South Mississippi cotton crop turning out quite well

Mike Howell, Extension Area Agronomist in south Mississippi, says that the crop in that part of the state is turning out "surprisingly well," considering that part of it was written off halfway through the summer due to severe drought.

"We've picked some tremendous dryland yields in places, with some fields actually pushing a 4-bale/acre average," Powell said today. "We started catching up on rain in July and for the rest of the season got rain when we needed it. We lost the early crop, but then the plants more than compensated for that."

Unfortunately, rain over the last month has delayed some harvest progress. Also, growers who also raise peanuts have been pushing to dig and combine that crop before turning much to cotton picking. Howell said he knew of a couple of growers who had not started cotton harvest yet.

"Overall, there's still a lot of cotton in southern Mississippi fields," he said. "It's stringing but somehow hanging on."