So I went over to God's country today and crossed the 21 bridge from Round Rock the Brazos. Always helps my mood. Youngest 21st birthday.

So all of Williamson county has been harvested. Weeds were up a good 12-24 inches so fields were done since then.

Cross the bridge and cotton still in the field. Why?

Theres guys even in Uvalde area that never got dry enough to harvest and they're several weeks ahead of that

Last year it was the Coastal bend folks that got hammered by Harvey

https://www.kbtx.com/content/news/Local-cotton-crop-suffering-because-of-too-much-rain-497846731.html

I was wondering this same thing as I saw unharvested cotton down around Mathis on I-37 last weekend.

My initial thought was that it was so dry over the summer it didn't grow well enough to harvest. My second thought was that the fields got too wet to harvest.

Yea but this Brazos which are similar to Willco.

Most unharvested fields will be a disaster-total loss after the all this rain. Not only cotton but rice and soybeans are at risk also where grown. Quality hay fields need to dry out and be baled before the first frost hits.

How much of Williamson is irrigated? I know a lot of the Brazos dryland is out already, but the irrigated cotton is longer maturing. Is that side of the river predominately irrigated? Can't pick it all in a day.

Centerpole90 said:

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How much of Williamson is irrigated? I know a lot of the Brazos dryland is out already, but the irrigated cotton is longer maturing. Is that side of the river predominately irrigated? Can't pick it all in a day.

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This is the answer. Most of the dryland in the bottom is out but probably about half of the irrigated acres are still out there. Some guys have tried defoliating 4+ times now.

Not a huge amount of irrigated acres in Williamson county that I'm aware of. And they don't plant as much cotton anyways, lots of corn in the area.

It's a mess, but guys are still going to try to harvest when (if) it stops raining and dries up. Grades will probably be terrible.

There is no irrigation in Willco that I can see from 79. All farm plots plus some pasture.

Most of the coastal bend cotton got harvested but they didn't get to a few fields before the rain started so there are some still out there. A lot of the picked stuff has resprouted because they couldn't get in the fields to shred stalks, some of it even started trying to bloom again. Still a bunch of rounds and modules sitting on turnrows waiting for it to get dry enough for the trip to the gin.

The neighbors had to burn off their hayfield after the cut hay got rained on 4 times

I've been helping a buddy put out rye grass this week in Matagorda County, and was surprised how much cotton is still in the field compared to Wharton County. They've had a miserably wet cotton harvest down there, what's left is sprouted and pretty rotten.

Then like agfan said, that's the difference. Irrigated cotton varieties are usually a little longer season strains so they can take advantage irrigation and set additional fruit. Those same varieties can also be planted on dryland but depending on the moisture available they may 'cut out' and self-determine a shorter maturity because of available moisture. On a wet year the difference may not be noticeable; on a dry year it where the dryland crops burn up it could be a couple weeks or more difference in ending point. This year is an example of the latter and the fall rains started right in that time between when most of those crops finished.

Compounded problem in the bottom was the fact that we had a ton of replants so we are later than normal to begin with

Thanks all. Obviously I'm not a farmer so I learned something new on the thread.

I'm hearing that some soybeans up north (Iowa) have begun to sprout still in the pod. Getting late rain and warmer temps causing serious problems.

I still have cotton and beans in the field, but in just south of Sunray, TX so we are still "okay". We got quite a bit of rain recently, but I saw corn being cut today around lunch.