hurricanes

• By Mary Hightower • Arkansas’ cotton crop got off to a slow, cool and wet start, endured a pandemic and the remains of two hurricanes, hinted at record yields and inexplicably ended the season with prices hitting a high note. “By May 18, only 47% of the crop had been planted,” Scott Stiles, extension economist for the University of ... Read More »

With limited irrigation water in many areas and some difficult early and midseason problems with lygus in parts of the San Joaquin Valley, we have a wide range of yields across fields this year. Under limited water situations and generally warm, dry weather this fall, many growers are seeing good to very good performance of harvest aid chemicals. Preparations for ... Read More »

Mississippi has a good-looking cotton crop in most places, but acreage is down to 520,000 acres because of a rainy planting season and unfavorable market conditions. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Aug. 31 estimated 65% of the state’s crop to be in good or excellent condition. The rest is considered fair, with just 8% in poor condition. State growers ... Read More »

In the past six months during the coronavirus pandemic, the resilience of the human spirit has been tested beyond what many have ever experienced. The question that looms, whether spoken or unspoken, is “Will we make it through?” Sadly, some didn’t, but many have. I, for one, am optimistic about our future. In general, the agriculture sector has physically fared ... Read More »

Beginning in April, the National Cotton Council will be encouraging this nation’s cotton producers to enroll in the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol. Why is full participation important? More than 200 U.S. cotton producers enrolled in the NCC’s Trust Protocol pilot phase, but greater involvement is necessary to assure the global textile supply chain — including consumers — that U.S. cotton ... Read More »

As we embark on the 2020 cotton-growing season, there are a lot of wild cards out there. Of course, weather is a given. And the next two in line are the United States-China Phase I implementation and the coronavirus outbreak that began in China and has spread virtually across the globe. In the 2020 World Cotton Outlook article on page ... Read More »

Because we live in such a fast-moving world these days, bombarded by hysterical Chicken Little cries that “the sky is falling,” it’s often difficult to maintain a positive perspective. I believe the antidote is to slow down for a minute and consider the power of faith, hope and confidence. You may have seen examples of these ideas as part of ... Read More »