Crop Scan Ag Report: Getting Preliminaries Out of the Way
April 3, 2023 
Depending on your geography, field work for multiple crops is either underway or ready to start in earnest. And that has our contributing cotton consultants already in the field working through conditions that are too wet, too dry, and everywhere in between. Here’s their report for early April.
Chad Harrell owns and operates Harrell Agronomic Services in Northeastern North Carolina.
It’s finally coming together, and we are beginning to get busy here. The rain last week kept us out of the fields for a few days. Most growers are finishing up with burndown and applying fertilizer. A few are still trying to finish up with lime that has again become difficult to get.
We will start planting corn and soybeans this week if the warm weather holds out. We’re another 3-4 weeks out for cotton planting. It still looks like cotton acres will be down this year by about 20% or possibly more if we run into a short planting window.
Wes Briggs consults on cotton, corn, peanuts, soybeans, and small grains for growers in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.
Right now, there’s not a whole lot going on in South Georgia. Not much has changed in the past few weeks.
The good news is we didn’t have to replant any field corn or sweet corn after the frost. Corn got burned, but it didn’t get cold enough to kill it.
We started putting out some burndown for pigweed management, but nothing has really changed on our cotton acres. A few more acres of corn have gone in, but not enough to make a lot of difference in the cotton acres. We’re still going to be relatively close to what we expected.
April 15 would be the earliest start date for cotton planting for us, and everything seems to be on schedule unless the weather gets bad. We’re wet right now with more rain coming. We don’t need any more.
We’re also going to start planting some Group 4 soybeans around that same time. We’re seeing a little bit more interest in them than we have in the past. But it’s not going to be enough to make a dent in cotton acres.
Tucker Miller is a Mississippi-based independent private consultant for cotton, soybeans, corn, peanuts, rice, and vegetables.
In my area, we are about halfway through corn planting corn, and we should have a few acres emerging this week. The terrible storms in Central Mississippi were just south of us.
We also just started planting soybeans on some small dryland fields, but not much acreage at all yet. It is wet now, but we hope to finish corn and go to beans next week.
All of our cotton ground has been burned down and is looking pretty good. Cotton planting is usually the last week of April through May 10, if weather permits.
Mark Nemec is an independent agricultural consultant for cotton, wheat, grain sorghum and corn in the Blacklands and Brazos River Bottom area of Central Texas.
Central Texas is getting ready to plant cotton soon. We are watching the weather closely, hoping for some rain to help bring our moisture up as we are still behind from last year.
A few growers started planting in the Brazos Bottoms last week (Mar. 27-31), and Blacklands farmers are getting ready to go. The next two weeks look to be very busy if it stays warm and we can take advantage of the planting moisture we do have.
On your mark, get set…
Kerry Siders is Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent-IPM for Hockley, Cochran, and Lamb Counties.
Producers here on the Plains of Texas have a majority of acres prepared to a point where it will keep the soil from blowing. Many acres have a winter cover crop mostly intact, a few others have left the previous crop residue alone, while others have implemented some form of tillage to roughen the surface sufficiently to limit erosion. Plan A has mostly consisted of keeping the soil from blowing this winter and early spring.
Next, we have been praying hard for the moisture which is coming. We understand that La Nina has run its course and that El Nino is supposed to be strengthening. We are like Doubting Thomas though: we will believe it when we see it. Not that we don’t have faith but must be pragmatic in our implementation of plans.
Some acres have been fertilized – mostly wheat ground which has some promise of making grain. Very few cotton acres have had fertilizer or herbicides applied. Winter weeds have been very sporadic and have not required much attention yet. Historically, we would be seeing pre-irrigation going out. Very little of this, if any.
Initially, I was hearing plans for mostly all acres being planted to cotton; not hearing that today. I think more wheat, which is normally just cover and then terminated, will be taken to grain, then fallowed. Good research supports this plan. I am hearing more interest in other crops depending on price and moisture as we move through the next 30-45 days – even a bit more interest in peanuts, which was not the case last year. But it all hinges on rainfall, again, over the next 30-45 days.
So, as is par for our neck of the woods, plans A, B, and possibly C are ready to implement as conditions change.
Also, an item which most growers are good about but need a reminder of is making sure they have a crop consultant lined up. There is no better investment than having a crop consultant on the payroll to help make those critical calls. If a producer here on the Texas High Plains needs help with this, I would refer them to the High Plains Association of Crop Consultants. Contact me for more information. Godspeed.
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