At the June HPWD Board meeting, Dr. Ken Legé presented findings from the 2025 Replicated Agronomic Cotton Evaluations (RACE) trials. Dr. Legé is an Assistant Professor & Extension Cotton Specialist with Texas A&M University. Supported by Plains Cotton Growers, Cotton Incorporated, and various industry partners, the RACE program represents Texas A&M AgriLife Extension’s largest and most visible field demonstration.
Through HPWD funding, the project supported enhancements, maintenance, and telemetry costs for a network of publicly accessible weather stations. Currently, 21 weather stations are installed across the HPWD service area. These stations play a critical role in improving the evaluation of water-use-efficient cotton varieties.
Dr. Legé highlighted the importance of environmental data, as weather conditions significantly impact crop performance. In addition to environmental measurements, RACE trials collect agronomic and economic data, including lint yield, fiber quality, lint value, seed value, and net returns above seed costs.
Results from the trials demonstrate the substantial impact of variety selection on water efficiency. Data indicate that choosing the right variety can add nearly eight pounds of lint per acre, per inch of water. With the HPWD area receiving an average of 10.09 inches of rainfall from planting to harvest in 2025, selecting the variety with the highest wateruse efficiency (WUE) would translate into an additional 81 pounds of lint per acre.
Dr. Legé also announced that the 2025 Texas High Plains RACE Trial Report
is now available on the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Lubbock website. Additionally, all RACE trial plot plans are publicly accessible online, including the newly released
2026 RACE Trial Plot Plans.