By Clint Thompson
Dry weather in Georgia in recent weeks has allowed the state’s cotton producers to make significant headway in harvesting this year’s crop.
According to the Crop Progress Report, released on Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistic Service, it was estimated that 47% of Georgia’s crop had been harvested, up from 33% the prior week.
It was also estimated that 99% of the cotton bolls were opened.
There is a little more than half of this year’s crop remaining to be harvested. Taylor Sills, executive director of the Georgia Cotton Commission, cautioned pedestrians and those driving on the roadways to be mindful of cotton harvesters being moved from one field to the other.
“This morning on my way down here (to the Sunbelt Ag Expo), I passed a convoy of peanut pickers. I was on a pretty narrow road. I got all the way off the road, and what those people have going on is way more important than what I’ve got going on,” Sills said.
“I know that’s the case for many of us civilians across the rural portion of our state. Give them a little space and give them a little grace as they go about trying to wrap up a hectic year in 2026.”