LUBBOCK, TX – Most of the Texas High Plains continue to deal with drought, and rows of dryland cotton are telling the story. Actually, the lack of visible rows of non-irrigated cotton explains that for many producers, the crop didn’t survive.
According to Plains Cotton Growers (PCG), abandonment of dryland acres is approaching 75 percent across their 42-county service area – which includes the largest contiguous cotton-growing region in the United States. In normal years, that abandonment rate hovers between 40 and 50 percent.
What does look good however is the irrigated crop and with long hot days over the past three weeks, the 2020 crop has been accumulating precious heating units, necessary for crop development. So for those irrigated fields, nothing could help more than a good wide-spread rain event.
A slow 2-inch soaking rain, for many locations, would allow producers to slow or stop irrigation for a few weeks resulting in a reduction of irrigation expenses.
(SOURCE: All Ag News)