Tag Archives: Cotton

Field Day Provides Crop, Research Updates

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Tifton, GA |

In Tifton recently, producers got an up close and personal look at the latest cotton and peanut research. It’s an event that’s an important one for producers as they get to see firsthand the important, grower funded work that’s being done that will keep the industry successful for years to come.

“We’re all in need of new information. Certainly in a trying times that we’ve got economically on the farm. We need to know the latest and the greatest, and of course, some of the stuff really won’t be available for commercial production for several years, but it’s good to have an idea of what our researchers are doing. The other side of it is it gives us a firsthand look at what our researchers are doing, the effort, the information and work that they’re putting in to get these improvements in our growing process and it just makes you feel good about how our research dollars are being spent,” says Joe Boddiford, Chairman of the Georgia Peanut Commission.

Of course, another important aspect of the event is getting to hear updates from experts on this year’s crop. This year was of course a rough one from the start as producers had a hard time even getting the crop planted, which according to UGA’s Scott Monfort, has now delayed most of this year’s peanut crop.

“Overall this year has progressed to be a pretty decent year. Every year, we have a lot of bumps and bruises to get to where we’re at today. We had a lot of rainfall in May that pushed our planting season back 2 to 3 weeks. So, a lot of our acres were planted last week of May going into June. Then we went from being extremely wet to extremely hot and dry in June. So, we fought some things to get this crop up and going,” says Extension Peanut Agronomist, Scott Montfort.

Since getting it up and going, producers have still had a challenging time, as the weather has caused a number of disease issues for peanut producers.

“Problem we face this year has been tomato spotted wilt virus. It will be a problem every single year, but growers need to look in their fields now. More spotted wilt than you want? What could you have done earlier to do it? Leaf spot diseases are always a problem for Georgia’s peanut farmers, always; but this year they’ve been a little bit slow to develop. I think that that warm, dry weather we had mid-season kind of was a restart button for this disease. Now growers are facing leaf spot diseases. They need to take an opportunity to manage them, but I think it’s been a little slow. The disease that’s been number one issue for us and certainly environmentally driven has been part of that has been white mold. White mold flourishes when we have warm, moist, humid nighttime temperatures. We’ve had that even when we’re not getting rain. If we have heat, if we have warm days, it can be,” says Bob Kemerait, Extension Plant Pathologist.

Monfort says that the rollercoaster of weather has continued to be a trend all throughout the growing season, as even now, dryland peanuts are suffering from the lack of rain. However, he says despite that, the crop could still turn out to be a decent one.

“The dryland crop is struggling. That’s around 49 percent of our crop is dryland. We had a lot more irrigated this time. And so that’s the one that I’m really concerned about as far as how is that going to fare out. I think it’s, it’s a good, maybe slightly above average crop,” says Monfort.

By: John Holcomb

Cotton Producers are Still Hopeful for Strong Yields

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Tifton, GA |

This growing season has certainly been a challenging one for cotton growers here in Georgia, as producers continue to get hit with one challenge after another, time and time again. However, according to Camp Hand, Extension Cotton Specialist, despite those difficulties, the crop still is turning out to be a great one.

“Up until now, the crop looks really good. It seems like we’ve been getting what we need in most places. That June spell might hit a little harder than other some of our earlier planted dry land, really in the middle part of the state probably suffered a little bit more from that dry June than other places, but the crop, I think is looking really good,” says Camp Hand, Extension Cotton Specialist.

Of course, a big concern is the effect of Hurricane Debby, however, according to Hand, though there were some direct losses, the crop faired the storm well as the bolls on the plants hadn’t opened just yet. However, his biggest concern is the fact that some producers are not able to get equipment back into their fields, which will hinder their ability to manage and possibly harvest their crop.

“I think there’s definitely some direct losses, but the thing that concerns me a little bit more are the indirect losses from delays being able to get in the field from, from dirt roads being washed out and stuff like that. We’re definitely going to be delayed getting back in the field. Also, it could take until harvest. The good news is that it wasn’t quite as bad as most people thought, but the bad news is we’re still in August and we got us a long way to go,” says Hand.

Another concern growers are dealing with are pests, specifically boll feeding ones such as stink bugs, that can do a lot of damage this time of year when the plant is most susceptible.

“Stinkbugs are the primary boll feeding bug, but we also need to be aware that there are other bug species that can do similar injury. One that’s kind of we’re seeing a little more frequently for this late in the season is tarnished plant bug and clouded plant bug, but they’ll also feed on these developing bolls. We have a dynamic threshold that when we’re in that third, fourth and fifth week of bloom and a lot of cotton is in that time frame where it’s most susceptible or most sensitive to yield loss from these boll feeding bugs,” says Phillip Roberts, Extension Entomologist.

Roberts says one other pest to be concerned about is the silver leaf white fly, as he says they do well in drought conditions growers here in Georgia saw earlier this summer and need to be dealt with in a timely manner.

“June was a very dry month, and silver leaf white fly really does well during dry conditions. Thankfully, we started receiving rainfall in July, but white fly numbers did kind of get a foot in the door. We do want to remind growers, when you see a few white flies in the field, they should influence every decision you make,” says Roberts.

By: John Holcomb

Significant Rainfall is Impacting Cotton Fields

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Tifton, GA |

This time of year, typically you can find cotton producers in their fields wrapping up the planting of their crop. However, this year, things have looked a little different, as unprecedented rainfall has delayed producers from getting their 2024 crop in the ground.

“We’ve kind of had wet Mays the last two years, which is a little abnormal for us. We’re used to May being one of our drier months and not being able to do a lot of dryland planting and stuff like that, but we’ve had these fronts come through consistently that are keeping us out of the field. So, we’re at the RDC pivot today; a lot of people know where that is here in Tifton, but we were able to get in here the first week of May and plant this, but if we had not done that, then we probably wouldn’t have been able to plant it until now,” says Extension Cotton Agronomist, Camp Hand.

As Hand stated, since that first week of May, producers have not been able to get into their fields to finish planting, as the amount of rain they’ve gotten is unlike anything they’ve seen, which, according to producer, Brian Ponder, just creates more challenges to deal with throughout the season.

“Typically, in our area after about the 25th of May our yields start to decline. So, normally we would like to be through around the 20th through the 25th, but in years past at that point that’s when we see a decline in yields. Now, it’s not every year because every year’s different, and we know the Lord can work things out. We may end up making the best crop we’ve ever made, but typically planting as late as we are, we’re kind of challenged to get the yields that we need,” says Brian Ponder, Owner of Pondagold Farms in Tifton.

According to Hand however, he believes the state as a whole is in a decent spot and says regardless of whether or not the crop is planted on time, a good crop is still possible.

“We’re about where we need to be, but, with that being said, we do have an insurance deadline coming up. Next week is the first week of June, so a lot of folks are worried about getting a crop in. The one thing I’ll say is we can still make really good cotton that’s planted in June. We can get it off to a good start, but we just got to be a little more careful with making sure we don’t delay that crop any and finding any issues associated it with that crop and fixing those,” says Hand.

For Ponder and others like however, the real concern is with the financial issues producers are facing, as he says inputs and other costs have increased, but the price of cotton isn’t much more today than it was four decades ago, which makes it difficult to just breakeven.

“Today we can sell cotton for seventy-six cents a pound. Forty years ago, we were probably seventy-three. We’re basically selling the crop for the same price as we did four decades ago. In that time when I started growing cotton, I was paying twenty-five dollars a bag for cotton seed, now I’m paying 650 dollars. A cotton picker that I started out with, we bought a used cotton picker in 1987, I paid twenty-five thousand dollars for it, and now a new picker today is a million dollars. So that’s the challenges that we’re facing,” says Ponder.

By: John Holcomb

Annual Meeting Prepares Growers for Upcoming Planting Season

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Tifton, GA |

Believe it or not, we are just a few months away from seed going into the ground for cotton growers around state. And with that in mind, many decided to attend to Georgia Cotton Commission Annual Meeting, to prepare themselves for the coming season.

“Whether it’s insects, diseases, varieties, you name it, there are people here, to visit with and learn from and learn from each other. These meetings like this, extension specialists like myself, this is where we really learn what the needs are across our great state,” says Phillip Roberts, Extension Entomologist with UGA.

While some pests like aphid and thrips are a yearly nuisance to these growers, there are always new ones to be on the lookout for when scouting your fields.

“One of the main topics we’re hitting at our local production meetings is tarnished plant bug. That’s a pest that’s really increased just in recent years. So, it’s still new to some of our growers. So, we need to make sure growers understand that they are potential pest and we just need to scout for them and if we have them, it needs to be addressed,” says Roberts.

Protecting the crop against diseases such as foliar leaf spot and boll rot are equally as important to maintaining yields. And the easiest way to do that is have a proactive approach.

“In my world of plant pathology and nematology, perhaps, the most important thing is to recognize that some of the most important things a grower can do happens before they can close the furrow, whether it’s fighting nematodes or fighting bacterial blight or fighting fusarium wilt or fighting seedling disease; they have to do it before the furrow’s closed. Your management options are very limited once you close the furrow,” says Bob Kemerait, Plant Pathologist with UGA.

This message is more important than ever this year with a lower commodity price being projected to go along with record high input costs.

“Margins are going to be tight and I think at the end of the day, it’s all about making every input pay. Entomology; it’s a little easier than some other things. We can scout and if we exceed threshold, yes, it is a good investment to protect that cotton from insects, but I think at the end of the day, it’s trying to reduce that cost of production per pound of lint. We can reduce input costs, but we have to maintain yields,” says Roberts.

And that’s the goal for everyone on the UGA Cotton Team, as they strive to meet all current and future challenges.

“We here, in University of Georgia extension, we pride ourselves on coming up with research based, nonbiased information. Cotton growers in Georgia are a robust group. They’ve been through storms before. Admittedly, this storm is kind of tough recognizing that cotton prices may not be where they want them to be, but they’re resilient and they recognize that a lot of the profit comes from investing in research and adopting research to improve production through profitability,” says Kemerait.

By: Damon Jones

Summer Storms Damage Southwest Georgia Cotton Crop

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Doerun, GA

Things can certainly happen in a blink of an eye, and cotton producers here in Southwest Georgia know that all too well after recent storms brought high winds, hail, pouring rains, and even tornadoes that hammered their crop. It’s something Camp Hand, Extension Cotton Agronomist with the University of Georgia, says is a bad situation as seedling cotton is a vulnerable crop, but believes there’s still hope.

“Cotton right now is anywhere from first bloom if you planted early to just coming out of the ground, so there’s a lot of variability in our crop and the impacts on the crop, kind of depend on what stage it’s in,” says Hand. “The field that we’re at today, it’s probably the second week of squaring, which is where I would imagine most of our crop is right now, and this field looks better than it did a few days ago. It’s starting to come out of it a little bit, the terminals were broken out of this cotton, which means it’s kind of got to divert resources back to vegetative growth to compensate for that loss, but that’s kind of the situation we’re in right now is waiting on sunshine.”

However, according to Hand, at this point, it’s just a waiting game, as they won’t know the full scope of the damage for a while.

“It’s hard to tell what the losses are going to be right now,” says Hand. “I will say that depending on the stage of crop could change things. Seedling cotton is a little more vulnerable to something like this and if the hail was a little bit worse in seedling cotton fields and you see some sticks or like it broke off everything and coddle leaves were gone, then that plant is dead, but these right here, you still see green leaves, it’s still, you know, photosynthesizing, still working, so this crop definitely has got a chance and a lot of potential, and of course, whether it’s seedling and stuff like that, it kind of changes what we think about what we need to do going forward, but right now, we’re just kind of in a tough spot.”

Tough spot indeed, as Hand says it’s too late to replant, and says that the only thing producers can really do is wait on sunshine and warmer weather.

“The thing about it is, if you’ve got seedling cotton that was killed pretty much, today is what, June twentieth I believe it is, so I wouldn’t replant today and you can’t, because it’s too wet. So either you’ve got to stick with what you’ve got, or we’ve got to change course, because it’s a little too late to replant cotton. In terms of trying to bring it out of this, what we really need is sunshine and ninety degree days and that’s not really in the forecast, but on a day like today, this is exactly what the crop needs. There’s nothing you can spray, nothing really you can do to kind of hasten the crop coming out of this,” says Hand.

By: John Holcomb

Annual Cotton Commission Meeting Updates Producers on Economic Outlook

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Tifton, GA

At the University of Georgia’s Tifton Conference Center, cotton producers, industry professionals, and experts recently gathered for their annual meeting – a time for producers to fellowship, get updates on the industry, and hear from experts before the 2023 season gets underway.

“It’s just an event to try and gather as many cotton producers from across the state as humanly possible in one place at one time to discuss what’s going on in the cotton industry for 2023 and beyond, as well as a time together to fellowship, meet with our extension specialists and extension agents to learn about new farming techniques and practices and technologies, as we make plans for 2023,” says Taylor Sills, Executive Director of the Georgia Cotton Commission. “We’re good at growing cotton here in Georgia, so they’re looking to find ways to pinch a penny without cutting a corner to continue to produce that sustainable, high quality crop as we move into the next year and beyond.”

Perhaps the most anticipated part of the meeting each year are the cotton production workshops where growers can hear from experts like Camp Hand, Extension Cotton Specialist with UGA, who spoke to producers about the upcoming year. Hand says growers need to be making the most of every dollar as input costs are still high and the price of cotton is down at least forty cents from where it was last year.

“Even though inputs were high, cotton prices were high,” says Hand. “Almost a year ago, the contract price of cotton was a dollar and thirty cents, which is really good. I mean it’s been a long time since it was over a dollar, but now we’re looking down the barrel of a situation where the contract price for December is about eighty-five, ninety cents maybe and input prices hadn’t gone down that much, and so margins are going to be a little thinner for our guys.”

According to Amanda Smith, a Senior Public Service Associate with UGA, one big concern for producers this year is the drastic increase in interest rates – an issue that Smith says could double interest expenses for producers.

“Last year, interest rates may have been around four, four and a half percent for some producers and this year, it may be between seven and nine percent, and so, their interest expense has increased significantly from last year, and so maybe they had interest expense of fifty thousand dollars on an operating note last year, this year, it could potentially be one hundred thousand dollars and that is dramatic thinking that they haven’t increased their operation size or their not farming more acres; it’s the same size of acres that they’re farming but a much bigger expense because of interest alone,” says Smith.

It’s because of that reason, Smith says growers, more importantly than ever before, need to know their cost of production for the year so they can make decisions that will best keep them financially sound.

“More important than ever is to know cost of production, and when producers know their cost of production, then they can have an idea of what their break-even price is, and so, if they know their break-even price and they can potentially market it above that break-even price, they know they’re covering their costs and gonna make some positive margin,” says Smith.

By: John Holcomb

New Spending Bill Protects Cotton and Dairy Producers

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TIFTON, GA – Almost everywhere you looked around South Georgia last year, there were acres and acres of peanuts, as farmers planted a record 1.9 million acres. A big reason for that was the absence of coverage in the 2014 Farm Bill for cotton growers. It’s a problem those farmers and the National Cotton Council have been fighting ever since.

 

Don Shurley, Extension Economist with the University of Georgia says, “we want cotton on the same, level playing field as with other commodities. Other commodities like corn, wheat, soybeans, have a safety net under the 2014 Farm Bill. Cotton did not.”

However, after years of hard work, the crop is finally being added into the Title 1 coverage as an oilseed, which means it is now eligible for Price Loss Coverage and Agriculture Risk Coverage under the current Farm Bill. While the kick-in price of 37 cents might seem low, it’s actually a fair price when considering the calculations.

“This seed cotton program has what’s called a reference price,” says Shurley, “and that reference price is 36.7 cents. Farmers kind of on the face of it will look at that and say ‘Dang, that’s a pretty low price.’ Well, you have to understand how it’s calculated. That 36.7 is a weighted average price of both cotton and cotton seed. Cotton might be selling for 70-80 cents per pound, but cotton seed might be selling for 8 or 9. So, when you take a weighted average of both of those, it pulls that average way down to that 36.7. So, that 36.7 is a weighted average between the price of cotton and the price of cotton seed. And when you consider that, it’s really not that low.”

As for the STAX program, which was created as an alternative to Title 1 coverage, it could soon be a thing of the past.

“If you convert what’s called generic base on a farm now to this seed cotton base, then you would no longer be eligible for STAX. So, effectively what that means is that come 2019, or next crop year, STAX will no longer exist,” says Shurley.

The cotton industry wasn’t the only ones to benefit from the new Spending Bill, as milk producers also receive assistance. The cutoff for Tier 1 of the Margin Protection Program has been raised by a million pounds and premiums being paid by small and medium sized farms have been waived or greatly reduced.

Levi Russell, Applied Economist with UGA says, “for the Tier 1 milk production, which is everything below 5 million pounds of milk, so for a smaller dairy that is going to produce less than 5 million pounds of milk, those are the premiums they would pay between five dollars, I mean 5.50 up to 8 dollars’ worth of coverage.”

And it’s not just the smaller dairies get some aid, as Tier 2 producers will also benefit from a change to monthly payments.

“It’s going to be more efficient in the sense that we’re going to have a monthly calculation of the payments,” says Russell. “So, instead of every two months, say you know, one month the milk prices are really low and the feed costs are very high, and then the next month, maybe things got a little better and things would sort of wash out the payment, now since it’s going to be on a monthly basis, that’s going to help producers across the board, not just the smaller end, the smaller dairies, but also larger dairies as well. It’s going to make it more efficient.”

By: Damon Jones