The 2022 cotton harvest season is off to a slow start but is gaining momentum going into the month of November. As of Tuesday, November 8, the bail count reported, ginned by three gins in Hockley County, is at 9,043 and another 1,483 were reported ginned by the combined gins in Cochran County. United Cotton Growers reported 7,400 bales ginned; Long S Gin reported 221 bales ginned; Citizens Shallowater Coop reported they will not begin ginning until the week of November 14; Ropes Farmers Coop reported 1,422; and Buster’s Gin was unavailable for a report.
The combined Willingham-South Gin in Cochran County reported 1,483 bales ginned. Maple Coop was unavailable for a report. Texas AgriLife IPM Extension Agent Kerry Siders lamented the loss of harvest time is a reflection of lack of rainfall and the lack of fertility. Siders said that ufortunatley, fertilizer was three to four times higher in price then it has been in the past and not everyone was able to fertilize. “The harvest action that we are seeing at this time is about 30 percent less then average,” said Siders. “Normally our first freeze is around the end of October. This year, its falling much later, and looks like it we will have our first hard freeze at the end of this week. After that, we should start seeing a higher bail count by around Thanksgiving.” The first cotton bale count survey for the 2021 harvest season was conducted November 3, when 36,827 bales were reported ginned in Hockley County and 2,250 bales were reported ginned in Cochran County.
United Cotton Growers reported 17,257 bales ginned; Long S Gin reported 900 bales ginned; Citizens Shallowater Coop reported 3,734 bales ginned; Ropes Farmers Coop reported 6,838; and Buster’s Gin reported 8,098 bales ginned.
The combined Willingham-South Gin in Cochran County reported 2,250 bales ginned; and Maple Coop reported 2,000 bales ginned and over 1,000 bales had been ginned at its Muleshoe gin.
On November 9, 2020, Maple Coop reported 7,200 bales ginned.
The first bale count for the 2019 cotton crop was conducted November 5, 2019, with 49,365 bales ginned in Hockley County and 9,399 bales ginned in Cochran County.
In 2018, the first bale count was conducted November 19 with 44,692 bales had been ginned in Hockley County and 11,479 had been ginned for Cochran County.
In 2017, the first bale count was conducted October 31, with 10,544 bales reported ginned in Hockley County and just 1,837 bales had been ginned in Cochran County.
In 2016, the first bale count was conducted on October 25, with 19,888 bales had been ginned in Hockley County and 2,227 bales had been ginned in Cochran County.