Cotton Crop in Texas Faring Better Than Past Two Drought Years

College Station, TX (August 20, 2024) - The Texas cotton crop can only be described as a mixed bag – with harvest wrapping up in the southern parts to bolls just setting in the northernmost parts – and sometimes the mixture depends on the moisture.

Growers around much of the state expect better yields and quality than in the past two years.

Outlooks are a relief for cotton producers in the High Plains who suffered back-to-back seasons of drought in 2022 and 2023. AgriLife Extension agronomists across the state say it is just a waiting game for many to see if timely rains appear to help finish fiber development.

Producers in coastal Texas hope to avoid tropical weather systems as they finish harvesting the 2024 cotton crop.

“I would say after Hurricane Beryl, a lot of eyes are on the tropics and the Gulf of Mexico,” said Ben McKnight, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension statewide cotton specialist and assistant professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Bryan-College Station. “This is always a concern this time of year, especially for growers near the coast.”

Coastal Bend and Rio Grande Valley

Harvest is about wrapped up in the Coastal Bend and Rio Grande Valley, with a few unharvested fields left from Refugio County south, said Josh McGinty, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension agronomist and assistant professor, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Corpus Christi.

The Coastal Bend cotton crop started early, with a large portion planted in late February. While it received good soil moisture at planting, the season turned dry until Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in late June.

“From there through the last week of July, I recorded almost 12 inches of rain,” McGinty said. “Hurricane Beryl missed us, but the week after, we received several days of significant rain, which led to some seed sprouting in the boll and delayed harvest of our early planted crop.”

Those rains were too late to help the early crop much, but later-planted fields benefited, he said. Overall, yields are better than expected with many early planted fields producing 1.5-plus bales per acre and yields of 2 bales per acre reported in some later planted fields.

“As I move up the coast to some of our northern field trials, I expect yields to trend even higher,” McGinty said. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture office in Corpus has classed 175,000 bales as of last Friday. Leaf grades are a bit higher than normal, but that’s understandable, given how difficult it’s been to defoliate this crop with abundant soil moisture. Otherwise, lint quality looks good and there hasn’t been any plastic contamination reported.”

Cotton fields in the Rio Grande Valley were drier than the Coastal Bend. Cotton acreage in the valley was down quite a bit due to an extremely limited supply of irrigation water this year. The dryland fields looked poor in June, and many fields were too far gone to benefit from the rain by July.

Upper Gulf Coast

The Upper Gulf Coast had plenty of rainfall and in some cases, planting was later than usual, or the rain caused a few replants, McKnight said.

Frequent rainfall through midseason benefited the early established dryland crop. Hurricane Beryl caused some damage to cotton in Matagorda, Wharton, Fort Bend and Brazoria counties.

“We should be getting yield reports from the area within the next few weeks, but cotton that wasn’t damaged by the hurricane appears to be in good shape, and I would anticipate average to slightly above average yields in the Upper Gulf Coast,” McKnight said.

East Texas and Blacklands

Early season hail events left some early cotton in the Blacklands with minimal to extremely severe damage, McKnight said. Abundant rainfall there and in East Texas also led to conditions so wet some producers couldn’t get into fields by the planting deadline, thus reducing cotton acres.

Overall, though, rainfall was good through midseason, benefiting the dryland crop, and early plantings appear to be producing average to above average yields in the Blacklands, he said. While it is still a little early, the anticipated irrigated cotton yields in East Texas appear to be average.

“Growers who haven’t already begun defoliating and harvesting are firming up their plans for harvest-aid applications in the coming weeks,” McKnight said.

Central Texas

Reagan Noland, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension agronomist and associate professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, San Angelo, said cotton acres are down slightly in Central Texas, after a few years of failed cotton being replanted in wheat.

“This year, some cotton in Tom Green County was hailed out or is in bad shape due to marginal moisture throughout the growing season,” Noland said. “But when you get into Runnels County and north of San Angelo, we had good rain for cotton planting. The Rolling Plains north of the Concho Valley look good as well, but it all needs rain.”

He estimated the dryland crop is about average, and how it finishes will be determined in the next few weeks and whether it gets much-needed rain to survive. The irrigated crop is not much better off after fall rains failed to recharge groundwater.

“Our area ran out of water in July, so it might not do much better than the dryland,” he said. “We do have some that will make, and it is in better shape than the past two years. But we’re still marginal in terms of yield potential. It’s really on the fence right now.”

Noland said the region plants dryland cotton late, in mid-June, hoping to hold on until the late August and September rains come.

South Plains

After tough 2022 and 2023 seasons resulted in high abandonment and prevented plantings, the South Plains rebounded with more cotton acreage this year, said Ken Lege, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension cotton agronomist and assistant professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Lubbock.

Lege said abandonment due to drought is expected in some areas, but that percentage is back to a normal level, and South Plains producers anticipate harvesting around 3 million acres.

Timely rains during planting and stand development, along with mild temperatures, helped, he said. Although some triple-digit high temperatures were scattered throughout June and July, several cool fronts returned temperatures to nearly average.

Dryland acres, which comprise around 80% of the South Plains cotton, were in good condition until the end of July. However, very hot and dry conditions have persisted, and dryland and irrigated acreage have declined somewhat, Lege said.

He rated the dryland cotton about 5% very good and 30% poor, with the rest somewhere between. Irrigated fields in the region are 5% excellent, 20% very good, 30% good, 25% fair and 20% poor.

“Again, continued heat and drought will push a higher percentage into the ‘poor’ category with each week,” he said. “Our biggest concern is the continued heat and drought. The two-week forecast shows even more heat and very few rain chances.”

Much of the dryland and light irrigated acres just started flowering, setting early bolls or approaching cutout, the last bloom to develop into a harvestable boll. Without some rain, many of those bolls may shed or may not develop as much lint as hoped, Lege said.

While it is too early for yield projections, Lege said the forecast suggests lower-than-expected yields with shorter fiber length.

“However, if rainfall returns and the heat is not as high as forecast, cotton can rebound and compensate very quickly,” he said. “But that relief needs to arrive sooner rather than later.”

Panhandle

Cotton is blooming in the Panhandle, and hot, dry conditions have driven many fields past cutout, said Jourdan Bell, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension cotton agronomist and associate professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Amarillo.

“We are seeing blooms and early bolls drop in water-limited fields,” Bell said. “Once we reach cut out, we do not recommend producers continue irrigating, but because of limited soil moisture, we also do not want to continue dropping bolls and lose our yield potential.”

The extended forecast is 100-plus degrees all week, she said, so producers need to closely watch irrigated fields and possibly continue irrigation if soil moisture is limited.

See the summariescompiled by AgriLife Extension district reporters.

Written by Kay Ledbetter