Crop Scan AgReport – Harvest On Our Minds
September 28, 2020 
From the field level for late September and early October: In our final Crop Scan AgReport for 2020, cotton inputs are behind us as all regions are ready for defoliation and harvest. Wet weather across the Southeast is raising concerns about finishing the crop out as needed, with probable yield and quality drops likely. Rain has also slowed progress in the Mid-South and Central Texas, but harvest is ready to get busy quickly. Many thanks to our participating consultants for their insight and expertise.
Chad Harrell owns and operates Harrell Agronomic Services in Northeastern North Carolina. The NC State graduate is a member of the North Carolina Agricultural Consultants Association and serves on the board of the North Carolina Cotton Producers Association.
“Cotton is late this year. We are just beginning to defoliate the earlier cotton. The drought stressed cotton seems to be the furthest behind. It set a much needed top crop in August, which is now starting to look less promising as we are running out of time. We just haven’t had the heat units that we needed over the past couple weeks.
“There also is a fair amount of hard lock in fields due to the cloudy weather and moisture that we had last week. We are expecting a couple inches of rain over the next few days, which may add to this problem.
“I am expecting defoliation to really pick up next week while we still have favorable temperatures.”
Wes Briggs is an independent consultant that has worked with growers in Georgia, Alabama and Florida for more than 30 years. The Mississippi State University graduate covers about 10 counties in the tri-state area. He and his scouting team check primarily cotton, corn, peanuts, soybeans and some small grains. His services include weed, disease and insect management, along with fertility recommendations and variable rate soil sampling.
“My area consists of about six counties in South GA, Jackson County FL, and Houston County AL with almost 95% irrigated row crops. Leading up to this year, we had Hurricane Michael in October 2018 resulting in 100% loss of cotton crop. In 2019, we were still recovering, rebuilding, fixing stuff, and had whitefly pressure late. Our early planted cotton yielded fair, but late season yields fell off tremendously, resulting in average yields at best.
“And now, what a year 2020 has been so far. Planting, weed/insect control, fertilization, and every other aspect thus far has been challenging and very expensive. As of Sept. 28, less than 25% of our peanuts have been harvested and less than 10% of cotton has been defoliated. The last 30 days have been very wet, and we badly need sunny, dry weather in the Southeast.
“Up until Aug. 10, we were dry, and the crop was made strictly from irrigation. So, if you didn’t have irrigation, then basically you had little to no crop in my area. Prior to Aug. 10, we estimated irrigated crops to be above average, with a lot of three bale cotton, but since then it has gone from hot and dry to rain, rain, and more rain. We are now at 18+ inches of rain on most all farms since Aug. 10 – enough for an entire year in some areas.
“I’ve checked cotton for 35 years, and 2020 will be one of the worst boll rot/hard lock years I can remember. It has not stopped raining, and no sunshine equals no open fluffy cotton. Early planted cotton will be off 500 to 700 lbs/A due to hard lock. And now with saturated soils, our late cotton is experiencing excessive fruit shed in top which puts it back into the 1,000 to 1,100 pounds category.
“I hate estimating yields, especially when it was looking so good in August. I now rate our cotton crop to be 70% poor, 30% good, 0% excellent. Quality will be off, with basically all lint containing sprouted seed.
“I witnessed the devastation in 2018 from Michael and pray we never experience that ever again. But the last 35 to 40 days have been a disaster from continuous rain. It’s only late September, so storms may not be done yet. We are basically done with inputs on cotton and are just waiting for clear weather to begin defoliation.”
Tucker Miller is a Mississippi-based independent private consultant for cotton, soybeans, corn, peanuts, rice and vegetables. He earned a BS in Agronomy and MS in Pest Management from Mississippi State University and is a member and past president of the Mississippi Agricultural Consultants Association.
“Most of our cotton has received the first shot of defoliant. Our early planted cotton has received a second shot and has been picked. We got 2 to 5 inches of rain last week but were lucky to get most of the cotton picked that was ready. We will be going out with our second shot of defoliant this weekend (Sept. 26-27). We also have some acreage that will get its first shot this next week.
“We have been using combinations of Dropp, Prep and Folex. Our second shots have been with ET and Prep. These combinations have worked well thus far. We are expecting cooler weather this coming week and will tweak our rates to finish up.
“We just need some good weather to get this crop out. I still believe we have a good crop. Our yields on the first we picked were good – in the 1,300 to 1,400 lb/A range. We also got our BG III varieties picked and are hopeful to find a couple that will yield comparable to our standards.
“It has been a crazy year, but I have confidence we will make it through. I am looking forward to more blue skies and white cotton.”
Mark Nemec is a Texas independent agricultural consultant who covers the Blacklands and Brazos River Bottom area of Central Texas. He primarily checks cotton, wheat, grain sorghum and corn, as he has for the last 26 years.
“After almost four weeks of rainy cloudy weather, there is a big orange ball in the sky on Sept. 25. Some cotton has been harvested in spots that have missed some showers. A lot of fields have had to get some more defoliant to try and take off the regrowth to have it ready when the ground will hold up the pickers.
“Amazing though, not a lot of cotton has fallen out. The few fields that were picked only lost a little weight. We haven’t gotten any grades back from the gin yet, but turnout has dropped some.
“With a good forecast for cooler and dry weather for the next week or so, pickers are getting serviced up and checked over and getting ready for a restart. It may look like a NASCAR race when it does dry up. Gentlemen start your engines!”
Kerry Siders is Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent-IPM for Hockley, Cochran and Lamb Counties. A Texas Tech graduate, he has been with Texas AgriLife Extension since 1990, providing education and applied research for weeds, insects, diseases, nematodes, growth regulators and harvest aids in cotton. He is a member of the High Plains Association of Crop Consultants.
“Harvest is very near here on the Texas South Plains. We are just getting started applying harvest aids. The cold snap a few weeks ago did us no favors. But for some, it did condition the cotton such that it opened the canopy up for better sunlight penetration and now harvest aid application penetration.
“We are seeing good competitive pricing on ethephon products, so producers will be applying ethephon at a 32-42 oz rate, possibly more. The defoliant products all generally work well here. I remind producers to pay attention to what the manufacturers recommend as adjuvants with these products, particularly the PPO’s (Aim, ETX, Display, Sharpen). To deviate can cause poor performance. Also, some defoliants can be temperature sensitive. As it cools, some of the defoliants such as Ginstar may require a bump in rate.
“That leaves us with the desiccants, which are primarily paraquat products. Again, I remind producers that paraquat is activated by sunlight. If it is applied early in the day, it will generally result in a rapid burn of the plant tissue and result in typical desiccation (sticking of leaves). Applied later in the day, the paraquat will move deeper in the plant tissue (local systemic movement). This can result in both desiccation and additional defoliation.
“Have a safe harvest.”
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