Has this been an unusual year for cotton producers in many parts of the Belt? Most would agree with that assessment. First, there is the frustrating cotton price that has stayed in the 60-cent range for months. Then came the floods in Texas and the Mid- South and dry conditions in the Southeast and West. One theme, however, remained consistent – the need for an effective strategy that could deal with weed resistance, namely pigweed.
While most producers understand the concept of “starting clean and staying clean,” technology is assisting in the quest to reduce production costs even more.
You’d be hard pressed to find a more forward-thinking farmer than Jason Luckey of Humboldt, Tenn., in the western part of the state. He, father Rege, brother Ken and nephew Zac have consistently adhered to a diversified crop mix involving cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat. They rarely increase acreage for any one crop and have succeeded in their dryland operation by staying with this philosophy.
High Plains Producer Says It’s Full Speed Ahead For Cotton
BY SHAWN HOLLADAY
LAMESA, TEXAS
EDITOR’S NOTE – Texas High Plains producer Shawn Holladay has somehow survived a four-year drought and record rainfall this spring. However, he remains confident that this year’s...
Across the Cotton Belt, the strategy is the same this year – no matter the location. Producers must find a way to manage this crop efficiently. And that means planting on time and starting the season strong – much like a racehorse bolting out of the starting gate at top speed.
It will be a challenge as farmers deal with low cotton prices, a new farm law, weed resistance and water availability in many locations – namely in California and Texas.
Add in the big front-end investment with the seed, and you begin to get the picture. Nobody wants to re-plant the crop, and it is essential that young cotton seedlings have plenty of vigor and growth potential.
Delta’s Justin Cariker Remains Committed To Reliable Crop
The facts are clear. Cotton prices are a lot lower now than any farmer could have imagined several months ago. A year ago, everyone felt very positive about 80- to 85-cent prices.
Today,...
By Larry Steckel, Jackson, TN
I have been very proud of how good a job most of our producers are doing handling glyphosate-resistant (GR) Palmer amaranth. In both 2013 and 2014, I did not get a report of a cotton...
As we begin making plans for our crop production this year, we will be scrutinizing some areas of our production that we haven’t been doing in the past few years. With crop prices the way they are and our...
Sledge Taylor, a Como, Miss., ginner, was elected National Cotton Council chairman for 2015. Named during the NCC’s recent annual meeting in San Antonio, he succeeds Wallace L. Darneille, a Lubbock, Texas, cooperative marketer.
Taylor is president of the Como...
Every cotton producer has his own special way of growing the crop each year. You might say that South Carolina’s Jason Waltz has an unusual – but effective – approach. He does it all and rarely relies on anybody else for advice.
In today’s environment where farmers lean on consultants, marketing experts, scouts, entomologists and agronomists, Waltz is a one man show. He wears all the hats.
Think about that for a moment. Here is a young farmer who grew up watching his father Glen deliver a crop each year in the St. Matthews area, just southeast of Columbia, S.C.
The U.S. cotton harvest was moving along rapidly at the time of this writing (early November). Although picking efforts in Texas lagged the normal pace, harvest across most of the Cotton Belt advanced well, producing a good quality crop.
The Memphis Territory (Ark., Ala., La., Miss. and Tenn.) is expecting about 3.3 million bales, and the USDA has classed 2.2 million to date. About 900,000 bales of the 2.8 million expected from Georgia and Florida have been classed to date, as have 1.9 million of TexaJan 2015 Cotton Farming_Page_08_Image_0001s and Oklahoma’s expected 6.6 million bales.
In the first third of classings to be completed this season country- wide, 73.2 percent are of tenderable qualities. We are in agreement with the USDA and believe the United States will produce 15.9 million bales in the 2014/15 season.
More noteworthy is the percentage of much sought after high grades with long staple. The Memphis territory has produced around 73 percent middling (31) and better color, and 44 percent
The outlook for Australia’s cotton production in 2015 is turning increasingly downbeat. An unusually hot and dry October crimped early germination and depleted local irrigation supplies. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology reported the country as a whole saw the seventh driest and hottest October on record.
The main cotton-producing states of Queensland (ninth driest) and New South Wales (twelfth driest) saw an unusually dry October, with rainfall only 23 percent and 34 percent of their mean October amounts, respectively. It was the same for heat across the two key cotton-producing states.
In fact, after commencing with temperatures generally near average, October developed into an unusually warm month with well-above-average temperatures across the entire country. This intensification of heat later coincided with the typical acceleration in cotton plantings, suggesting temperatures may have been too hot, too soon, for young seedlings.
BY BRUNO ZANUTTO
MANAGER/COTTON GROUP
FCSTONE DO BRAZIL LTDA.
INTL FCStone Inc.
It's hard to remember but at one time Brazil, now the world’s fifth largest cotton producer,er, was once a net cotton importer. Production was limited by the climate diversity of the...
BY JIM LAMBERT
DIRECTOR OF SALES
FCSTONE MERCHANT SERVICES
INTL FCStone Inc.
15 cotton season started off with a thump as most of the country’s key cotton-producing provinces experienced adverse weather conditions, which delayed planting. Despite the early setback, farmers were able to...
When a cotton producer has spent nearly four decades fighting insect pests, it’s nice to find a new plan of attack.
That is one way of describing Alabama producer Charlie Speake’s situation near Eufaula in the southern part of the...
BY CHRIS KRAMEDJIAN
RISK MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT, COTTON
FCSTONE LLC
INTL FCStone Inc.
As a long-time runnerup to China’s cotton story, India is now taking center stage, at least as the world’s largest producer. India’s agriculture is critically dependent on the monsoon, and this...
BY GARY RAINES
COMMODITY NETWORK
CHIEF ECONOMIST, FIBERS AND TEXTILES
INTL FCStone Inc.
With cotton production increasingly concentrated in one province, Xin-jiang, and a generous subsidy now in place for pro- ducers of the fiber located there, the Chinese government finally has announced...
