Many area farmers have told me they grew cotton previously in 1994 or 1995.

I looked back on price charts and see cotton was $1.10 per pound in the spring of 1995, so it is not tough to figure out that was the year many of these farmers jumped in. However, area farmers did not stick with the crop as prices were in the low 0.70s in 1996.

Check current cotton futures prices

Even if they were farming in 1995, things have changed a lot in the cotton world since then. Many of our younger farmers were still in high school in 1995. Therefore, when several thousand acres of cotton were planted in our area this year, I like to say it was by new cotton growers.

I have highlighted examples from many area farm fields this season. One of those is this cotton field where a first time cotton grower dealt with the complexities of producing cotton that I wrote about on many posts this summer; weed control, leaching nutrients, stinkbugs, defoliation, etc.

Please join along as I ride with another Columbia County farmer custom harvesting a field with the latest technology to bring in a good cotton crop. I hope all of our new cotton growers have a safe harvest and good yields.

See the video here.

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