Oklahoma's 2010 cotton crop has been a good one, even in those areas where dry weather hurt the dryland crop, according to reports received this week from representative cotton gins.

Due to late rains in September, an already drought-stressed crop put on a growth spurt, slowing harvest until later in the fall. However, several Oklahoma gins are about to finish their ginning season. Near the I-40 Interstate crossing Oklahoma east to west and northern Oklahoma, cotton is still in fields and a few gins are in the early to middle part of their cotton processing.

Following is a report from the gins: Cotton Growers gin, Altus, Okla., reports 85,000 bales ginned so far and anticipates100, 000 bales by the end of the season.

Great Plains Cotton Cooperative gin at Blackwell, near the Kansas border, has ginned 1,679 bales to date, expects a 10,000 to 12,000-bale season and their ginning season is just beginning.

Farmers Cooperative Association Gin, at Butler, just north of I-40, has ginned 2,080 bales to date, and projecting a season of 2,800 bales, has nearly completed its season.

Farmers Cooperative gin, Carnegie, has ginned 15,800 bales to date, expects to gin 18,000 to 20,000 bales for the season.

Good yields

Tri-County Cooperative gin, Chattanooga, has ginned approximately 10,000 bales to date. "We still have 10,000 bales in modules here on the gin yard," Craig Bolton, gin manager, said. "With some cotton still being harvested, I believe we will gin nearly 25,000 bales this year."

Farmers Cooperative Gin in Eldorado has ginned 25,774 bales to date and is about 75 percent complete for the ginning season. They report yields averaging one-and-a-half bales of lint cotton per acre for dryland and three to four bales per acre of lint cotton for irrigated fields.

Tillman Producers Cooperative Gin in Frederick reports 22,000 bales ginned to date with the season 90 percent complete. Farmers there report harvesting one-and-a half-bale to the acre cotton in dryland fields.

Farmers Cooperative Gin Co. at Grandfield has ginned 5,000 bales to date according to JoAnn Rollins, manager; completing about 90 percent of its season.

Harmon County Cooperative Gin, Hollis, has ginned 14,660 bales to date and expects to wrap up the 2010 ginning season in "two to three days."

Humphreys Cooperative Gin, located in the Jackson County community of Humphreys, a few miles east of Altus, has ginned 35,348 bales to date. Receiving both dryland and irrigated cotton, they expect to gin 50,000 bales before the season ends.

Farmers Cooperative Gin at Martha, in Jackson County north of Altus, has ginned 23,000 bales to date and expects to complete the season soon. Lynn Scalf, gin manager, says his farmers have harvested dryland cotton yielding one-and-three quarters bale lint cotton. "Irrigated cotton is yielding three to four bales to the acre with more of it in the three bale range," he said.

"This has been a year where we changed our expectations of the crop several times," Scalf said. "Once or twice we thought the crop wouldn't do as well and just as many times we guessed the other way. Overall, it has been a really good season for our farmers. Yields are very good, the cotton has graded well and, of course, prices have been as good as we have ever seen them."

TALKIN' COTTON is produced by NTOK Cotton, a cotton industry partnership which promotes and encourages increased cotton production in the Rolling Plains of North Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. For more information on the cotton season, see ntokcotton.org. and okiecotton.org. For information and comments on Talkin' cotton, contact [email protected].