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Rainy spring has cotton growers facing tough economic choices
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP)--West Texas producer Don Langston got all his cotton planted late last month, in plenty of time to meet a crop insurance deadline. "Everything's been downhill since then," the South Plains grower said June 4, two days after hail wiped out several hundred acres of the crop. Several inches of rain in the last few days have left fields so sodden Langston and other producers in the region can't get back in to replant them before a June 10 insurance cutoff. An unusually wet spring has some growers in the nation's top cotton-producing state facing difficult economic choices. If hail has damaged planted fields and wet land precludes some producers from replanting before their county's deadline, they can still put in cotton for seven days past the cutoff but would get a 1 percent reduction per day on insurance coverage. Or they can plant another crop, as Langston plans to do with the milo he was out purchasing June 3. Another option is to replant after the cutoff date in late June to give fields a chance to dry out. Stacy Smith, who lost about 3,600 acres in Lynn County to pummeling hail over Memorial Day Weekend, said he can still get complete coverage. But there is a downside to this choice, he said. "A late cotton crop can be an economic risk," the 34-year-old producer said. "It just shortens our growing season to where it can significantly reduce yield. A bale to the acre doesn't quite cut it." A bale of cotton weighs 480 pounds; last year Texas averaged 679 pounds per acre. Not all of the cotton in the South Plains is planted, said Roger Haldenby, spokesman for the Plains cotton Growers, which serves a 41-county region. Texas has 72 percent of its cotton planted, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics released Monday. "What is not planted is going in quickly," he said. The insurance deadline for Lubbock County was June 5. Insurance coverage for West Texas cotton producers typically compensates them for damage from hail or lack of rain. But this year some of the claims might arise from too much rain. For this year through June 4, Lubbock has had 15.74 inches of rain. That's 9.87 inches above its normal of 5.87 inches. "It is very rare in West Texas that you cannot get a crop started because of too much rainfall," Smith said. "I would rather have this scenario rather than one that you can't get one started because it's too dry." Last year, drought conditions resulted in the loss of 2.2 million acres of dryland cotton that never grew. Even with the dearth of rain last year, the state produced its fourth-largest crop thanks to new seed varieties. The state record, 8.5 million bales, came in 2005. Then in 2006, a lack of rainfall gripped the whole state and caused the worst-ever single year loss in agriculture. Crop and livestock losses totaled $4.1 billion. "It's 180 degrees from last year," said Weldon Melton, who farms cotton near Plainview, about 45 miles north of Lubbock, and sells crop insurance. "It has not dried up and warmed up any. It's getting kind of frustrating." Date: 6/14/07
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