Rainfall hampers Coastal Bend cotton harvestRainfall hampers Coastal Bend cotton harvest

Coastal Texas cotton producers are hard at work bringing in the 2015 cotton harvest, fighting widespread rain showers that threaten to halt harvest operations and make field inaccessible.

By mid-week (Sept. 8) nearly 70 percent of cotton had been harvested in southern Nueces County and about 60 percent harvested in northern Kleberg County. Farmers in San Patricio and Aransas Counties reported they were about a week to 10 day behinds growers in the southern Coastal Bend.

With heavy rain in the forecast for most of the remainder of the month, harvest operations are at full swing with many contract harvesters working well into the evening as rain showers and scattered thunderstorms dropped their load surrounding fields being stripped.

Overall cotton yields are largely being compared to those of last year, however, fewer cotton acres were planted this year. Also, farmers say late planting because of heavy spring rains added to their troubles this year, but say hot weather provided adequate heat units to help crops catch up with normal harvest times.

In addition to cotton being harvested, late planted or replanted grain sorghum following spring floods were also being harvested this week.