly much reduced by the lack of rain late in the summer,” Morgan said. “There were good rains in June and July, but they really needed some more rain in August to finish out the dryland crop. The irrigated guys did pretty good because of the June and July rains; they were able to retain the fruit load through August with irrigation.”
“Producers in the Rio Grande Valley were very pleased with their dryland and irrigated yields this year,” Morgan said. “It was a tough year getting cotton planted and harvested due to rain, but the yields were good. Moving up the coast, yields were highly variable depending on field drainage and planting date. Better-drained fields that survived the flooding conditions had some good yields.”
It was a different story for cotton in the Upper Gulf Coast and Blacklands, he said.
“The yields were below the five-year average,” Morgan said. “The excessively wet spring followed by no rain in July or August really hurt the yields. Harvesting ran over a month behind normal, and many farmers just wanted the 2015 season to be over.”