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Texas Panhandle, South Plains cotton a mixed bag

Producers give crop updates at this week's Plains Cotton Grower Board of Directors meeting. Some areas are in desperate need of rain, while others never planted and others are weeks behind or progressing well.

Shelley E. Huguley, Editor

July 20, 2023

15 Slides
Producers discuss the state of the cotton crop in their region at the July Plains Cotton Growers, Inc., Board of Directors meeting, Lubbock, Texas.Shelley E. Huguley

As attendees introduced themselves at the Plains Cotton Growers, Inc., Board of Directors meeting, the need for rain and a late freeze were common hopes expressed among the directors, producers and the agricultural industry in attendance.

Cotton production reports ranged from "extremely late" to never planted to "pretty darn fabulous." Benny Teichroeb, Suncot Gin, Seminole, said they "need a rain today." Take a look through this gallery to learn more about conditions in the various regions.

About the Author

Shelley E. Huguley

Editor, Southwest Farm Press

Shelley Huguley has been involved in agriculture for the last 25 years. She began her career in agricultural communications at the Texas Forest Service West Texas Nursery in Lubbock, where she developed and produced the Windbreak Quarterly, a newspaper about windbreak trees and their benefit to wildlife, production agriculture and livestock operations. While with the Forest Service she also served as an information officer and team leader on fires during the 1998 fire season and later produced the Firebrands newsletter that was distributed quarterly throughout Texas to Volunteer Fire Departments. Her most personal involvement in agriculture also came in 1998, when she married the love of her life and cotton farmer Preston Huguley of Olton, Texas. As a farmwife, she knows first-hand the ups and downs of farming, the endless decisions made each season based on “if” it rains, “if” the drought continues, “if” the market holds. She is the bookkeeper for their family farming operation and cherishes moments on the farm such as taking harvest meals to the field or starting a sprinkler in the summer with the whole family lending a hand. Shelley has also freelanced for agricultural companies such as Olton CO-OP Gin, producing the newsletter Cotton Connections while also designing marketing materials to promote the gin. She has published articles in agricultural publications such as Southwest Farm Press while also volunteering her marketing and writing skills to non-profit organizations such as Refuge Services, an equine-assisted therapy group in Lubbock. She and her husband reside in Olton with their three children Breely, Brennon and HalleeKate.

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