Drought

In looking back at the 2018 season, a multitude of adjectives come to mind that describe the weather and field conditions. Wet, hot, dry, windy, sunny, muddy — they ran the gamut this year. Some areas fared well, while others did not. In Specialists Speaking, the state cotton specialists did a good job of recapping what they saw in their ... Read More »

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension agronomists talk about this year’s RACE trials. • By Kay Ledbetter •  Much like producers’ fields across the High Plains, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service cotton trials are seeing a significant difference in performance this year between dryland and irrigated trials. “While cotton can tolerate hot and dry conditions better than many crops, this year’s drought ... Read More »

• By Carroll Smith, Editor • Twitter is known for the limited number of characters allowed for messages. However, the social media platform’s required brevity was no hurdle for West Texas cotton farmer Shawn Holladay this spring. As he posted tweets from the field in southeastern Dawson County, there wasn’t a whole lot to talk about that required an abundance of ... Read More »

This is my 34th year as an agricultural consultant on the Texas High Plains. As I look back over those years, I am amazed at the advancements that have taken place. The way producers farmed 34 years ago is certainly different from today. However, one thing that hasn't changed over all these years is that water is a yield-limiting factor, and there is no substitute for water. Read More »

In a cascade of notices, the California Water Resources Control Board told junior water rights holders in the state’s major watersheds recently to immediately stop diverting water. The board says extreme drought leaves the watersheds without enough water to serve all water-rights holders. Cutoff notices went to about 2,700 junior water-rights holders in the Sacramento River watershed and northern delta; ... Read More »

The NCC Planting Intentions Survey shows less than a one percent increase in acreage for Missouri. Based on past reports, this may or may not happen with a lot depending on the weather. In the past, I have noticed that the Missouri intentions are usually overestimated. Read More »

Remember back in December when I was talking about some remarkable cotton crops produced last year in the Mid-South, Southeast and Southwest – even though weather conditions were less than ideal in those regions? Well, we stumbled onto one of those success stories in an area north of Lubbock, Texas, near Hale Center. Read More »