Talked to cousin around Danevang and they just started picking. Last year it was ruined by tons of rain and sprouting cotton. Seems it may happen again. Has only picked 50 of 1200 acres

They were baling most of it around Bishop when I was down there 3 weeks ago

Maybe around Danevang but I spoke to a cotton farmer down in the Valley and all his crop is already off the ground.

I saw tons of it already baled between Palacious and El Campo on 31 last weekend, so hopefully most people already have it in.

I was gonna say cotton is already being picked (and a few bales even ginned already) all the way up here in the Brazos valley so your cousins sound like they are behind everyone else. Most of our customers are already done in the field. Crop insurance wont cover all of it, but it will help so at least be glad for that....

Wharton county has roughly 80% of the cotton acres in the field according to the insurance guys.

Crop is so good harvest is moving a snails pace.

You have to account that there is record numbers of acres.

Time to go long on cotton futures.

tx4guns said:

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Time to go long on cotton futures.

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You're late to the party, already up 3 cents a pound on Dec since last Thursday. Careful speculating though, west Texas is where the crop is made or lost (perception wise), so could be in for a big correction after this passes through, we've seen it before.

We've got a customer with 12,000 acres around Edna/El Campo area and they think they'll get all but about 2,000 acres. It'll make you sick because they are averaging 2.5+ bales/acre and have good prices locked in >$0.70.

Back home in the Valley, most guys are done, but there are a few that still have cotton in the field. Farmers in the Valley had some problems with the JD 7760's this year, I think my dad said 2 or 3 went down because the engine threw a rod or suffered other catastrophic failure.

Lots of rain in the Texas Panhandle. I've never seen an August without a day in the triple digits.

I have some dry land cotton that looks irrigated. Just hope we can get it to "finish".

Was just thinking that. all day all night if they aren't already

beefiedoubleoh said:

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Was just thinking that. all day all night if they aren't already

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Very difficult to pick damp cotton. Dew will cause even the most motivated farmer to stop.

Cousin is picking like crazy near Woodsboro, and already has the truck ready to get late tonight/early tomorrow.

My cousin around Sinton/Taft finished up a week ago and said best cotton crop he's had in a long time. Timed it just right for once.

My uncle outside of El Campo had 300 acres left as of this morning to pick. It's been hard farming for him the last few years and he said this years crop was looking to put him back over the top after worrying if he'd be able to possibly keep farming if the ****ty times continued. Sad but glad he's gotten most of it.

Talked to a customer near Robstown this afternoon. He said they are 95%done in that area. He said they are now worried about all the module rolls still in the field. If they get the rain that is being talked about they are worried those rolls are going to soak up the water like a sponge and be ruined. He said guys are almost thinking it would be better if the cotton was still on the plant At least it would be insured still. All the cotton that is harvested and still in the field seems to be the real problem.

I grew up in a farming town, but definitely not a farmer, so forgive me if my question is stupid. How is a roll being in the field any different than it sitting at the gin's holding yard? Is the implication that it's now not good enough to get dry weather for a long enough period to harvest, but now dry weather is needed all the way through the gin processing it and getting it on the truck?

YellAg2004 said:

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I grew up in a farming town, but definitely not a farmer, so forgive me if my question is stupid. How is a roll being in the field any different than it sitting at the gin's holding yard? Is the implication that it's now not good enough to get dry weather for a long enough period to harvest, but now dry weather is needed all the way through the gin processing it and getting it on the truck?

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It's an insurance technicality. Depends on the insurance of the gin after it's called in for pickup. It's no longer a crop.

So after it's called in for the gin to come pick it up it goes on the gin's insurance policy? Or after the gin picks it up it's on their insurance policy?

Went out to the property we hunt on near Hearne yesterday. They were picking cotton at a furious rate all around us. Looked like someone kicked an ant nest with the number of machines going and the pace... Hope they got it all in.

Yell, cotton on the gin yard is really no different than cotton that's moduled in the field except that most gins have dedicated and manicured module yards that are often leveled to drain water away from the cotton. In the field - as well as you intend - it's hard to get every module in a high spot. I'm constantly on both my own crew or custom guys to always leave cotton in the highest spots along turn row - or at the very LEAST not in a swag. I should probably practice more reverse psychology. I have ginned places where it was preferable to leave the cotton in the field and haul it straight to the feeder than to have it sit around the yard (see below). To answer your question - in MOST cases, the gin's insurance takes over the instant the cotton is touched by a spindle. When there's a cotton picker basket fire -you call the ginner.

Once cotton (or any crop I'm familiar with) is touched by a harvester - it is no longer covered by multi-peril crop insurance. Cotton gins have traditionally carried insurance on the cotton they are to gin (the $ forf this is included in ginning costs) that goes into effect the instant the picker or stripper touches it. Picker fires, basket fires, module fires, trailer fires (back in the day) are all covered on the GIN'S insurance policy. I said 'traditionally' because these insurance rates have shot up in recent years and not all gins provide the same level of blanket coverage they did years ago. Depending on where you gin and their policy the deductibles can vary wildly. I had a claim last year and learned that the deductible for my claim was a percentage of the cotton from the field where it was harvested - and each 'peril' constituted an 'instance'. I lost about 20 bales of cotton and didn't meet the deductible for the field. IF the cotton had been lost to more then one 'peril' (fire in two different machines, one fire, one vandalism, and so on) each one incurred it's own deductible.

The biggest claim I've ever had was from Hurricane Dolly in 2008. We had just started harvesting and picked all the cotton from one farm - about 350-400 bales. We finished just as it started to rain and because there wasn't a lot of guys picking the trucks were there to carry them off as we built them. Dolly was a rainmaker and the modules ended up sitting in about about 3 feet of water for over a week. Everything on the gin yard was a 100% loss - luckily, the company paid the claim - and eventually they loaded up all that cotton with front end loaders and hauled what was left of it to a landfill. The CCR song about those 'cotton field's back home'... when 'those cotton fields get rotten, you got a whole lot of rotten cotton.' Ya. That's true.

Quote:

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when 'those cotton fields get rotten, you got a whole lot of rotten cotton.'

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What song are you singing?

Quote:

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When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle,
In them old cotton fields back home;

It was down in Louisiana,
Just about a mile from Texarkana,
In them old cotton fields back home.

Oh, when them cotton bolls get rotten
You can't pick very much cotton,
In them old cotton fields back home.

It was down in Louisiana,
Just about a mile from Texarkana,
In them old cotton fields back home.
When I was a little bitty baby

My mama would rock me in the cradle,
In them old cotton fields back home;

It was down in Louisiana,
Just about a mile from Texarkana,
In them old cotton fields back home.

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jtp01 said:

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Lots of rain in the Texas Panhandle. I've never seen an August without a day in the triple digits.
I have some dry land cotton that looks irrigated. Just hope we can get it to "finish".

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I have distant cousin (3rd or 4th or something) with dryland cotton in the Happy Union area. Looks like 2 bales/A and he's got >5,000 acres.

The rains up here have been nice, but we really need the heat units now to finish it out.

Weather guy tonight said the rotation of Harvey was going to pull dry air into the Panhandle. So we'll be drier, while SE Texas floats away. Texas weather never is dull.

I happen to be in the Houston area right now. People are going absolutely NUTS.

I grew up down here, but I'm ready to get back to the Panhandle where folks can drive, have manners, and in general don't suck at being human beings.

Hopefully that drier weather will help. I've heard from a couple of my dealers that some folks are running out of pix.

jtp01 said:

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I happen to be in the Houston area right now. People are going absolutely NUTS.

I grew up down here, but I'm ready to get back to the Panhandle where folks can drive, have manners, and in general don't suck at being human beings.

Hopefully that drier weather will help. I've heard from a couple of my dealers that some folks are running out of pix.

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dont let the door hit you in the ass on the way out of town.

RPM said:

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jtp01 said:

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I happen to be in the Houston area right now. People are going absolutely NUTS.

I grew up down here, but I'm ready to get back to the Panhandle where folks can drive, have manners, and in general don't suck at being human beings.

Hopefully that drier weather will help. I've heard from a couple of my dealers that some folks are running out of pix.

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dont let the door hit you in the ass on the way out of town.

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Stay in Houston and we'll all be happy.

Ag97 said:

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Talked to a customer near Robstown this afternoon. He said they are 95%done in that area. He said they are now worried about all the module rolls still in the field. If they get the rain that is being talked about they are worried those rolls are going to soak up the water like a sponge and be ruined. He said guys are almost thinking it would be better if the cotton was still on the plant At least it would be insured still. All the cotton that is harvested and still in the field seems to be the real problem.

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This is a common misconception. The standard modules will not do it either. Only the areas sitting in water will soak it up or if it is not built properly and it comes in from the top. It will not go bottom up. The round ones will cut down on this a lot. It will be harder to skim the round modules apposed to the traditional. The higher density will also help the round ones.

That said, who really knows with these amounts of wind and rain. Last time anyone saw anything like this all the cotton was still in trailers.

I will try to post the research on it tomorrow. I my still have it on my old computer if I can get it to boot. If not I will have to search it. It is from the TAMU AGEN Dept. and Ag extension.

Ya. I beat to my own drum.

My own lyrics too.

Centerpole90 said:

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Ya. I beat to my own drum.

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Too much information.

I don't know jack about cotton crops. However, this looks to be the thickest bunch I have ever seen. Sad that so much will be left in the field.

Thanks for the info

Quite honestly, if not for family in the area, I'd never come back here. Simply because of the people. The Panhandle is what it was like when I grew up down here. Folks used to care about their neighbors, now it seems folks get home, lock themselves in their homes and become a prisoner in a way.

Growing in in rural Liberty County, we had a sense of community, now, if not for family, there would be virtually no one to rely on.

You say "don't let the door hit me on the way out" you have proven my point with that statement!

Hold on, lemme get this straight. People are talking in this thread about how friends and family are loving their livelihood. You jump in and talk about how your crop is awesome and great and also HUNDREDS of miles away having nothing to fear from this hurricane like these folks are. Then you **** on them and call them a bunch of *****. Then you get called out on it, and instead of a) shutting up or b) apologizing, you're merely proven right?

agfan2013 said:

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I was gonna say cotton is already being picked (and a few bales even ginned already) all the way up here in the Brazos valley so your cousins sound like they are behind everyone else. Most of our customers are already done in the field. Crop insurance wont cover all of it, but it will help so at least be glad for that....

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dryland cotton has been picked. irrigated cotton in the Brazos valley hasn't been defoliated yet.