A widespread rain began steadily pouring down Sunday (November 17) night and didn’t quit until the next morning. The best part? It didn’t come with high windspeeds or hail.
Seagraves saw the most precipitation that night, coming in at 3.87 inches, according to the West Texas Mesonet, while Lubbock reported 2.32 inches and Dimmitt reported 1.8.
Due to the active precipitation and high humidity levels, harvest has been a stop-and-go activity this year. We estimate 60% of the crop in our service area has been stripped, while the U.S. Department of Agriculture report (issued Monday November 18) states 72% of the Texas crop has been harvested. Some counties in our region are estimating 85% harvested while some are closer to 35%. There is more cotton still in the field north of Amarillo than normal at this time in past years.
“We winterized our sprayer and put it up for the season, and now we’re getting it back out again,” said Walt Hagood, producer in Hockley County.
It has been reported that several gins have shut down after running out of cotton. Producers are reporting that they’re harvesting later due to the conditions. Even gins that have modules on the yard are having trouble getting the modules to the feeder from the lot due to muddy and wet conditions.
While even the Lubbock classing office had to shut down some this week after running out of cotton to class, they remain steady at their current estimate of 1.9 million bales of production from their service region.
Farmers Cooperative Compress states they have 50% of their anticipated crop in the warehouse and expect somewhere between 1.1 million and 1.2 million bales — slightly higher than the 800,000 bales they had last year.
The rain record for November (assuming it doesn’t rain more) for 2024 is second to 2004. “I remember the 2004 crop year,” said Steve Verett, producer in Crosby County. “It was a good year. I remember that 2004 was a wet time to harvest as well, but it was the first 4-million-bale crop that the PCG region made. And then we did 5 million bales in 2005. That makes me hopeful for this upcoming crop season.”
The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that the drought across the South Plains has been eradicated. Roughly 40% to 50% of the region remains under level D0 (abnormally dry conditions). “So much has changed over the last three weeks,” Riley said.
This crop year has been hard, as has the two before it. However, we look to the future as the moisture gives us hope for 2025. Texas High Plains Crop Report