Weather - General
More rough weather is forecasted for winter wheat on the Southern Plains, after the crop got off to a dry start and suffered record-setting cold this month.
A moderate or strong La Niña like the one currently underway typically produces a drier than normal weather pattern across the southern U.S.
Conditions for the cotton crop in the U.S., the world’s biggest exporter, are deteriorating as dry weather erodes planting prospects in Texas, the top state grower.
Months after Hurricane Harvey dumped feet of rain on Houston and Texas, economists with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service are totaling up the damages caused by the summer storm, now believed to be a combined $200 million between livestock, hay, feed, cotton, rice and soybeans.
Cotton production in The Golden State is on a decline for the fourth straight year, as farmers find it increasingly hard to justify growing it amid a multiyear drought.
Summer crop area expected to be similar to year-ago.
Cotton is a “mixed bag” in the Panhandle and South Plains, according to Texas AgriLife Extension Service personnel.
Texas producers are abandoning irrigated fields of cotton, corn, sorghum and hay as wells run dry.
Last week’s Hurricane Irene dumped heavy rain on nearly all of the cotton in Virginia and North Carolina. But it could have been worse.
Mississippi’s young cotton crop has already faced a list of challenges including flooding, late planting, insects and now drought.