By Clint Thompson
The Georgia Cotton Commission and Camp Hand, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension cotton agronomist, are advising the state’s cotton growers about harvests plans over the next couple of weeks amid increased rainfall. Hand cautions producers about trying to do work in a field that has been saturated with rain.
“I’m a fairly impatient person myself. I’ve been known to sink a tractor every now and then, but it’s not worth it,” Hand said. “I mean, just wait until you can safely get out there and do some stuff that’s not going to put you further behind. You don’t want to get out there and sink a picker and then do something bad to any of the heads, God forbid, or the machine itself. Doing something like that, sinking a picker, it creates problems the next year on the next crop.”
According to the UGA Weather Network, Tifton, Georgia received 3.87 inches of rainfall during the Oct. 2-4 timeframe. Waycross, Georgia, received 1.36 inches during that same timeframe, and Albany, Georgia, received 3.33 inches. Complicating matters is the potential for additional heavy rains next weekend.
“It’s slowing us down in terms of getting some stuff defoliated. Of course, anything that has been defoliated is not getting harvested this week and it might not until the middle of next week,” Hand said. “Anything that’s gotten defoliated is susceptible to some kind of loss from this, whether it’s quality or direct losses. Then it just puts us behind. That’s kind of the biggest concern is it just putting us behind.”
Hand also cautioned producers against defoliating cotton this week.
“I mean, middle of next week, maybe like Oct. 15, maybe we can start back once the sun comes out. You really need sunshine for these things to work, for these defoliants to work,” Hand said. “Temperature’s a big part of it, but sunshine just helps it so much.”