After rallying to the upper 70 cents per pound range during the month of July, new crop cotton futures prices appear to be working their way back down. For much of 2016, new crop cotton futures prices seemed to be stuck in an upper 50 cents to low 60 cents per pound trading range.
All of the fundamental supply and demand news pointed to larger acreage and larger production in 2016. With no significant signs of improved domestic or export demand, the potential for a large 2016 crop weighed heavily on the market.However, as the summer progressed, the development of hot, dry conditions in Texas and parts of Georgia along with dry conditions in India began to foster concerns of lower cotton supplies. This introduced a considerable amount of risk premium in the markets and helped support prices.
Speculative interests took this momentum and continued to push prices higher by going from a net short position (selling more contracts then purchasing) in early 2016 to the highest net long position (purchasing more contracts then selling) in more than two years. However, this has brought prices to levels that are not fully supported by the underlying supply and demand fundamentals.
Before members of Congress left Washington for the political conventions and August recess, the House of Representatives passed a 2017 appropriations bill that included California drought-relief provisions.
California Farm Bureau Federation President Paul Wenger says passage of the appropriations legislation by the House represents an important step toward addressing problems that limit the flexibility of the California water system.
By a vote of 231-196, the House passed the 2017 Interior appropriations bill, HR 5538, including the California-related water provisions.
The inclusion of the provisions on water could help set the stage for negotiations with the U.S. Senate this fall, says Erin Huston, CFBF federal policy consultant.“This is the first time the House has passed an Interior bill since 2009, which can be seen as a milestone in itself,” Huston says. “This bill provides a potential path for desperately needed federal drought legislation. We are still working under a very limited calendar, but we will continue to urge a federal legislative solution.”
Growers Pair Conservation Tillage With Winter Cover Crops To Reduce Soil Erosion And Improve Water Infiltration
By Vicky Boyd
Managing Editor
With conservation deep seeded in his roots, Walter Lentz is a firm believer in cover crops and reduced tillage to help minimize...
The West and the Southwest are areas of the Cotton Belt that typically experience water shortages. Instead of giving up on trying to irrigate their crops, cotton farmers have adopted systems to make the most of the water that they have.
“California is the only state that has to rely fully on irrigation to meet crop water needs,” says Bob Hutmacher, University of California Extension cotton specialist. “We are growing cotton in a dry environment with essentially no chance of rainfall during most of our cotton-growing season. Arizona growers may get growing-season water from monsoon rains, but there is little chance of that for most California producers.
“In the past, when we had more consistent, favorable water supplies, better quality water, and weren’t competing as much with permanent crops, furrow irrigation was a typical system used by cotton farmers. Today, we still have large acreages of level basin irrigation – a type of border system – on land well suited for it, such as the finer-textured lake bottom land in the San Joaquin Valley. For these specific soil types, soil characteristics allow this ground to be irrigated quite efficiently at low costs with the level basin system.”
By Guy Collins And Keith Edmisten
North Carolina State University
Authors’ note: These general irrigation guidelines were developed several years ago by other faculty at the University of Georgia. In some cases, deviating from this model may be appropriate. Much of...
Seven-plus bales was the high.
Cotton yield and quality records are made to be broken, and that’s just what FiberMax cotton growers did in 2015 to qualify for the elite FiberMax One Ton Club. During a celebration in Lubbock, Texas, Bayer recently honored 127 members who qualified for the One Ton Club during the 2015 crop year. The 2015 qualifiers included 40 new members and 87 returning qualifiers, making the total number of FiberMax One Ton Club members 848.
The highest yield for those who qualified for the FiberMax One Ton Club in 2015 – 3,717 pounds, or 7.7 bales, per acre – was recorded on 32 acres by Vance and Mandie Smith, of Big Spring, Texas. The seven-year members of the One Ton Club topped their previous record by 400 pounds per acre. For the Smiths, that’s more than six times the Texas average in 2015, which was 614 pounds per acre.
The highest acreage winners, Eric and Christy Seidenberger, of Garden City, Texas, averaged 2,054 pounds per acre on 564 acres.
What makes the numbers posted by the 127 FiberMax One Ton Club members more remarkable is that 2015 was marked by rains that delayed or prevented cotton planting in some areas, notes Jeff Brehmer, U.S. product manager for FiberMax cotton.
By Garret Montgomery
University of Tennessee
We have conducted research in Jackson, Tenn., on planting into green cover crops, and through trial and error, have found that it can be done effectively. Controlling and properly managing the cover crop are the...
After a prolonged drought, rain finally fell in Texas. The much-needed water boosted the spirits of farmers and ginners, which was evident at the 109th Texas Cotton Ginners’ Association Annual Meeting and Trade Show. Attendees were upbeat and ready to learn more about the products and services being offered by numerous companies gathered at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center.
Tony Williams, TCGA executive vice president, says he received positive feedback during the show regarding the upcoming season. “Promising soil moisture appears to have generated a good attitude among the attendees who see enormous potential for the 2016 crop,” he says. “After going through a tough drought that began in 2011, conditions in 2016 are much improved. The South Texas crop is planted, and West Texas received timely rains to start the season. We have heard predictions that 5.5 million acres of cotton will be planted in the state this year. The general consensus is, ‘If we can’t get price, we can get yields.’”
From the ginners’ perspective, Williams says farmers need to “bring bales to the gin.” Although the economic environment is tough, there is hope and good potential for that to happen in 2016.
Barry Street grew up on a cotton farm in Kress, Texas, 60 miles north of Lubbock. In 1979, he and his wife, SuDe, graduated from Texas Tech University and decided to return to the family operation. Little did they...
One cannot help but notice Ava Alcaida’s intense concentration as she is fed an almost unmanageable amount of information about the Cotton Research and Promotion Program as part of the orientation process for her new appointment as an adviser...
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Jamey Duesterhaus Exceeds SDI ‘Rule Of Thumb’
In the world of subsurface drip irrigation, the “rule of thumb,” on average, is that a cotton farmer can make 4 bales of lint per acre with 4 GPM per acre...
By Clint Thompson
To combat the threat of thrips infestations in cotton, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension cotton entomologist Phillip Roberts encourages Georgia farmers to be proactive with at-plant insecticide applications.
Doing so will provide vital protection to cotton plants during...
By Carroll Smith
Editor
In 1949, U.S. President Harry S. Truman was inaugurated for his second term, world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis retired, and Doc Kirby, B.H. Bass Jr. and Duff Holcomb – three men from the Mississippi Delta –...
By Jodi Raley
California cotton producers, ginners, pest control advisers and cotton industry organizations gathered in the halls of the Visalia Convention Center for the California Cotton Growers Association’s 26th Annual Meeting. With 2015 California cotton acreage hitting a historical...
By Seth Fiedler
CSP Program Manager
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced that $150 million in funding is available for agricultural producers through the Conservation Stewardship Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s largest conservation program that helps producers voluntarily improve...
