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First week of June unkind to young cotton plantsBy Shawn Wade Plains Cotton Growers, Inc. The end of the 2008 planting season has arrived on the heels of conditions more reminiscent of being trapped in a blast furnace than springtime in West Texas. The end result is High Plains cotton producers feeling the heat. To say it has been a tough week in the biggest cotton patch in the world would be understating the obvious. Conditions are difficult and the area will now attempt to shrug off the devastating blow a week of 100-plus air temperatures and 30 to 50 mile an hour winds have dealt the crop. Hardest hit have been dryland cotton fields in virtually every corner of the area. Irrigated cotton hasn't gone unscathed, as blowing sand from dryland corners or neighboring fields have also damaged tender, young plants. Many of the region's dryland fields were either in the process of being planted or had only recently emerged following a round of beneficial rainfall just before Memorial Day. Almost immediately after that weather system moved out, though, a much more harmful pattern began to take hold. Since that time, hot, dry winds have been a regular fixture and immediately forced producers to juggle planting, irrigation, sand fighting and, in some cases, replanting activities. Hot, dry winds and blowing sand are a significant threat to freshly planted fields and to crops that are already established. With current conditions, young plants are having a hard time staying alive. It is also fairly safe to assume that many fields have also been completely destroyed or significantly damaged as well. A good measure of how tough conditions have been is illustrated by the National Weather Service's Pan Evaporation rate data, which indicates evaporation rates have exceeded 1 inch per day several times in the past week. The combination of high temperatures and high winds are taking a toll on crops and robbing much needed moisture from the upper soil profile. With two-thirds of the area now past its federal crop insurance final planting date, it is highly unlikely that any of the acres lost or destroyed from this point forward will be in a position to even consider being replanted. Growers in the southern part of the High Plains will reach their final planting date on June 10 and conditions are as bad or worse there than they are west and southwest of Lubbock. Weather forecasts for the next week to 10 days project these conditions will persist and that is prompting many producers and their insurance providers to carefully evaluate stands and moisture conditions when weighing the practicality of replanting lost crops. 6/16/08 Date: 6/12/08
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