As the season progressed, hopes were renewed with scattered timely rains and plenty of heat units needed for cotton to develop in the Upper Gulf Coast, Morgan said.
“We got off to a rough start, but had a good looking crop in the Upper Gulf Coast before the rains set in in September,” he said.
“Now there’s been a month of off and on wet weather at the wrong time for the remaining cotton in the Upper Gulf Coast and irrigated cotton in the Blacklands.” Morgan said fields in cotton-producing areas in the lower two-thirds of the state have received continuous rains, and much of the Southeast and Coastal Bend is saturated, making accessing fields impossible.
Continuous rains are hurting fiber quality and seed quality in the field, and delays are causing problems such as cottonseed sprouting.
Morgan also said many producers in the rain-soaked parts of Texas had applied defoliant before rains set in, and the delays will mean spending more money on harvest aids to bring remaining cotton in.
In the Upper Gulf area, including Matagorda County, around 25-35% of the crop was still in fields, and 60-70% of fields in the Brazos Bottom were still awaiting harvest, he said.
Most dryland cotton in the Southern Plains and Rolling Plains was lost to drought, and producers were beginning to apply harvest aids to early maturing fields.
According to the September 30 USDA Crop Progress report, 25% of the Texas cotton crop had been harvested – 5% ahead of the five-year average, Morgan said.
Morgan said areas that needed to dry out in South and East Texas received additional rain this past weekend, which means continued delays and reduced fiber quality.
However, the cotton remaining in the fields in South and East Texas will likely see lower fiber quality than two years ago because of the extended exposure to weathering.