By Odyll Santos
West Texas, which produces a major portion of the state’s and the country’s cotton crop each year, sees a huge total harvest for the 2004-05 marketing season, according to a report dated January 19 from the Texas Cooperative Extension.
In the High Plains, expectations for record cotton production continue, with observers in the region referring to a “monster crop” this year. The High Plains is expected to produce a record 4.6 million bales of cotton this year, up from the previous record of 3.5 million bales, according to Randy Boman, an agronomist with the Texas Cooperative Extension.
The Extension attributed the large crop to abundant rainfall and a healthy dryland crop. However, the rain did cause some problems for many producers. Wet fields made it difficult for their strippers to enter fields to harvest cotton. In Briscoe County, for example, the harvest of several thousand acres of cotton was delayed due to the wetness in the fields, and the conditions lowered the grade of the crop.
Producers also were concerned about micronaire, a measure of the maturity of cotton. Boman said micronaire is not as high as producers would like it to be because of a cool growing season.
Despite the substantial rainfall and wet conditions, there are producers who were surprised by the quality of their crop. In Howard County, the 120,000 bales of cotton harvested by farmers received higher, not lower, grades, as they had expected, said Michael Brooks, extension agent in Howard County. With better grades, cotton should have a higher value. Cotton is graded by color and by the amount of leaf tissue, or trash, it contains.
Meanwhile, other cotton-producing areas in Texas will be contributing to the overall large state crop as well. Moving from mid- to late January, these areas continued to harvest cotton, though many farmers’ efforts were hindered by cold temperatures.
In the South Plains, observers reported warm and mild temperatures early during the week of January 17, but an arctic blast caused temperatures to drop below freezing. Observers said some progress was made in harvesting cotton, and most farmers have reported that yields are better than average, the extension said.
Farmers in the Rolling Plains of Texas had to deal with wet conditions that prevented them from returning to their fields to harvest their crops. The cotton harvest in the region was about 70 percent complete as of January 19.
In West Central Texas, the cotton harvest “wound down,” as crop observers reported unseasonably warm temperatures around mid-January. But a cold front passed through the region, bringing freezing temperatures.
In its January 12 crop report, USDA projected overall Texas cotton production at 7.5 million bales in 2004-05, roughly a third of the total U.S. crop. The current season’s crop in Texas is up significantly from 4.4 million bales in the previous season. USDA projected the Texas cotton yield at 674 pounds per acre this season, up from 480 pounds in the previous marketing year.
The U.S. is expected to produce 23 million bales of cotton in 2004-05, up from 18.3 million bales in 2003-04. Nationwide, the cotton yield is projected at 846 pounds per acres, up from 730 pounds in the previous year.
