Cotton Harvest Now in Full Swing

Cotton harvest is in full swing throughout Northwest Florida. With the dry weather and warm temperatures to help mature late set bolls, over half of the crop is now out of the field.

In Santa Rosa County, picking was delayed on most farms as growers finished up harvesting their peanuts that got off to a late start due to the spring floods. Early yield reports have been surprisingly good for the most part, despite the summer drought in many areas. Preliminary data from several test plots in the area are showing higher yields for the early maturing varieties. This is opposite of what we see in most years, with more full season varieties usually leading the tests under our normal rainfall patterns. The drier weather allowed early varieties to set more of a bottom crop that we normally loose. Overall, we also had less target spot that reduced yields the past several years.

Much credit should go to the cotton breeders and seed companies. I think a major reason for the good yields we are seeing is the improved genetics in all of our cotton varieties resulting in increased tolerance to pests and weather extremes.