The Nov. 13-14 freeze came at a good time for South Plains cotton, which was running about 10 days to two weeks behind normal because of cooler weather, late plantings and a wet conditions in early fall.

The average time for the first hard freeze in the area is around the end of October or the first of November, said Mark Kelley, AgriLife Extension cotton specialist, Lubbock. This year, the cotton was running about 10 days to two weeks behind because of cooler than normal days, late plantings and a wet early fall.

“It was time for it,” he said. “We had a lot of crops that we were having a difficult time getting killed because the moisture we received earlier in the fall. This freeze shut everything down, terminated the crop, and hopefully opened up some bolls that weren’t open yet.”

Kelley said from field examinations he did after the freeze, he found bolls cracking and he expected by the time conditions dried down after the light snow the area received along with the freeze, harvesting was likely to start “hot and heavy.”

The bit of moisture from the snow shouldn’t affect quality either, he said. Approximately 5 to 10 percent of the region’s crop was harvested before the freeze. Read more on Southern Plains cotton. http://today.agrilife.org/2014/11/18/texas-crop-weather-179/