By Clint Thompson
Two straight weekends of heavy rainfall across parts of Georgia has impacted the state’s cotton crop.
Camp Hand, University of Georgia Extension cotton agronomist, and the Georgia Cotton Commission (GCC) advise growers that the increased moisture will negatively impact the quality of most of Georgia’s cotton crop.
“Just the last two weeks have been kind of hard on the quality of our crop more than anything. I sent something to our agents this morning and we just need to be aware that this weather the last two weeks is going to have an impact on us,” Hand said. “We don’t need to forget that because I mean, we’re going to start getting phone calls from growers and stuff like that about why our grades are off and why, we’re seeing lower color grades and more trash and stuff like that. It’s just because of everything we’ve gone through in the last two weeks.”
Hand estimated that about 80% of the crop was susceptible to the rains, capped by Hurricane Isaias when it moved through the Southeast last weekend. There was a considerable lack of sunshine during the week prior to Isaias, which compounded problems following the first rainy weekend.
“You’ve got to remember, not this past weekend, but the weekend before, I mean, everywhere in Georgia just about got at least two inches, but it went up to seven. And then you’ve got the overcast weather associated with that,” Hand said. “And then the sun didn’t really come out much until this storm blew through. I mean, by and large, Saturday or Sunday was the first sunlight that we saw in about 10 days.”
Hand believes most growers will resume harvesting the crop later this week.