Crop Scan Ag Report: Still Early, but Planters Starting to Roll

Cotton planters are in the fields in parts of South Georgia, the lower Mid-South, and south and central Texas. It’s too wet and too cold in parts of the Cotton Belt right now (although South Georgia and West Texas need rain), so growers aren’t rushing to get in the fields. However, our contributing cotton consultants say it’s just a matter of timing now.

Here’s their report for late April.

Kerry Siders is Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent-IPM for Hockley, Cochran, and Lamb Counties.

For us on the High Plains of Texas, growing cotton is all about “earliness.” Our window of opportunity can get really narrow come fall when winter sets in early. This is why we push to get planted ASAP in the spring.

Then, on the other hand, we see quite often where cotton which was planted “ early,” prior to May 15, can struggle and take a long time to growoff properly compared to cotton which was planted when both soil and air temperature was consistently warmer. This cotton tends to take off growing and never looks back.

So, really, earliness – despite what may happen at the end of the season – must first be determined by what gives the cotton the best fighting chance at planting. We can get across a lot of acres much quicker than we did let’s say 10 years ago when the average planter was 8-row equipment. Starting early was somewhat dictated by how long it was going to take to get across all the acres and when do we need to be finished.

All these factors must be in the calculation: soil moisture, soil and air temperature, how much time needed to plant, last day for full insurance coverage – and, yes, making sure we have time to mature both lint and seed before Ole Man Winter sets back in.

Pray for rain.