Drought

As members of the agricultural community, everyone works hard. You set lofty standards for yourselves because achieving goals is hardwired in your psyche. You consciously or unconsciously set the bar higher and higher and convince yourself if you try...

Weather went from extremely wet to extremely hot and dry across most of Texas, according to the Texas State Climatologist. Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon, College Station, said the weather turned from record-breaking rainfall in the spring to being among the driest...

• By Lindsey Thiessen • Cercospora leaf spot of cotton (Fig. 1), caused Cercospora gossypina (syn. Mycosphaerella gossypina), has been observed across North Carolina cotton growing regions. Foliar symptoms include reddish lesions that enlarge to have white to light brown...

• By Adam Hixson,  Lubbock, Texas • Weather is the most challenging obstacle that faces any farmer. Around planting time in any given year in the Texas South Plains, High Plains and Panhandle, about 4 million to 5 million acres of...

When Bon Jovi’s hit song “Livin’ on a Prayer” was released three decades ago, it quickly rose to the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 chart on Valentine’s Day 1987, according to Billboard. The lyrics particularly appeared to...

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...

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...

• 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...

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.

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...

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.

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.

For all practical purposes, the 2013 cotton has been harvested. There may be a few isolated fields that haven’t been harvested, but these would be on the heavier, wetter soils that are prone to flooding. More importantly, the modules have been taken to the gins. I haven’t seen a module truck on the road for at least three weeks.

Water, or the lack of it, obviously can have a serious impact on a cotton farmer’s bottom line. “If you don’t have water, you definitely will not maximize the yield potential of your chosen varieties,” says Dr. Ed Barnes,...

By Tommy Horton Editor No region of the Cotton Belt is immune to water issues affecting producers and their urban neighbors. From California to the Carolinas, the ongoing challenge is to find available water that can keep all parties happy. This is...