Specialists Speaking

San Joaquin Valley growers are again in the unfortunate position of having to deal with the after-effects of below-normal rainfall and a reduced snowpack. We already know of many planned reductions in irrigation district water allocations that may impact cotton management choices for this year. Many if not most SJV cotton fields have been planted during a warm weather window ... Read More »

As of mid-March, the earliest planted cotton in the Lower Rio Grande Valley has been out of the ground for a couple of weeks. Planting in the Coastal Bend region has been wide open the past few weeks, and cotton has started to emerge there, also. Some early plantings have already occurred in areas of the Upper Gulf Coast, but ... Read More »

As of mid-February, many of the cotton producing regions of Texas have not seen adequate relief from dry conditions. They persist in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Coastal Bend and parts of the Blacklands. Hopefully, some relief is headed to these areas by early March as we get closer to planting. As I write this on Feb. 12, much of ... Read More »

I hope 2021 started out right for you. Here in the Texas High Plains, we have finally been blessed with some moisture, even if in the form of snow. The first half of January brought anywhere from 4 to 9 inches to much of West Texas. After melting, that may not amount to much, but we are certainly grateful for ... Read More »

We met in a conference center lobby at Jekyll Island. I didn’t know him or what he did. It was his first day on the job. I was there to recap the season for growers at a Farm Bureau policy convention. I later realized, he, as president of a large seed company, was there to take a tongue lashing about ... Read More »

There was promise for a great cotton crop in Florida this year until late in the season after the weather had been good for the rest of the growing season. As cotton began opening, several tropical storms and hurricanes delayed both peanut and cotton harvest with peanuts being harvested first as is normal. Peanut harvest was delayed two to three ... Read More »

So far, 2020 is the year that keeps on giving. We can’t seem to catch a break, and most folks are ready to get this year behind us. Despite all the challenges we’ve faced, we have a substantial top crop — albeit late maturing — that has developed since early August. We were all hoping for fall weather similar to ... Read More »