Harvest Begins (Barely), As Cotton Conditions Hold Steady

By Jim.Robinson|September 16, 2013

As the 2013 cotton crop moves into the home stretch, harvest is now underway in scattered locations throughout four states, most notably Texas and Louisiana. In fact, the nation’s first bale of cotton was reported out of Harlingen, TX, and the winner of the annual Gaines County, TX “First Bale of Cotton” honor was announced last week.

For the second consecutive year, Rodriguez Brothers Farm of Harlingen produced the nation’s first bale of cotton with DP 0920 B2RF, a Deltapine variety that was planted on February 2 and harvested on June 17. The Rodriguezes have won the first bale contest five of the past eleven years, with their first win coming in 2002.

Seminole, TX grower Billy Letkeman, his wife Jessi and son Lincoln delivered Gaines County’s first bale for 2013 to the lobby of Seminole’s Commercial State Bank on September 12. The bale, which was machine harvested on September 11, was grown from an irrigated field of DP 1219 B2RF and was ginned at Seminole’s Ocho Gin. The bale weighed in at 520 pounds.

There’s no doubt that growers throughout the Cotton Belt are ready to put pickers in the field and get this season behind them. The good news is some growers are already in their fields. The less-than-good news however – based on the USDA Crop Conditions report for September 15 – is that most pickers will need to sit idle for a few more weeks.

Hot, open weather in the past week pushed the national average for open bolls to 36 percent across the Cotton Belt, with the highest percentages of open bolls reported in Arizona, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi.