Harvest

With harvest season less than a month away for some Georgia cotton farmers, knowing when to defoliate is an important decision all growers have to make, according to Mark Freeman, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension cotton agronomist. Before cotton can be harvested, the plant’s leaves must be removed through a process called defoliation, which helps speed up the plant’s maturity. ... Read More »

• By Bill Robertson • Another challenging season is starting to wind down. While our extended planting window resulted in a widely variable crop with regard to stage of development, Mother Nature usually has a way of narrowing the gap as we approach the finish line and this year is no exception. In Arkansas, our target date for harvest completion ... Read More »

The agricultural workforce is shrinking and some Clemson University researchers believe robots may help provide a means to protect America’s food and fiber industries. A group of them studying the use of robots in agriculture recently met with researchers from other universities and representatives from Clearpath Robotics to learn about programs and hardware that are available to equip robots to ... Read More »

Many of our cotton producers were glad to leave 2018 behind them as crop management was difficult through most of the year due to wet conditions after a dry early May. Even though the crop was one of the best ones produced in years, harvest time saw one of the most harsh periods in many decades with Hurricane Michael. The ... Read More »

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 »

While some farmers got a later start than usual, the above-average temperatures in May propelled the crop to one of our fastest starts. As we rolled into harvest, the frequent and often heavy rainfall caused delays and had negative effects on grades and yield. The National Agricultural Statistics Service October Crop Production report estimated production at 1.15 million bales, unchanged ... Read More »

• By Clint Thompson • What was an extremely promising Georgia cotton crop was devastated when Hurricane Michael ravaged south Georgia Oct. 10-11. According to Jared Whitaker, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension cotton agronomist, the prospects of 1,500 to 1,800 pounds of dryland cotton for some producers were reduced, resulting in 80 to 90 percent losses in some fields. “It’s much ... Read More »