Alabama Cotton Shorts
September 11, 2020
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September 11, 2020
Situation. In mid-August, USDA released its first yield estimates for U.S. crops. The numbers for Alabama cotton were:
- 470,000 acres planted; harvest expected from 465,000 acres
- Average production 981 lbs/A
- Total bale production 950,000 bales
The September report released 9/11 included slight downward adjustments in all three categories:
- 450,000 acres planted; harvest expected from 445,000 acres
- Average production 976 lbs/A
- Total bale production 905,000 bales
The last couple of weeks of August brought rainfall, persisting cloudiness, heavy dews, and high humidity, conditions ripe for boll rot and hardlock. Both have been readily evident, particularly in fields with good canopy develop... which includes most of the state because of favorable growing conditions during much of the season. Most fields need sunshine and good drying conditions, with only an occasional, intermittent shower.
The August tally of the Boll Weevil Eradication Program (BWEP) has 2020 cotton plantings in Alabama at 404,813 acres. See the regional distribution below. (Brown)
| 2020 August Reported Acres, BWEP |
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| Region |
Acres |
Percent |
| Central and East |
58,742 |
14.5% |
| Gulf Coast and Southwest |
62,039 |
15.3% |
| Sand Mountain and Northeast |
43,140 |
10.7% |
| Tennessee Valley |
97,782 |
24.2% |
| West |
34,067 |
8.4% |
| Wiregrass |
109,043 |
26.9% |
| TOTAL |
404,813 |
100.0% |
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Cotton Insect Report. Lately, the biggest question we are getting is how much longer do I need to spray my cotton? This is not always a cut and dry answer. Research from our colleagues in the mid-south suggests most insecticide applications can be terminated at cutout (NAWF5) + 300 to 400 DD60s. Calculating the number of DD60s, or heat units, gives us an idea of how mature the crop is. More information on DD60s and cotton growth and development can be found here. Typically, 850 DD60s are required to develop from flower to open boll. Another consideration is the last effective bloom date. This is the last day in which a white flower has a 50 percent chance to accumulate the necessary heat units to open prior to the historical first frost date.
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Cross section of a cotton boll showing the internal effects of stink bug feeding.
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Depending on your location in the state, 18 to 24 days are required to receive 300 to 400 DD60s, thus our general recommendation is to protect the latest bolls you expect to harvest until they are at least 3 weeks old. Keep in mind that we have reached the point in the season where fewer harvestable bolls are at risk from most insect pests, so we can relax our thresholds a bit. This allows us to maximize the return on investment from an insecticide application (i.e., the stink bug threshold moves to 50 percent internal injury at the 8th week of bloom). As always, don’t hesitate to give us a call if you have any questions.
Current recommended thresholds, insecticides and rates can be found in the Alabama Cotton IPM Guide. The cotton insect pest portion of the 2020 Cotton and Soybean Scouting School can be found on YouTube. (Graham and Smith)
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Harvest Aid Resources. We have several videos and a couple of publications that provide information on harvest aid use. There’s considerable overlap, and some are lengthy, so the duration of each presentation is included.
From Eddie McGriff’s series of cotton production videos, one on pre-defoliation decisions and the second on product options. A YouTube post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbslg08QyiY (6 min, 13 sec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6onlSXkZdE (11 min, 58 sec)
From the University of Florida, a Q/A presentation on harvest aid use at E.V. Smith Research, Shorter, AL. A YouTube post. https://youtu.be/_RNPaaWuFDI (31 min, 16 sec)
A portion of a presentation from the AU Cotton Scout School (forward 9 min, 35 seconds into the talk to bypass a discussion on PGRs). A YouTube post. https://youtu.be/49eya925JPs (20 min, 11 sec)
From Cotton Incorporated’s Cotton Cultivated page, July 28, 2020, “Preparing for Defoliation.”
http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/edcenter/seminars/Cotton/Defoliation/ (27 min, 47 sec)
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“August was cotton-growing weather, and the hotter the better. Cotton liked the blazing heat, chilled now and then by a short, sudden August shower. The fields blossomed like islands in the South Seas, white and red splotches on a glorious green and crimson – the white and red hibiscus-like cotton flowers on the green cotton plants that spread away in long curving rows across the silky vermilion of the fields. Nothing gave us more satisfaction than to watch cotton growing in August in the fields that we ourselves had plowed and planted. Jim said he was just as satisfied in a fine cotton patch as the angels were in glory.” from Red Hills and Cotton – An Upcountry Memory, by Ben Robertson, Univ South Carolina Press, 1940
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The reference above must have been to Gossypium barbadense, which is one of four species of cotton in the international textile trade and in that setting was known as Sea Island cotton. Today, Pima is the primary G. barbadense cotton grown in the U.S. and is produced in the arid regions of Arizona and California. Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) occupies essentially every acre east of these western states and comprises over 96 percent of the U.S. crop each year. (Brown)
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In the “Old Days”... Do you know the name Lambert Wilkes? When I was a grad student at Texas A&M in the mid-1980s, I met him at church and later realized his remarkable contribution to the cotton industry. Wilkes, an ag engineer at A&M, and J.K. (“Farmer”) Jones of Cotton Incorporated are credited with developing the cotton module builder in the early 1970s. The module builder REVOLUTIONIZED the cotton world. It replaced cotton wagons and trailers, provided a weather resistant means of field and gin yard storage and transport, eliminated long waits at the gin, and allowed an extended ginning season. Early uses sometimes included a metal pallet-like structure as a floor on which seed cotton was deposited. After the first years, the pallet was removed and as is common still today, seed cotton was simply dumped on the ground within the confines of the module builder.
Prior to the module builder, trailers were standard. They received seed cotton from harvesters and were the means of delivery to the gin. They involved considerable human effort IN and OUT. The IN required spreading, tramping, and stomping seed cotton into the trailer, while the OUT included moving about a large suction pipe to empty the wagon at the gin. A frequent road hazard, they were cumbersome to pull, prone to flat tires, and difficult to back up. (Brown)
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This issue contributors:
Dr. Scott Graham, Extension Entomologist
Dr. Ron Smith, Professor Emeritus, Extension Entomologist
Dr. Steve M. Brown, Extension Agronomist (Editor) typos and other mistakes are mine
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About the Alabama Cotton Shorts Newsletter
Alabama Cotton Shorts is a newsletter designed to keep cotton producers in the know. From planting dates to crop inputs—there are many factors to consider. The Alabama Cooperative Extension System is dedicated to providing science- and research-based information, derived from field experience and observations. A team of Extension specialists are working to provide Alabama farmers with timely information throughout the growing and harvest seasons.
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