Writer: Rod Santa Ana III, (956) 968-5581, r-santaana@tamu.edu
Contact: John Norman, (956) 968-5581
WESLACO — Unless they continue with increased frequency over the next several weeks, recent scattered showers in extreme South Texas have been mostly good news for cotton and grain farmers.
“We haven’t seen any damage to the grain sorghum crop, and the cotton crop is still early and doing well,” said John Norman, cotton and grain integrated pest management entomologist at the Texas A&M Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Weslaco.
Rainfall in the Lower Rio Grande Valley has interrupted the harvesting of grain sorghum, Norman said, but only for short periods of time of between a few hours and a couple of days. This is more a nuisance than problematic for growers, since most prefer to harvest through to completion once they have begun the process.
“Moisture on sorghum heads has not been an issue,” he said, “as it has been in years past when too much rain caused sprouting in the heads. It would take a lot more rain for that to start.”
Continued rains notwithstanding, the sorghum harvest should be completed in about three weeks, based on the variation of maturity of fields not yet harvested.
Rains have been beneficial for the still-maturing cotton crop, although the added moisture has brought on an increase in insect activity, particularly boll weevils. But most, Norman says, are being treated and controlled with normal applications of insecticides.
“Some cotton fields, despite the rain, are still opening their bolls,” he said, “which is an indication to me that we still have an early cotton crop.”
Norman estimates that some cotton growers could begin defoliating their cotton fields by the end of June and begin harvesting as early as the fourth of July. Harvesting normally starts after July 20.
“Rain puts more leaves on cotton plants, which tells the plant to slow down the maturation of the bolls,” he said. “But that would require frequent and heavy rains over the next few weeks.”
Rains have slowed the maturity of cotton in non-irrigated dryland fields, but that will only mean an increase in yields since plants will be allowed to finish fruiting, something that hasn’t happened in dryland fields the past four or five years because of a lack of moisture.
Norman says some growers in irrigated fields who have been on the negative side of hit-and-miss showers have continued irrigating, but most have been able to stop.
“Overall, the rains have been a positive for the Valley because any water that falls on dry cotton or sorghum fields is water we won’t have to pull from our already low reservoirs,” he said.
Unfortunately, market prices are not looking favorable for producers. Sorghum is trading at about $3.50 per hundred weight and cotton anywhere from 50 to 59 cents per pound.
“The sorghum price is too cheap,” Norman said, “and the cotton price is not nearly enough to make a profit unless growers have both high yields and low expenses in making their crop, which is not likely.”
Norman estimates the breakeven price for Valley cotton growers at more than 70 cents per pound.
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