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Growers urged not to waste "great weather" opening bolls on Oklahoma's late-planted crop.

Shelley E. Huguley, Editor

October 7, 2019

3 Min Read
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Cotton planted in trials on Merlin and Lillian Schantzes' farm, Hydro, Okla. Shelley E. Huguley

While warm fall temperatures are maturing a late Oklahoma cotton crop, the state’s cotton specialist warns timing of harvest aid applications on the irrigated crop is going to be key.

“We don’t want to waste all this great weather and time opening bolls and then start trying to spray harvest aids when it’s cooler,” says Dr. Seth Byrd, Oklahoma State University cotton specialist. “Applications need to be timely this year because we’re on borrowed time as far as the weather goes.”

TARDY COTTON

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And thanks to the weather, one word Byrd says sums up the Oklahoma cotton crop this year is “late.”

“We were pretty delayed getting started. Most of Oklahoma was wet in the spring. And as you moved to the northern parts of the state, it got wetter and as you moved east, it was even worse. So, most of our cotton acres are going to be back in the traditional areas, west central to southwest Oklahoma.”

Despite the late start, Byrd said they’ve made up some ground. “We had a pretty favorable July and August. We could’ve had a little more rain for the dryland, but as far as heat units go, for the irrigated, it was an ideal situation as long as you had water.”

And though the irrigated crop has progressed, he says it’s still not where it needs to be this time of year. “We’re still making up heat units. The crop’s still progressing.”

HARVESTS AID APPLICATIONS

As growers begin to consider harvest aid applications, Byrd says, “We’ve really got a mixed bag of what we’re dealing with.”

See interview videos, Dr. Seth Byrd gives Okla. cotton update, talks harvest aids

The dryland cotton, especially in the southwest corner, is small and stressed. “The heat that helped with the irrigated crop, put stress on the dryland crop. And again, when you have irrigation, it’s great. When you don’t and it doesn’t rain and it’s hot, you get a stressed crop quickly.”

With much of the dryland crop ready to be sprayed and a large portion of it a lower yield potential, Byrd says he doesn’t expect many growers to invest much more money in their crop. “I think we’ll see a lot of straight boll opener, ethephon sprays, potentially in some places where you’ve got more crop open and you’re not trying to open bolls, and maybe some straight desiccants, a paraquat-type application.”

For dryland crops in Oklahoma’s southwest corner where most of the cotton is stripped, Byrd says either of those options would be viable applications.

PICK’N & STRIPP’N

While Oklahoma strips as much cotton as it picks, and the stripper varieties are more common in the dryland areas and the pickers in the irrigated, Byrd says leaf drop is going to be key for the picker varieties.

“Irrigated is where we usually make most of our money, and especially this year with the weather, so leaf drop is going to be key. With a plant that’s behind, we may go into that first application with way more green leaf on the plant than we’re used to. We usually get some natural senescence and those leaves fall off on their own. Only time will tell where we’re going to make that first shot, but I would focus on the leaf drop, particularly for picker harvest.”

For more information on harvest aids and plant-back restrictions and use rates for growers planting a small grain following cotton, whether it’s for a cover, a forage or for grain harvest, Byrd says they can visit: www.factsheets.okstate.edu

About the Author(s)

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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