Farmers across the High and South Plains of Texas are close to wrapping up their cotton harvests for the year.
A lot of cotton has come out of fields over the past couple of weeks, and harvest is going strong.
“It’s going full blast right now,” Steve Verett, executive vice president for Plains Cotton Growers, said in a report on the Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) Radio Network. “If I had to put a number on it, I’d say we’re at least 50 percent harvested–maybe closer to 60 percent.”
Harvest was delayed for some this year due to rains around harvest time–after farmers had already sprayed the crop to prepare it for harvest.
Some cotton in the Plains was strung out, or damaged, by the rainfall.
Cotton harvest has already wrapped up in other parts of the state. Unfortunately, a large part of the crop in South Texas was never planted due to heavy rains in March.
The rains also reportedly affected the yield of the cotton that was planted.
“Overall, the crop is not going to be anything above average. I think the last estimate I saw that came out this week was 5.8 million bales for the state, which is below average,” Verett said.
The quality of this year’s cotton crop is looking pretty good, but Verett said farmers did face a few issues with their cotton this year.
“We’re having a lot more leaf in this cotton this year. Farmers always want to try to figure out why they have a problem. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand. We think a big part of it is environmental,” said Verett.
Some of the issues with this year’s cotton may have been variety related.
“As tight as the finances are going to be on this crop, we need that quality as good as it can be so it can bring the most amount of money,” Verett said.
Tom Nicolette’s full report with Verett can be heard in Focus on Agriculture here: www.texasfarmbureau.org/radio/audio/FOA_111615.mp3.