Agricultural producers within Hockley County are continuing to feel the effects of the harsh drought as harvest approaches in October. For cotton in particular, farmers are in between major steps now. The growing season is essentially over, and producers are buying time to be ready for harvest season. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent Kerry Siders explained that spraying harvest aids is the focus for cotton producers in lieu of a late October harvest. “We have had some cotton sprayed within the area which has been set up to be stripped in roughly the next week,” said Siders. “However, most of this cotton will not be ready for harvest until we start spraying harvest aids which will be in a couple of weeks. Once that is taken care of then harvest can begin for our cotton.” An additional step in the process that requires producers to hold off on harvest, yet it is crucial that harvest aids be applied to help open the cotton bolls and drop the leaves from the plant. That will allow for a cleaner harvest. “Really, we are still a ways from harvest,” said Siders. “We are probably looking at the third week of October before farmers get really started in terms of harvest.” Most likely over the next week or two, people will be able to see cotton being sprayed in the area. “I did a trial spray over a few strips of cotton south of the Mallet and that will usually take about 14 days before the effects of the aids starts to really do its job,” said Siders. “We have about a week left before we can really look at the effects and gauge how well it has worked on the cotton.”
With the tough summer, hot and dry conditions, Siders feels that the cotton crop will be hard and tough to deal with come harvest time. With the addition of the rain at the end of August, Siders said it helped the crop continue to sure up, but with it being so late in the growing season, regrowth and weeds have detracted from the current crop. This year’s crop is essentially done with its growth cycle. The problem has been pig weed and other types of weeds which have begun to grow.
They won’t affect this year’s crop, but they will present problems for producers during the next growth period according to Siders.
“You can look at mostly any field and see there is a fair amount of weed pressure there and it is not good,” explained Siders. “It represents seed that will basically come back and haunt us next year, but it does not compete with this year’s crop since everything is already set at this point in time.”
For producers who decided to go with grain sorghum, Siders says that crop is getting closer to getting cut, especially for the earlier grain that was planted this year.
For any crop, Siders has not received any yield numbers yet, but he is positive the numbers will be well below average when harvest ends.
“This is a tough year. We have very few acres to harvest and what is out there isn’t entirely great,” said Siders. “There are a few good areas, but this is not a great crop. We are well below average with what little we do have.” In recent months, prices have been trending in a positive direction according to Siders. The price of cotton reached above $1.00 per pound at one point during the month of September and is now closer to the upper $0.80 range now. Those prices may be a little more realistic for producers. Siders says the farmers could have benefitted from the number north of a $1.00 to offset expenses they are facing with this difficult season. For comparison of the difficult times producers are facing, 2011 was a very difficult year and it was the first year in a three-tofour- year drought series.
“We actually went into 2011 with some subsoil moisture and got off to a really good start,” said Siders. “We had some dry land, mostly irrigated acres and as it was a drought year and we moved into the summer, we didn’t have great yields. However, it was still a better year due to the large number of acres because we started off in a much better shape.” Compared to this time last year, Siders explained that the soils were moist, but once it stopped raining, there was no moisture for almost a year.
“We are in much worse shape now than we were in 2011,” said Siders. “This drought is more severe with a lot less acres being harvested and less yields will be realized. It is a tougher situation compared to then.”
With the ongoing trend of severe drought conditions continuing, Siders would not be surprised to see these conditions carry over into the growing season of 2022 into 2023.
“I hope this thing doesn’t last very long, but we could be going into a period again into 2023 that would be more severe than 2021 into 2022.
For producers, these conditions are nothing short of devastating. Siders explained that for the farmers and producers in the area, this is their business and livelihoods are on the line with the conditions continuing to worsen.
“All these factors affect our farmers and that also affects our local economy as well,” said Siders. “This is a very serious situation in the Ag industry and that also includes the ginning industry as they are being put in a tough industry.”
With lower-than-average acres being harvested and smaller yields, ginning companies are going to be tasked with the difficult decision of how many hands can they bring on.
With the conditions producers are facing, the questions of gins shortening hours or not even opening is beginning to become a real question that may have to be asked for certain areas.
For individuals who aren’t familiar with the operations of gins, the balance of working hours is crucial.
Siders explained that turning a gin off and on requires a tremendous amount of electricity to power it. That is why gins are inclined to work around the clock, but that also necessitates enough help to keep the gin operating at ideal conditions without any hiccups.
“Every time a gin has to turn their power off and back on, it is a tremendous expense,” said Siders. “What may happen is they stockpile as much as they can so the gin can run at a long and consistent pace.”