2024 Cotton Crop Update

ALABAMA | Scott H. Graham

I would like to start by congratulating Dr. Steve Brown on his retirement on June 28, 2024. Steve has been a wonderful mentor and friend to me since I started as Extension cotton entomologist at Auburn in April of 2020. In the interim time between cotton agronomists (or specialists), I have been asked to provide updates on the Alabama cotton crop.

Overall, Alabama has “two” cotton crops. Around half of our crop was planted before about May 15, and a large portion of the rest was planted after May 25. Extended drought statewide seemingly slowed growth as little moisture was present to help cotton grow. Plant bugs heavily infested early planted fields for multiple weeks in the central and northern portions of Alabama. Timely applications preserved square retention and, depending on weather the rest of the season, yield potential should be high. 

As we move into August, I would like to remind everyone that, while cotton has a “predictable” growth pattern, it is often a “reactive” crop. In other words, we cannot effectively manage a cotton crop without walking fields and monitoring both plant growth and insects and reacting when necessary. August is “bug month” in Alabama. Many fields will have immature plant bugs, and most will have stink bugs. Maintaining a good canopy size is important for several reasons, but insect controls is certainly one. Scout fields for plant bugs and sample quarter-sized bolls for stink bug injury. Be prepared to make timely “reactions” (insecticide applications) as necessary.

Follow along our “Tales of Cotton Insects” on the Alabama Insects Blog (https://alabama-insects.blogspot.com/) for up-to-date information and recommendations for insect controls. If I can ever be of any help, please don’t hesitate to reach out and let me know. scottg@auburn.edu

GEORGIA | Camp Hand

At the time you all are reading this, our crop will firmly be blooming, with most at peak bloom, meaning final touches on plant growth regulator applications and stinkbug management are the main things going on in Georgia.

The 2024 growing season has been up and down thus far in Georgia. We were very wet in May, very dry in June and have started catching some rains again in July. Much of this crop has turned a corner and has started looking like cotton should. I tend to be more of an optimist, but I think we have a lot of potential in this crop, and I hope we can make the most of it.

As we are nearing the finish line on this crop, I would remind growers to be mindful of their inputs as we are closing this one out. Continue scouting and protect the crop according to thresholds, but let’s not overspend where it isn’t necessary.

We were so glad to see everyone at the Georgia Cotton Commission Mid-Year Meeting in Statesboro, and I hope to see everyone at the field days coming up in August and September. Below are the dates:

⋅ Attapulgus Research and Education Center Field Day – Attapulgus, GA – Aug. 1

⋅ Southeast Research and Education Center Field Day – Midville, GA – Aug. 7

⋅ Southwest Research and Education Center Field Day – Plains, GA – Aug. 15

⋅ Cotton and Peanut Research Field Day – Tifton, GA – Sept. 4

As always, if you ever have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your local University of Georgia county Extension agent. They, along with your UGA specialists, are here to help! camphand@uga.edu

MISSISSIPPI | Brian Pieralisi

Currently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has Mississippi cotton acreage projected a little higher than previous estimates at 520,00 acres. The crop looks good, but it still has a long way to go before we can estimate yield potential. As I write this on July 2, plant bugs have been relatively light, but I am quite certain that numbers will steadily rise as the crop enters peak bloom in a couple of weeks. Most growers are applying their last POST herbicide applications, and there has been a lot of interest in pulling out the old traditional layby rigs.

Basically, we are transitioning into management of insects, plant growth regulators and water (where applicable). As we move into full bloom, fruit retention and reducing overall plant stress will help set a boll load capable of producing a high-yielding crop. Weather and environmental conditions from mid-July to late August will dictate how successful the 2024 cotton crop is in Mississippi. bkp4@msstate.edu

NORTH CAROLINA | Keith Edmisten

As I am writing this in early July, we have just received some rain that has at least temporarily brought most growers out of drought stress for a while. That moisture will not last long. The predictions I am seeing for the two weeks after the Fourth are pretty good chances of thunderstorm showers. If that holds true, we will likely have a mixed bag for the crop across the state with some cotton still showing the effects of drought.

Drought-stressed cotton will likely have less fruiting branches than cotton that has been less stressed. We would like to see at least 10 fruiting nodes on our cotton before the cotton cuts out. We need to be careful and not over-apply mepiquat as that can reduce the number of fruiting nodes.

The early drought will be similar to a late crop in that we are trying to get fruiting nodes on the plant as quickly as possible. We need to be careful and protect the fruit we do make and not let plant bugs and other insects reduce the number of fruiting sites. Squares made by the middle of August should give us plenty of time to have a good chance to mature. keith_edmisten@ncsu.edu

TEXAS | Ben McKnight

As I write this in early July, open cotton bolls are becoming more prevalent in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the Coastal Bend with some fields in the Lower Rio Grande Valley nearing 50% open boll. Tropical Storm Alberto brought rain to these regions in late June and later-planted cotton benefited greatly from the much-needed precipitation as conditions were beginning to dry quickly in the hot conditions. By the time you are reading this in August, harvest preparations will be well underway in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and Coastal Bend for those that haven’t already begun to harvest the crop.

Conditions in the Upper Gulf Coast vary depending on early and mid-season weather conditions. Some areas required a replant, and the growth stage of cotton in this region ranges from squaring to peak bloom. Many of the early planted dryland fields have good yield potential and some growers are estimating a 2 to 2.5 bale per acre yield currently.

Many fields in the Blackland Prairie never dried enough to get planting equipment into the field, and acres will be down compared to previous years in this region. The growth stage of cotton in the Blacklands also varies considerably, and early July is still too early to gauge yield potential for fields in this area. June rains in the Rolling Plains improved conditions, but with hot, dry weather recently, some areas within the region have become abnormally dry again. A few more decent rainfall events in the Rolling Plains would greatly benefit the dryland crop as the growing season progresses. bmcknight@tamu.edu

TEXAS | Ken Legé

It seems the entire cotton world was waiting on the June 30 USDA acreage report to see if the planted acreage was substantially different from the prospective plantings report from a few months ago.  In particular, there was much interest in Texas’s acreage, and even more interest in the West Texas crop. Compared to 2023, growers in Texas planted 15% more in 2024, and much of that increase was from West Texas.

The panhandle area (Amarillo northward) was able to plant substantially more acres than the disastrous 2023 season, when many acres were not able to be planted, and much of what was planted was ultimately abandoned. Similarly, timely rains in the Southern High Plains from Tulia, Texas, southward to the Big Spring, Texas, area allowed growers to plant more acres, the majority of which are dryland.

Continued showers have sustained the crop thus far as of this writing (July 3, 2024). It goes without saying that continued rainfall is needed on all West Texas acres, regardless of irrigated or dryland, to keep abandonment at a minimum. Growers, as well as all the associated infrastructure like gins, equipment dealers, gin manufacturers and suppliers, all need a good year to bounce back from the tough conditions of 2022 and 2023.

Heat units are 15%-20% ahead of the long-term average, but that has been the “normal” situation for the past few years. I’ve been tracking heat units at Lubbock for 11 years now, and it has been above the long-term average (since 1911) for that entire period. It is, indeed, warmer than it was in the past, regardless of the cause. Is it climate change, or are we on a warming trend that will reverse at some point? Only time will tell. Regardless, we have had to adjust our production practices to compensate for that increase in temperature. Similarly, our water situation continues to slowly deteriorate as the levels of the Ogallala Aquifer, so growers have had to adjust their irrigation schedules and yield goals accordingly.

That said, our 2024 crop is in better shape than it has been in at least three years, and perhaps in the last five years in some locations. Good growers, good stand establishment and timely rainfalls can take most of the credit.

With timely rainfall comes weed flushes, but growers in West Texas have generally done a great job staying ahead of the weeds. There has been an increase in the use of yellow and white herbicides this year, and the rainfall has helped the activity of those tools. Related to the rainfall also is the vegetation in ditch banks and field edges that have supported populations of grasshoppers and fleahoppers. We saw more cover crops used than in previous, drier years, and that has certainly contributed to the increased populations of those insects.

As of this writing, grasshoppers have been mostly controlled either on field edges or even by spraying the surrounding vegetation, and fleahoppers have been confined to the surrounding vegetation. However, by the time this article is published, I’m quite sure some treatments will have been made in cotton fields.

Plant growth regulator questions have come in as well, and we have seen more need to control growth and encourage earliness. If we continue to receive timely rainfall, we will need to continue to monitor fields for PGR use well into bloom. Not a bad problem to have in West Texas! ken.lege@ag.tamu.edu