Yield and quality of the 2007 cotton crop in Kansas and northern Oklahoma could be the best yet, according to Dick Cooper, marketing specialist for the Plains Cotton Cooperative Association, Liberal, Kansas.

“We expect to harvest 55,000 acres of cotton in Kansas and northern Oklahoma this season, 15,000 irrigated and 40,000 dryland. Yields have the potential to be as good as we have ever had. We started the crop with less than ideal conditions due to excessive rain in the east and very cool temperatures in all areas through June and the first half of July,” Cooper says.

“The crop made rapid progress through late July and August with September being nearly perfect for finishing out the crop. We started applying harvest aids in the east in a few fields 10 days ago and the first harvesting was done in the Winfield, Kansas, area later in the week.

“Application of boll openers and defoliants will be widespread next week in all areas. Weather permitting, harvesters will be running in all areas in a couple of weeks. At this point, the quality of the crop should be the best we have had due to the introduction of a couple of new varieties planted this year on a large number of acres. Obviously, this will depend on getting the crop harvested without a major weather event.”

TALKIN’ COTTON is a feature of NTOK Cotton, a cotton industry partnership, which encourages increased cotton production in the Rolling Plains of North Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. For more information on the cotton scene, check out these websites, okiecotton.org. and ntokcotton.org. For comments or questions about Talkin’ Cotton, contact us at [email protected].