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Cotton News

September 9, 2022

By December 29th, 2022No Comments

First High Plains Bale Harvested for 2022 Growing Season

From Left to Right: Mike Foster, Five Points Gin manager, Justina Enns, Corny Enns, Gaines County producer and Kurt Brown, Seminole Chamber of Commerce.

The first bale for 2022 was delivered to Five Points Gin in Gaines County Sept. 6, 2022, by Corny and Justina Enns.

Harvested northwest of Seminole, the Enns brought in 2,880 pounds of seed cotton produced from Deltapine 1646. 

“I wasn’t planning on competing for the first bale or anything,” said Corny Enns, farmer in Gaines County since 1987. 

As he was driving by one of his fields, Enns saw some bolls opening. “I decided to call down to Five Points and see if anyone had brought anything in yet. They said no so I sprayed about 15 acres and ended up stripping 12.” 

The first bale will be auctioned off by the pound at the annual Gaines County Ag & Oil Appreciation Day hosted by the Seminole Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, September 15. 

The seven gins in Gaines County each put in $1,000 for the first bale, so the grower is guaranteed $7,000 in prize money in addition to the money brought in from the auction.

“It’s been such a strange year, we weren’t sure anyone would try to make the first bale,” said Mike Foster, manager of Five Points Gin. “I’m proud for the Enns family who have been my customers since 2010.” 

Congratulations to Corny and Justina Enns!

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RSVP to Grand Opening of Lubbock Classing Office

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service Cotton & Tobacco Program will host a grand opening for the Lubbock Cotton Classification Complex September 14 starting at 10 a.m. 

Please RSVP for the event by emailing the Lubbock classing office.

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West Plains Crop Report

By Kerry Siders, IPM agent for Cochran, Hockley and Lamb Counties

Cotton ranges from just emerged dryland corners, which received these recent rains, to having 6 nodes above cracked boll. 

I have not seen any concerning insect pests this last week. I will be keeping an eye out for cotton aphids, which I am not finding, for the next few weeks.

 All irrigation is off as far as I know. Depending on what the weather holds over the next two weeks, I am not anticipating anyone turning water back on.

Just remember that a cotton boll can take moderate stress when it is 20 days old. Moderate stress is when the plant wilts in the heat of the day, but fully recovers after sundown. So, if we set the last harvestable boll around August 12th, that boll is 21 days old today. 

When bolls are 45 days old, the plant can go into permanent wilt and not impact the quantity or quality of the bolls. 

Therefore, we want to keep moisture available to the plant through approximately September 26. The cotton plant is still using nearly 0.2 inches of water per day for a few more days — it then steadily drops over the next three to four weeks. 

If you received a 2-inch rain during the last rain event, cotton will keep fresh for roughly 12 days. There was probably three to five days of moisture present in the soil from previous rain or irrigation. Odds are, between now and the 26th of this month, we could receive some additional moisture. Most likely we will be covered on our water needs for cotton.

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U.S. Crop Progress Report

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Crop Progress Report for the week ending September 4th reports boll set in 97% of the U.S. crop — slightly higher above the 5-year average.

Open bolls are now reported in 39% of the nation’s cotton acres — up 11 percentage points in the past week and seven points ahead of the 5-year average.

No significant changes in crop condition in the past week: 35% good/excellent, 34% fair and 31% poor/very poor. 

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