In West Texas, Growers Plant and Pray for Rain
May 31, 2011 By Richard Porter
Plainview Daily Herald
By way of the Plains Cotton Growers
With the planting deadline for cotton just around the corner, area growers are getting their seed in the ground and praying for rain.
Hale County producer Weldon Melton said the drought hasn’t changed many farmers’ minds this spring about their planting plans.
“Most people are just staying with their regular program,” Melton said, adding that about 95 percent of the irrigated cotton around Plainview has been planted.
Depending on where the field is, the planting deadline for cotton on the High Plains ranges from May 31 in the northern Panhandle to mid-June south of Lubbock.
In Hale County, the deadline is June 5, Weldon said.
Mary Jane Buerkle with Lubbock-based Plains Cotton Growers confirmed that throughout the region growers are getting their seed planted.
In a recent PCG newsletter, Buerkle explained that producers have decided to “forge ahead” despite the lack of rain this winter and spring.
Melton said that even producers with water are struggling to keep up with the lack of rainfall – Plainview has received only 1.55 inches of moisture so far this year, according to records at the Herald. He said that even though farmers pre-watered, many had to water again to just get the crop started.
“It’s a challenge with that irrigated stuff to get it up,” Melton said.
In particular, he said, growers with drip irrigation are needing a rain to get their crop started. With the continued hot dry winds, they are struggling to get moisture into the top of the soil profile.
“It’s just an issue of the wind and the hot, dry weather sucking it out,” he said of the top of the profile.
According to forecast, the forecast calls for a 20 percent chance of rain today and again Tuesday. Besides that slight chance, it will be hot and windy for the next several days.
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