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The 2016 Cotton Crop: A Photo Tour of Several States

Janice aka JPlovesCOTTON — Sat, 23 Jul 2016 20:46:47 +0000

Last week I took several vacation days and while I found lots of time to see some brand new sights in New Mexico that left me at a loss for words, I also saw something so familiar…. something I hadn’t really see much of. I saw a few fields of cotton. With my schedule this summer, I’ve mostly missed the 2016 cotton crop and it sure doesn’t show up here much!

But while I was visiting my friend Jay Hill (check him out on Instagram and Snapchat) who grows a wide range of vegetables as well as has a few beef cattle, a bit of corn…. he also is planting his first cotton crop! He was nice enough to make a drive by several cotton fields, his and some of the other farmers in that area. It was beautiful too!

That combined with this photo from Bill/killemducks on Instagram showing what a lightning strike did to his cotton field last weekend made me wonder how everyone else’s crop is. Having been in a lot of cotton fields over the years, I immediately recognized lightning damage… amazing how fast the cotton in that area is fried crisp!

I asked some friends to give me a quick update on their farms. Right now it is hot across most of the South, well and the Midwest too!

North Alabama Cotton 2016

Sam Spruell is a cotton farmer in North Alabama. And he thinks he may have the only furrow irrigated cotton (this means water is piped in on one end of the field) in Alabama. At least he doesn’t know of any more in the area.

“It’s only 50 acres but it sure is nice,” Sam says. “We started watering cotton last week will put out 1.5 inches per week till we start getting bolls then up it to 2 inches per week till it’s finished. It has been dry in my part of Alabama but some areas have gotten spotty showers. It is much easier to catch up with furrow than our pivots.”

Texas High Plains 2016 Cotton

Long-time friend Barry Evans farms in Kress, Texas, up on the High Plains between Lubbock and Amarillo. For several years Barry has been working on was to conserve both soil and water — the wind and high temps are really challenging out there.

He sent two photos of his cotton planted in a way that is really conservation-minded.

Barry explains: “This is cotton no tilled into wheat stubble. Irrigating in LEPA (low energy, precision application) which is over 95% efficient. The stubble acts as a mulch to reduce evaporation, making every drop count. Also applying nitrogen fertilizer through the pivot, spoon feeding the crop only as it needs it.”

South Texas Cotton

Friends John & Kelly Whatley are on the earliest end of Texas… where the US cotton crop frequently has the first bale of the year — yet to see for 2016 cotton.

Kelly says, “We are defoliating in the Coastal Bend area of South Texas. The crop looks really good at this point. We had good spring moisture plus some rain in late May/early June to finish out the bolls. Crossing fingers the fiber turns out off the plant and in the gin as good as it looks on the plant.”

Kelly sent some great photos…. love seeing cotton getting ready for harvest! Makes me ready to get into a cotton picker.

California 2016 Cotton Crop

Out in California, my friend Cannon Michael (remember that time I went pheasant hunting on his farm?) is growing a bit more Pima cotton than usual. With the weather in California, he can take advantage of those long days to make longer stronger fiber. He says the crop looks really good and points out that all the Pima he planted this year is “going to www.pimacott.com program. Sheets in Costco now. Bed bath & Beyond next.”

I love how different the plants look… the flowers sure look a lot like their relatives the hibiscus! Unlike Texas…. California still has a ways to go! “We are still irrigating and won’t shutoff for another month probably. Harvest looks like first week in October.”

A Quick Cotton Tour

So there you go… a quick glance at the cotton crop across several states this week! Hope you enjoyed it as much as I have.

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Farmers are Planning For Cotton Harvest as They Plant Cotton

Janice aka JPlovesCOTTON — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:07:38 +0000

Sometimes it takes me longer to get around to answering a question than it should. I recently saw some things about cotton planting and a light bulb went off reminding me I had promised to answer a few questions from my friend Kevin at The Cotton Boll Conspiracy. He asked:

What’s the planting range for cotton in a specific area? I know growers don’t want to have to harvest all their crop at once, so how far apart do they spread out the planting? Or is the equipment so advanced today that they can get to it in time and it doesn’t have to spaced out?

Since it is broadly planting time, I figured now is a good time to talk about how cotton farmers are already thinking about harvest.

Balancing Crops & Maturities

It is important to realize that while many of the farmers who grow cotton consider themselves cotton farmers first and foremost, they usually have other crops as well. In fact, with acreage drops, I’ve known some cotton farmers who don’t actually have cotton that year… but the crop has a grip on them! The reason? Cotton is so different from grain.

When it comes to planting crops, sure the weather is a big part of it but farmers generally also think across the various crops they are planting to stagger some of the work for the year. They want to have planting and harvest done optimally and for most that means scheduling what types of crops and then looking at the various maturity ranges within those crops. For cotton, farmers have several factors to consider when choosing cotton varieties.

Cotton Farmers Talk Timing

First step in answering Kevin’s questions was to touch base with a couple of cotton farmers! I got in touch with two friend who farm in very different places — Barry Evans from the Texas High Plains and Travis Fuggitt of California’s San Joaquin Valley. Here are a few of the points they felt are important to know about how harvest is already on their minds.

Barry:

On my no-till farming, I want to make sure I don’t get old grain stalks in the cotton, so I will attempt to knock them down or at least push them over. Timing is a factor. Hate for everything to be ready for harvest at once, but with cotton, usually handle that with harvest aids. But never forget about marketing! Plans for marketing next year’s crop star even before planting begins.

Travis says:

Ya, for cotton, we watch the plant, we wait for 70% of the bolls open on their own then apply harvest aid defoliant to drop the green leafs. Some times if the weather is looking bad we will rush that process and need to make several application if the plant is lush green.

So…. after deciding what crops to plant and what maturities to plant of those crops, cotton farmers will pay close attention to growth and development of the crop. There are things farmers can do while the crop is in the ground. Mind you, they are an extra cost as is the trip across the field with expensive equipment so farmers weigh whether they want to use them or not:

Irrigation — If the farm has the benefit of irrigation, farmers can “push a crop” by timing water or drought stress.
Plant Growth Regulators — There are products called plant growth regulators. They can help a cotton plant focus on growing bolls instead of leaves. Sometimes those are useful.
Harvest aids — In a year where there has been a lot of rain, harvest aids are critical. They also can make a difference if there was variable growing conditions that make it hard for the other things they had done to fine-tune maturity. And the way cotton plants work, you really want all the bolls to open around the same time to be able to pick once and get the highest quality finer too. If you wait for the plant to mature over a long time, the fiber in the bolls that open early are losing quality.

How does this year’s weather compare to “normal” (whatever that is)?

There has been a lot of commentary about the weather with snowstorms striking late in the spring. Well I wondered how different parts of the Cotton Belt are doing.

On the High Plains, Barry says:

Well, it is dry, but not the first time it has been dry in west Texas! The cold weather has caused me to delay planting for about 10 days to 2 weeks later than normal.

In California, Travis says:

This year feels a bit off, weird weather patterns here. We are thinking that it will be an early fall so we will be pushing the crop to finish early as possible. We will use Plant Grows Regulators to keep the plant short. The crop is looking good so far no bug pressure yet we are in a drought but we have enough deep wells to pump. North of us won’t be planting much row crops. They will use all their water to keep the trees alive

In the Mississippi Delta, farmers have had a lot of rain and been getting in the fields when they can. Soils are crusting a bit cause it’s so hot but things are looking okay. Shea Whitlock shared this great photo with me showing his cotton seed beginning to emerge from the seed coat on Sunday! (Please note, farmers will uncover a few seeds as they monitor seed growth & emergence, then they put the soil back over them to give the seed a chance to keep doing its magic.)

On Tuesday Shea took this one in the same field — love seeing that difference in a couple of days!

And in Georgia, Steve Bullard has kept a string of photos coming on Twitter showing how planting there has moved into early season plant management already! Here’s one that really grabs my eye, but you should check them all out!

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Top 10 Cotton States in Area, Production, Yield & Value

Janice aka JPlovesCOTTON — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:10:06 +0000

My friend David Hayden asked me today whether I had a top 10 list of cotton states. He tweeted:

@JPlovesCOTTON do you have a blog post with the top ten #cotton producing states or know where I can find such a list?

— David Hayden (@Davidhayden7) August 26, 2012

I didn’t have a top 10 post and as I sat down to research and write it, I began pondering how in the world I could work that out. I am sure that this sounds like a super easy question to lots of people but I had several ways to think about a top 10 so rather than do one, I am going to do a few of them. You can see some of the options in the text of the latest USDA Crop Production Report’s national numbers for 2012 (for 2014 cotton production, please see this post):

All cotton production is forecast at 17.7 million 480-pound bales, up 13 percent from last year. Yield is expected to average 784 pounds per harvested acre, down 6 pounds from last year. Upland cotton production is forecast at 17.0 million 480-pound bales, up 15 percent from 2011. Pima cotton production, forecast at 663,000 bales, is down 22 percent from last year. Producers expect to harvest 10.8 million acres ofall cotton, up 14 percent from 2011. This harvested total includes 10.6 million acres of Upland cotton and 233,400 acres of Pima cotton.

Top 10 Cotton States in Acreage / Area to Harvest in 2012

This year, farmers in the US had some reductions in cotton acres as more farmers in the Cotton Belt looked to make money planting a corn crop. That seems to have worked well for quite a few of them too. There were more than 10.8 million acres planted to my favorite fiber though with almost half of those acres in Texas! Georgia was another big area for cotton planting and we will see whether or not Hurricane Isaac has any impact on the anticipated 1.2 million acres to be harvested there. (All numbers listed in thousands.)

Texas 5,215.5
Georgia 1,245
Arkansas 570
Mississippi 570
North Carolina 545
Alabama 387
Tennessee 375
California 363
Missouri 355
South Carolina 278

The accompanying color coded map from the USDA-NASS is coded for the average over time.

Top 10 Cotton States in Production / Total Number of Bales in 2012

With the incredible number of acres Texas has, it is probably no surprise that the Lone Star state takes the lead in the number of cotton bales produced! In fact, many of the top 10 states in terms of acreage do well in showing up production-wise. Note: cotton bales weigh an average of 480 pounds each and can make a lot of awesome textiles!

Texas 6,725
Georgia 2,400
Arkansas 1,200
California 1,145
Mississippi 1,100
North Carolina 950
Missouri 675
Arizona 658
Tennessee 590
Alabama 580

Top 10 Cotton States Per Acre Production / Yield in Pounds Per Acre in 2012

You can see from this year’s numbers as well as the averages over time that areas of the Cotton Belt where weather was good for production really excelled compared to the traditional deep South areas where drought was a problem in 2012. Arizona and California tend to produce high pounds per acre whereas some of the other areas can tend to be a bit more variable.

Arizona 1,564
California 1,514
New Mexico 1,058
Arkansas 1,011
Mississippi 926
Georgia 925
Virginia 914
Missouri 913
Louisiana 873
Florida 857

Value of Cotton by State

Obviously, with that many acres, bales, and pounds, cotton is a major part of the economy in several states. I stumbled on this map of the value averaged over time and thought I simply had to put this map in the post too. It appears that the top states are:

Texas
California
Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi
Arizona and Tennessee
Alabama and Missouri

What do you want to know about cotton?

I hope this gives you some cotton info to think about…. next up, I really need to write one about how cotton farmers spread their harvest cause my friend at The Cotton Boll Conspiracy has waited so patiently for an answer to his question! I’ve had to gather a few other opinions on that one as it’s not as cut and dry as the top 10 by the numbers! I’ll be more prompt in answering other questions.

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Planting Cotton in California

Janice aka JPlovesCOTTON — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 04:45:23 +0000

As you may have seen, I am asking various people who love cotton to guest post for the blog. Today’s photos were meant to be a wordless Wednesday post but I turned a bit more wordy. Ooops! The photos were sent by farmer Travis Fugitt (@TFugitt on Twitter) who knows this is my first planting season in a very long time where I don’t have cotton going in the ground within a few miles of my home. He has been nice enough to share the excitement of planting season through sending me photos via both Twitter and Facebook. There is always something happening on Travis’ Bakersfield, CA area farm as they grow quite a few crops. This year he’s growing corn, safflower, cotton, alfalfa, carrots, cabbage, onions, sweet corn, blackeyed peas, garbanzo beans, garlic, wheat, oats and milo. I hope you enjoy Travis’ photos and that my captions and text help explain what he’s sharing!

The 2012 cotton crop of Deltapine cotton is being planted today (April 6) in sunny CA!! This is the view Travis sees when he looks out the rear window of the tractor’s cab at the planter.

Looking out the windshield, Travis is showing us he’s using a 6 row planter — you can see he’s already planted rows on either side of him. The planter makes a small cut into the soil places the seed & presses the soil together.

Seeing the field from the driver’s seat was awesome…. also appreciate that Travis took time to share the fact he was planting the brand of seed I’ve worked with since 1996 — Deltapine! Here are photos of the bags he was planting.

Deltapine Cotton Seed – “Dedicated to cotton, committed to you. We bring innovation and proven high performance to every cotton seed you plant. Cotton is our heritage. Peace of mind is the result. No other brand is so deeply committed to farmers and the future of cotton.”

The end of the seed bag contains a lot of information for farmers to refer to. Among the information you can see is the variety he’s planting (this is an experimental variety that contains the proven traits of Bollgard 2 and Roundup Ready Flex traits to help manage insect & weed pests), the lot number, when & where it was produced & quality tested as well as the number of seed per pound & bag.

He even took time to share what a pretty cotton harvest they had last season with this photo from December 2011.

December 2011 cotton harvest

Learn more about planting cotton from these Cotton 101 posts:

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