Writer: Tim W. McAlavy, (806) 746-4051, t-mcalavy@tamu.edu
Contact: Randy Boman, (806) 746-6101, r-boman@tamu.edu
LUBBOCK – South Plains cotton producers have endured roller coaster weather during the 1999 growing season, but yields from limited early harvest look promising.
Growers are now busy defoliating their crop for harvest. Some have already harvested fields which have reached full maturity – especially dryland corners around center pivot irrigation systems. The majority of the region’s estimated 2.7 million-bale crop remains in the field, however, susceptible to meteorological swings that characterized the entire growing season.
“This year’s early-season good news was ample rainfall. Even so, the weather that brought us rain also brought several hail events and temperature variations that affect our crop’s heat unit accumulation, maturity and lint yield and quality,” said Randy Boman, Texas Agricultural Extension Service cotton agronomist. “In April, our growers were optimistic about making a good crop this year – especially a dryland crop – because we were three inches above normal rainfall. Our moisture situation was good.”
A cool first week in May gave way to warmer, open weather that enabled most producers to get their crop planted on time. Hail swept a large area of the South Plains the week of Memorial Day, damaging about 200,000 acres of the newly-planted crop.
“Producers successfully replanted most of that acreage, and we were well into an early-June warming trend when a second hail occurred. That storm affected almost 800,000 acres, and wiped out about 550,000 to 600,000 of our 3-million-plus total acres,” Boman said. “The next blow was cool, cloudy weather after the storm that sent many plants into shock.
“The cool, damp weather caused a lot of environmental damage. Affected plants showed a lot of leaf stripping and tissue damage. Some fields simply didn’t grow out of it. Some producers had to swing all or part of their damaged or destroyed acres into grain sorghum, guar, soybeans, sunflowers and hay grazer because it was too late to replant cotton.”
July temperatures rebounded to aid crop growth, but a combination of hot weather and scant rainfall began to stress the crop. At the same time, various plant bugs (Lygus bugs, fleahoppers and Western tarnished plant bugs) began to appear. Large populations of these insects, supported by ample alternative plant hosts, caused a fruit retention problem in some fields. Meanwhile, growers began irrigating their cotton in earnest.
“Hot August temperatures and lack of rainfall reduced our early-season optimism for the dryland crop. A lot of dryland fields began to show signs of moisture stress. Some areas received timely rains, however, which helped much of our replanted cotton,” Boman said. “Warm temperatures in early September were a tremendous boon for fiber maturation, but some of the dryland crop began to cut out early due to moisture stress.
“Rainfall brought a cooling trend in mid-September that really slowed the crop’s heat unit accumulation. The rain was too late to help our dryland yield prospects, and it encouraged vegetative growth at a time when plants should be shutting down growth and using its energy for boll (lint) maturity.”
Renewed growth from late-September rains will reduce the effectiveness and increase the cost of harvest-aid chemicals used to defoliate the crop for harvest. Late growth also provides a good home and a full plate for late-season pests such as boll weevils and aphids, the agronomist said.
Because of low market prices, many producers may look at using low-cost defoliants or simply forego harvest-aid chemicals and rely on a killing freeze to terminate their crop. The first fall freeze typically occurs in late October or early November.
One bright spot in the 1999 cotton season was the start of boll weevil eradication efforts in three of five eradication zones in the High Plains. Funded by state monies and producer assessments, the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation’s spraying program is perhaps the largest pest eradication effort ever undertaken in U.S. agriculture, Boman said.
“It will undoubtedly be a boon for producers and the Texas cotton industry,” he said. “Wiping out the most economically destructive cotton pest we have will pay dividends for years to come.”
Even so, the outcome of this year’s South Plains cotton season won’t be fully known until the last bale is ginned. Producers still need warm, open weather with little wind to bring in their 3 million-plus acres of upland cotton in coming weeks.
Meanwhile, reports from limited early harvest indicate the crop may live up to the Texas Agricultural Statistics Service’s (TASS) latest yield projections of 435 pounds per acre south of Lubbock and 571 pounds per acre north of Lubbock a hopeful note for producers as they wind down another turbulent growing season.
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