Depending on your geography, field work for multiple crops is either underway or ready to start in earnest. And that has our contributing cotton consultants already in the field working through conditions that are too wet, too dry, and everywhere in between. Here’s the report for early April.
Kerry Siders is Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent-IPM for Hockley, Cochran, and Lamb Counties.
Producers here on the Plains of Texas have a majority of acres prepared to a point where it will keep the soil from blowing. Many acres have a winter cover crop mostly intact, a few others have left the previous crop residue alone, while others have implemented some form of tillage to roughen the surface sufficiently to limit erosion. Plan A has mostly consisted of keeping the soil from blowing this winter and early spring.
Next, we have been praying hard for the moisture which is coming. We understand that La Nina has run its course and that El Nino is supposed to be strengthening. We are like Doubting Thomas though: we will believe it when we see it. Not that we don’t have faith but must be pragmatic in our implementation of plans.
Some acres have been fertilized – mostly wheat ground which has some promise of making grain. Very few cotton acres have had fertilizer or herbicides applied. Winter weeds have been very sporadic and have not required much attention yet. Historically, we would be seeing pre-irrigation going out. Very little of this, if any.
Initially, I was hearing plans for mostly all acres being planted to cotton; not hearing that today. I think more wheat, which is normally just cover and then terminated, will be taken to grain, then fallowed. Good research supports this plan. I am hearing more interest in other crops depending on price and moisture as we move through the next 30-45 days – even a bit more interest in peanuts, which was not the case last year. But it all hinges on rainfall, again, over the next 30-45 days.
So, as is par for our neck of the woods, plans A, B, and possibly C are ready to implement as conditions change. Also, an item which most growers are good about but need a reminder of is making sure they have a crop consultant lined up. There is no better investment than having a crop consultant on the payroll to help make those critical calls. If a producer here on the Texas High Plains needs help with this, I would refer them to the High Plains Association of Crop Consultants. Contact me for more information. Godspeed.