2024 Cotton Harvest Update

ALABAMA | Scott H. Graham

In the August edition of Specialists Speaking, I mentioned that July was good to the crop. Unfortunately, that trend did not continue. August was not kind. Scattered rains seemed to hit towns and cities and missed most cotton fields. As I write this Sept. 4, some April-planted cotton has been defoliated and will be picked soon. Overall, the crop is ahead of schedule compared to the five-year average. This is, no doubt, due to the extreme heat and dry weather we experienced over the past month.

One thing that makes working cotton in Alabama fun is the geographical distribution in which it is planted. This year, cotton was planted in 59 of 67 counties. The difficulty in that is that each region has its own unique insect, weed, disease, etc. issues. Making statewide generalities can be difficult. However, this year, August drought reached nearly every corner of the state.

Overall, early planted (late April through early May) cotton has the best yield potential. Cotton that was at mid-bloom when July rains hit were able to fill out bolls and make a crop in just four or five weeks. Mid-to-late-May-planted cotton was not as lucky. At this point, we are hoping forecasted rains in the coming days will provide enough to help fill out some upper bolls in the later-planted crop.

As we get into October, the late-planted cotton will be (or will soon be) defoliated. The Mid-South Cotton Defoliation Guide is an excellent resource for options and expectations based on your situation. With the current price of cotton, we will need to open and defoliate this crop as economically as possible. That doesn’t mean that we should “cut back and try to get by.” Much like the most expensive insecticide is one that doesn’t work, a poor defoliation result will cost more in the long run by adding another trip across the field. Let’s do our best to get it done right the first time.

We are hoping everyone has a SAFE and bountiful harvest! If I can ever be of any help, please don’t hesitate to reach out and let me know. scottg@auburn.edu

ARKANSAS | Zachary Treadway

As I write this the day after Labor Day, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with this cotton crop that has ridden a roller coaster of a growing season weather wise. When I started at the University of Arkansas on May 20, we were coming out of an extremely wet pattern that caused some producers in Southern Arkansas to abandon cotton planting altogether. That was followed by a period of extreme heat and very little rain. Independence Day brought some relief in temperature and some much-needed precipitation to some. Another hot, dry pattern set in, which has just come to an end with the departure of August.

The morning air is starting to carry a little chill, and I suspect that air will also soon carry the familiar perfume of defoliant. Arkansas producers are on the cusp of defoliation, and I expect sprayers to be rolling in the next couple of weeks applying the first shot. The Aug. 12, U.S. Department of Agriculture report had Arkansas at 640,000 acres of cotton, which was down from the 670,000 acres reported in the June acreage report. This is still up 130,000 acres from last year’s crop. The majority of the 2024 crop is categorized as good to excellent, and hopes are high for a successful harvest.

I have always heard it said that cotton defoliation is a mixture of art and science, and there is no “one-size-fits-all” program. Defoliation programs should be tailored to fit the situation to achieve the optimal result. The Mid-South Cotton Defoliation Guide is a great tool for producers to use as a reference when developing defoliation programs. The 2024 version is out and can be found with a quick internet search or by reaching out to myself or any cotton specialist in the Mid-South. This wraps up my first entry in the Specialists Speaking section, and I am honored to be included with such a distinguished group of scientists. I look forward to continuing to do my part supplying cotton producers with useful, pertinent information. If there is ever anything I can do, please reach out. ztreadway@uada.edu

GEORGIA | Camp Hand

Generally speaking, the month of October is when cotton harvest normally gets going good in Georgia. By the first week in October, we are normally around 10% harvested, and at the end of October, we are normally close to 50%. In normal years, growers in the southern part of the state start with peanuts in September then move to cotton in October. However, this is not a normal year.

This time of year, myself and Dr. Scott Monfort, the University of Georgia’s peanut agronomist, do a few pre-harvest updates for county agents and growers, and it is rare we are on the same page. Normally, both of us are saying the same thing: “Be timely with harvest to get the best crop you can.” However, this year certainly has been different. Cotton has matured quickly, and the peanut crop is behind if it was planted in May, meaning there is a window where we could defoliate and pick some cotton before inverting peanuts. I would encourage growers in that position to be timely with defoliation and harvest so we can get this crop out and begin preparations for next season.

I stay in contact with our county Extension agents with respect to strategies related to defoliation including rates and other thoughts surrounding the forecasted weather, so if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to your local UGA county Extension agent.

We had a good field day season and, as we approach winter, are beginning to plan winter meetings. We are looking forward to getting back out on the road and seeing everyone.

If you have questions about these topics or anything else, feel free to reach out to myself, other members of the UGA cotton team or your local county Extension agent. We are here to help! camphand@uga.edu

LOUISIANA | Shelly Kerns

With roughly 144,885 planted acres, the cotton crop continues to finish up here in Louisiana. Recent hot weather has been beneficial for cotton development, and we are seeing a lot of growers begin their first round of defoliations.

Heavy rains delayed planting for many growers in Louisiana, and they were not able to plant their cotton until early to mid-June. For later-planted cotton, we are still in the blooming phase and approaching cut-out in most fields. Although some are close to being harvest ready, there have not been any reports of harvest yet.

Thinking about harvest, we are seeing a lot of lodged cotton that may interfere with picking. Last month, prolonged cloudy weather led to a large fruit shed event in the lower canopy of many cotton plants. The plants that are lodging are often loaded with fruit in the upper canopy. We received rains in Northeast Louisiana last week, leading to heavier plants, which likely contributed to the lodging. We are set to receive more rain this week, which is interfering with a lot of defoliant application plans.

If we get cooler weather after this rain event, growers may want to evaluate how the efficacy of their chosen defoliants perform in cooler conditions. The hope is that we have a period of dry/ warm weather after all this rain to finish up some of the later-planted cotton, apply our defoliants and start to get this crop out of the field. skerns@agcenter.lsu.edu

MISSISSIPPI | Brian Pieralisi

I am writing this Aug. 29, and Mississippi is on the brink of cotton harvest but not yet in full swing. A few acres have received one defoliation shot with many acres on the docket for the first week of September. Approximately 75%-80% of our crop was planted before mid-May and is considered relatively early. To that point, harvest will be in full swing by mid-September with hope of a dry fall. It has been dry for summer, and rainfall would be of little help to the crops, but it might help to reduce the number of burn bans.

Drought-stressed cotton will impact defoliation of non-irrigated cotton acres. Leathery, speckled leaves can be difficult to remove if they do not drop by themselves. I have been recommending a super low rate of tribufos + thidiazuron (2 ounces-3 ounces) + ethephon (~24 ounces), and it’s done a pretty good job.

With about 50% of our cotton acres irrigated, current environmental conditions should favor a clean, relatively straightforward defoliation. In a two-pass program during these conditions, the same TDZ rate + ethephon followed by either/or TDZ + PPO + ethephon should do the trick. At this point, you can only speculate about the second shot because it’s contingent on how the first application worked and environmental conditions at the application timing.

All we can do now is prepare and wait until we get harvest in full swing. It won’t be long! Good luck. bkp4@msstate.edu

MISSOURI | Bradley Wilson

It is about time for cotton to be removed from the field and to find out what we have produced in 2024. As of Sept. 4, early planted cotton acres in Missouri are beginning to be defoliated.

Some of the planted acres in late May and early June will likely be defoliated in late September and early October. However, most of the cotton acres will be defoliated in the first two weeks of September.

Based on growing conditions in 2024, I believe we will see cotton lint yields be average or slightly above average. We won’t really know what we have in yield until pickers start entering fields, and I hope our yields are higher than I have forecasted here. brwilson@missouri.edu

NORTH CAROLINA | Keith Edmisten

Cotton has begun to open as I write this in early September, and some of the earlier planted cotton is as much as 20% open. Most of the cotton in the state is somewhere between a week early to normal in terms of maturity.

We need to keep a close eye on the maturity of the crop as the fruit set after the June drought is fairly compact and may mature quickly if the weather allows. Using nodes above cracked and cutting bolls to look at seed maturity, we need to make sure we are defoliating in a timely manner. Our research has shown that we are better off defoliating in mid-October when we still have temperatures and active plants for boll openers and defoliants to work well. When we delay defoliation into November, it can end up in situations where it is difficult to open bolls.

We have a pretty good crop overall, especially considering how dry June was. I hate to even mention it, but we need to keep our eyes on tropical storms and not defoliate fields that cannot be harvested before a tropical storm. keith_edmisten@ncsu.edu

TENNESSEE | Tyson Raper

This season has been a rollercoaster. As I write this on the fourth of September, we are beginning to defoliate our earliest crop. A front that moved through over Labor Day weekend brought the first rain many had seen since July. As a result, our earliest-planted acres quickly moved to physiological cutout, and our late-planted acres were hit with drought during one of the worst possible timeframes.

I’ve mentioned this before, but boll counts are not a great way to predict yield, and the 2024 season will prove this point. Boll counts appear to be just below normal in dryland acres, but our boll size is not what it has been in recent years.

As you read this on the first of October, many are likely looking at their latest-planted acres and deciding how late is too late to start defoliating. Generally, we need to begin defoliation and boll opening during the first week of October. Pushing much deeper into October risks freezing mature bolls to harvest small, immature bolls that will likely not gain much in maturity from another handful of heat units anyway. traper@utk.edu

TEXAS | Ben McKnight

As I write this in early September, the cotton harvest in the Lower Rio Grande Valley has been wrapped up for some time. This region went from a prolonged dry stretch to several rainfall events in July, in many cases leading to seed sprouting in open cotton. Yields were mostly below average for the region, and a conservative estimate for abandonment at this point in time is approximately 40%.   

Cotton harvesting in the Coastal Bend wrapped up for the 2024 growing season in late August, and yields were a little better than anticipated after a lengthy stretch of hot, dry weather mid-season. Much of the cotton acreage in the Coastal Bend was planted earlier than usual in late February, and these early planted fields were too far along to capitalize on good rainfall amounts beginning in late June and spanning through July. The majority of fields in the Coastal Bend region produced 650 pound to 1,000 pound per-acre yields, and fiber quality so far appears to be good for the region based on reports from the Corpus Christi classing office.

Recent rainfall in the Upper Gulf Coast has slowed down the progression of the cotton harvest in the Upper Gulf Coast. Early planted fields that were harvested prior to the rainfall beginning were producing good yields, and early yield reports ranged from 800 pounds to 1,200 pounds per acre. The long-range weather forecast has a drier span of weather ahead for the next few weeks into September, and harvesting should resume as fields dry out.

Harvesting has begun in the Blackland Prairie, and early yield reports are leaning in the direction of above-average yields for the region this year. Many of the early reports range from 650 pounds to 1,000 pounds per acre, and a few fields are yielding above 1,200 pounds per acre. Based on the look of the cotton crop in the Blacklands, anticipated yield of most fields appears to remain within this range as harvesting continues into the month of September. bmcknight@tamu.edu

TEXAS | Ken Legé

Our harvest season typically begins around mid-October and, hopefully, wraps up by Thanksgiving; although, it has been known to linger into December or even January, depending on weather conditions. As of this writing (early September), we have not even applied any harvest aids, so I have no information on harvest updates from West Texas yet.

Our season has been somewhat of a roller coaster ride with good planting rains and fairly frequent rainfall throughout June and July for most areas. Then the rain abruptly stopped, and the continuous triple-digit heat began for most of August. What looked like a great crop in the latter part of July quickly deteriorated under evaporative demand that exceeded a half-inch per day for many days during awful August. Fruit shed and wilting was very common for most fields, even those that had good irrigation capacity. Harvest aid effectiveness could potentially be complicated by the thick cuticles on the leaves as a result of the heat and drought in August as well.

Seed counts per lock have been adversely affected by the August weather, and I expect boll size will be reduced as a result. In general, the later (late May/early June) planted fields will be more adversely affected by the August weather than the earlier (early May) planted fields. Earlier-planted fields generally bloomed throughout the more mild, wetter period in July; those bolls are larger, and I would expect those fields to have good staple length.

The later-planted fields, which comprise the majority of the High Plains acres, began blooming about the time the heat and drought showed up, so those fields are likely to have reduced boll size, shorter staple length and, of course, reduced yield potential. Micronaire is difficult to predict for both the earlier- and later-planted crops and will be more likely affected by September and early October weather conditions, primarily temperature.

Since most of the acres in the High Plains are dryland fields that were later planted, I expect crop insurance adjusters will be evaluating fields in late September. It is very difficult to determine how much of the dryland crop will go to harvest versus being adjusted at this date. On one hand, growers do not want to be forced to harvest crops with little yield potential; on the other hand, after two tough years, the industry needs cotton flowing through gins that have had to endure low volume. That said, about 5% of the dryland crop in the High Plains looks very good.

Not all is gloom and doom, fortunately. Most of the region (generally Plainview southward) received substantial rainfall over Labor Day weekend that fell slow and steady. In fact, some areas received several inches. That has made irrigation termination decisions easier for most growers. However, it will likely complicate the dryland crop with some regrowth potential now that it has moisture.

As we harvest the RACE trials across the southern High Plains, look for yield and quality updates on my Facebook page. ken.lege@ag.tamu.edu