Crop Scan Ag Report: Still Early, but Planters Starting to Roll
April 24, 2023 
Cotton planters are in the fields in parts of South Georgia, the lower Mid-South, and south and central Texas. It’s too wet and too cold in parts of the Cotton Belt right now (although South Georgia and West Texas need rain), so growers aren’t rushing to get in the fields. However, our contributing cotton consultants say it’s just a matter of timing now.
Here’s their report for late April.
Kerry Siders is Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent-IPM for Hockley, Cochran, and Lamb Counties.
For us on the High Plains of Texas, growing cotton is all about “earliness.” Our window of opportunity can get really narrow come fall when winter sets in early. This is why we push to get planted ASAP in the spring.
Then, on the other hand, we see quite often where cotton which was planted “early,” prior to May 15, can struggle and take a long time to grow-off properly compared to cotton which was planted when both soil and air temperature was consistently warmer. This cotton tends to take off growing and never looks back.
So, really, earliness – despite what may happen at the end of the season – must first be determined by what gives the cotton the best fighting chance at planting. We can get across a lot of acres much quicker than we did let’s say 10 years ago when the average planter was 8-row equipment. Starting early was somewhat dictated by how long it was going to take to get across all the acres and when do we need to be finished.
All these factors must be in the calculation: soil moisture, soil and air temperature, how much time needed to plant, last day for full insurance coverage – and, yes, making sure we have time to mature both lint and seed before Ole Man Winter sets back in.
Pray for rain.
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.
We are getting off to a slow start in Central Texas. Cooler temperatures and drier conditions caused many growers to wait on planting. It looks like it was a good decision.
The last two weeks have finally brought some much-needed moisture. In some cases, it was too much. The Brazos Bottom has received between 4-8 inches in the last two weeks. Some cotton was planted before the rains, and there will be some replanting on some of those fields. The Blacklands got in on the rain party this week with 2-3 inches, which really helped out our soil profile.
Growers are anxious to get in the fields as soon as possible now. With the rain comes weeds. Our burndown and pre-plant herbicides are starting to play out fast with warmer and wetter conditions. The need for control will be critical to keep the weeds down before they get too big.
Tucker Miller is a Mississippi-based independent private consultant for cotton, soybeans, corn, peanuts, rice, and vegetables.
As I write this on April 24, it is 47 degrees. Two days ago, my area received one to two inches of much-needed rainfall. We were finishing corn planting, and we’re wide open planting soybeans. We needed the rain, but not the cooler temperatures. Hopefully, the beans planted just before the rain will be okay.
We have not planted any cotton as of today. With the temperatures in the mid-40s, I’m glad we didn’t. If it dries up this week and temperatures are good, we will get started. We have a good many acres of cover crop this year that will go in cotton.
Cover crop ready for cotton planting. (Photo: Tucker Miller)
Our corn ranges from three collared leaves to just planted. Soybeans range from first trifoliate to still in the bag. Hopefully, it will warm up and we can get this cotton planting underway.
Hope everyone has a great year.
Chad Harrell owns and operates Harrell Agronomic Services in Northeastern North Carolina.
Most growers have finished planting corn and are off to a good start on soybeans this month. We are getting close to planting cotton, but we won’t see much April-planted cotton this year.
A cold front came through over the weekend, bringing us some much-needed rain and cool temperatures for most of this week. We are expected to warm up later this week along with more rain. Most growers will be waiting this week out to plant cotton as planting conditions and soil temperatures are less than ideal.
We could see some cotton planted at the end of this week if we miss the rain. but I think that most will get started the first week of May. It still looks like our cotton acres will be down about 20% this year – possibly more if we run into a narrow planting window.
Wes Briggs consults on cotton, corn, peanuts, soybeans, and small grains for growers in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.
We need some rain. It’s starting to get a little dry, and predictions give us a chance for rain on Wednesday and Thursday. It’s also been a little cool, but soil temperatures have been anywhere from 65 up to 68 degrees.
We got our first cotton planter going on irrigated acres this morning and hope to get a few more going later today. Some cotton planting has also started on dryland acres where we still have a little bit of moisture. Several growers also started planting peanuts last week, while others are waiting because conditions are still just a bit too cool.
Otherwise, we’ve been fertilizing corn and spraying weeds. All of our corn and most of our Group 4 soybeans have been planted. We won’t have many more beans planted until we get to some ultra-late beans after some corn has been harvested later this season.
We’re not in a big hurry for the rest of this week. Next week, we’ll definitely start more planters.
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