The look and texture of an open boll of cotton exposed to a late-season rain resembles an orange peel. For Sikeston, Mo., farmer Jeff Hux, back-to-back rains from Hurricanes Francine and Helene came at the exact wrong time in relation to harvest. 

“We kind of got a double whammy here,” Hux said. “We lost yield because of that rain, and you can see that even though this field's actually not too bad for yield, the grade will be hurt too.” 

Although every cotton grower’s dream harvest would be to turn in perfectly colored, never-rained-on cotton, the reality is almost never perfection. The price for those small imperfections in yield and quality also cause problems in processing. 

“When you get a big rain on open cotton and it loses all that oil, then it becomes coarser and brittle, almost like you put starch on it,” Hux said. “It makes the whole ginning process more expensive, and it's not as efficient, and that's another reason for the lower grade.”   

Missouri’s Bootheel region in the southeastern part of the state is typically sheltered from the tropical weather that jeopardizes southern cotton harvests. Today, even in the presence of less than stellar weather, advances in cotton breeding lend a hand to save yield and grade for farmers. 

Related:Cotton: An inescapable passion for Jeff Hux

“We've got 9 or 10 inches of rain on our crop here in the last couple of weeks before harvest, and I can go walk around field to field to field and can't find any cotton on the ground,” said Barry Bean of Bean & Bean Cotton brokerage in Peach Orchard, Mo. “20 or 30 years ago if we took a 3 or 4 inch rain after another 3 or 4 inch rain, we'd be seeing cotton that had fallen down on the ground, and it would take color a whole lot more than it does now.” 

The challenges for Missouri producers aren’t over yet. As harvest drags on, potential for a freeze increases, and with that potential comes frozen, ruined cotton. 

“I have seen cotton freeze before after water has gotten in and it's the most god-awful smell you can imagine,” Hux said. “We will be harvesting up to and potentially beyond our last frost date, so the hope is that the bolls will have time to dry out before cold weather hits.” 

Damage to the upper canopy on cotton plants on Jeff Hux’s farm near Sikeston, Mo. (Photo by Raney Rapp)