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Texas Agriculture Archive
November 4, 2005
High Cotton
There's a new crop growing on the upper reaches of the Texas High Plains...
By Lana Robinson
Field Editor
That's not an early snow covering cropland in the top of the Texas Panhandle this fall. It's cotton, and lots of it. Farmers in Carson, Moore, Ochiltree, Gray, Roberts, and neighboring counties traditionally devoted to corn, milo and wheat, have switched to cotton en masse, triggering a new industry. Observers cite dwindling water reserves, energy costs, and farm program support for cotton as reasons for the change, which appears to be for real. To accommodate growers of 200,000 or more acres of cotton north of Interstate 40, two new gins—one in Carson County and another in Moore County—have opened, with talk of a third one going up near Perryton in 2006.
Randy Kennedy is manager of the $5.5 million Carson County Gin, which is situated on 50 acres two miles west of White Deer. The state-of-the-art facility opened in October 2004. Kennedy said Carson and Gray counties are the two biggest cotton producers to date, but cotton acreage is expanding in Ochiltree and Roberts Counties, in an area surrounding Clarendon, in Donley County, all the way over into Potter County.
"In Carson County, the water has gone down. It's hard to maintain good yields of corn here," he explained. "The input costs are high. Several years ago, we began to see corn ground in our area here going to smaller grains, milo and wheat. What we're seeing now is more from milo and wheat ground than corn ground," the gin manager said. "We'll probably see some more increase in cotton acreages next year. We saw a 30 percent increase this year, which is expected to slow down to 10 to 15 percent next year."
Kennedy said area growers favor stripper varieties—primarily Paymaster, Fiber Max, and Stoneville. Not much Bt cotton has been planted, he noted. In Carson County, 30-35 percent of the acreage is dryland. Irrigated cotton is on sprinklers, pivot irrigation. Kennedy said the 2005 crop looks really good, thanks to an abundance of heat units.
"They are chemically defoliating what they can. There are some that will wait for a freeze, but most realize the importance of getting the crop out early," said Kennedy.
The Carson County facility ginned 39,175 bales in 2005.
"Last year, the cotton did not have exceptionally good quality. The crop got a lot of bad weather, 13 inches of rain on some of it, at the wrong time. It really affected grades," he said.
Ray Norton, a pioneer cotton grower in the White Deer area, is secretary-treasurer of the Carson County Gin. Norton, who grew up raising cotton, moved up from Parmer County in 1981. After trying other crops and cattle, he started growing cotton again in 1998. He has witnessed a transformation in the way cotton is grown and the plant itself.
"It's just amazing how fast that stuff, the new varieties, will make cotton. Twenty-five to 30 years ago, module builders were just starting to come out. This is a different crop today, the way you harvest it. We didn't have Pix back then. There have been a lot of changes. It's like raising something different entirely."
Norton's success has given other growers something to think about.
"Cotton is the only thing that works on paper for me. I've increased yields every year since I started growing it. You learn more and more as you go. I was getting calls from other farmers all the time. Others began making the crossover. They wanted to make sure it was going to work. It takes a pretty good commitment, an equipment change. I got rid of my combine and went strictly cotton and wheat, no cattle," said Norton, whose acreage jumped from the typical 800 to 1,000 he planted the first six years to 1,600 acres this season. Most of his crop is irrigated.
Norton said until 2004, he was having to haul his cotton down to Lelia Lake, near Clarendon, to get it ginned.
"We got to the point four years ago, we needed a gin," he said. "We're expecting 60,000 to 70,000 acres of cotton in Carson County and just under 60,000 acres in Moore and surrounding counties. I drove up to the Perryton area last week (second week in October) and saw some awesome cotton up there. I think this thing is going to explode up there. They have about 8,000 acres this year and are expecting 40,000 next year."
Expansion of cotton acreage in the Perryton-Spearman area has generated interest in building a gin to serve farmers there.
"We're talking about it now. It's rolling so fast. Farmers are taking their crop to the Moore County Gin, but that's a 70 to 100 mile haul. With the cost of diesel, that can get expensive. And that is another thing. We don't want to discourage these new farmers, but we're going to have to figure out some way to offset the additional fuel costs. I'm a farmer, but I have to turn my hat as a ginner, also, and it has to be profitable."
Norton said financing of the gins is unique. Six entities, including Norton and some other farmers, have invested in the Carson County Gin. A similar situation, with some of the same investors, is true of the Moore County Gin, he noted.
"Two big cooperatives, the Sunray Co-op and Dumas Co-op, have invested in the Moore County Gin. It's a new concept. Neither one wanted to put in a gin. They didn't have the expertise. We got Jim Bradford, owner of the gin in Deming, in as an investor and adviser, so we were not just out here winging it. He's on the board of both gins, to lead us through this thing, and help us out."
Norton said the biggest concern with regard to the new cotton endeavor is uncertainty about the farm program.
"Step 2 (export incentive) is going to go away as we know it. There will be something else there, but it won't be as good," he said. "But one thing we have going for us is the cotton industry is well represented, with one common goal. We have a good group out there pulling for us, with the Plains Cotton Growers and the National Cotton Council."
Norton said farmers in the region have benefitted from effective boll weevil programs in the South Plains.
"We are being monitored and will not have to pay the big fee for the first two years. One thing helping us is the counties south are controlling their's, and boll weevils typically migrate north. I don't think they've found a one up here," he said.
There's a lot of excitement, but some corn and milo producers, and agribusinesses related to those crops, have mixed feelings about the trend to cotton, said Norton.
"We're not trying to rule out any crop. We're just trying to give farmers another opportunity to look at," he said. "We're excited and, at the same time, cautiously optimistic. If the farm program stays good, I think it will be a real long-term mix. We've proven we can grow it. We've been doing it for seven years."
The Carson County Gin employs four people full-time, and uses as many as 22 additional workers at peak ginning (For more information, call 806-883-2535).
Leighton Stovall, manager of the Moore County Gin, shares a similar enthusiasm for the burgeoning Panhandle cotton industry. The gin celebrated its grand opening Aug. 26, 2005. Located eight miles north of Dumas on U.S. Highway 287, Moore County Gin is positioned to serve a broad area.
"We'll pick up cotton in eight counties—seven in Texas and one in Oklahoma this season. That's about 55,000 acres. We've already ginned a little, and expect to have more later next week," Stovall reported Oct. 8. "It's going to hit with a bunch of fury."
The Moore County facility can gin 60 bales an hour.
Stovall said growers are serious, many with consultants advising them.
"I'd say 90 percent of the crop here is irrigated. Most are strip tilling and using stripper varieties," he said.
Kelly Hays was one of Stovall's early customers, with 200 bales ginned prior to Oct. 8, and much more to come. He planted 3,000 acres of cotton this season on farmland near Etter.
"We have high hopes for it," said Hays, who planted a medium-to-fast maturing variety at the last of April. "I was raised in the cotton patch, at Kress, and left in 1972. This is my first year to grow it since then. I've been planting corn, seed milo and wheat. Cotton is intense to grow. You have to be there every day and talk to it. With corn, you just stick it in the ground and pour water and fertilizer to it. We were kind of forced into this cotton deal, because of the water dropping and the economics, and I just hope it works. Cotton's everywhere you look. It's kind of exciting."
"We have had all the pests we can contend with," Hays continued. "It started out with extra heavy thrip pressure, we got over that and at the tail end, we had boll worms. We're in the process of spraying and putting preparations on it to get it to open. About a third has been sprayed by now aerially."
Dennis Beilue, demonstration assistant for the Extension office in Moore County, which is currently without a county agent, said he watched cotton acreage soar from 6,000 acres three years ago to 20,000 acres in 2004.
"Right now, within a 50-mile radius of Dumas—primarily everything north—there's some 50,000 acres of cotton. A big percent of that came out of corn acres. Farmers are simply trying to conserve water. It takes 14 inches of water for a bale-and-a-half to two-bale cotton versus 22 or 23 inches to raise 180-200 bushel corn. That's what's pushing it."
Beilue described the crop as "above average," with an expectation that the cotton will yield close to two bales per acre.
"Early on, I wouldn't have said that. We had cool weather at planting and that really extended some of the maturity levels. It didn't grow off as planned, and cotton was delayed. But it's really come on. I heard last week that the Spearman area is ready for harvest right now. Twenty-five to 40 percent of the cotton has bolls open."
According to Scott Strawn, Ochiltree County Extension agent, about three-fourths of farm acreage around Perryton is dryland, so higher costs of irrigation are not the only factor in the switch to cotton there.
"The new gins are a little closer in proximity, which has kind of encouraged it. The biggest reason is the government loan rate that's available for cotton, the price support. Input costs and new technology in varieties are another reason.
"We had a little over 800 acres in 2004. This year, we will strip about 8,200 acres. That's a 1,000 percent increase. There are thoughts that we could double or even triple that and have as many as 16,000 to 24,000 acres of cotton next year."
Strawn said eight area farmers, each with about 1,000 acres, represent this new production. He said one problem issue for the dryland farmers is insurance.
Without a three-year yield history, said Strawn, the newcomers cannot purchase multi-peril insurance, which is available for those who irrigate.
"That's the biggest limiting factor here. Otherwise, it would explode. The ones that have planted anyway have stuck their necks out," he said.
On Oct. 8, Strawn reported that farmers were putting out harvest aides with the expectation that strippers would begin running the following week.
The introduction of a new crop into the county has created some tension, Strawn said. Ochiltree is a "non-regulated" county, and 2-4D is widely used by local farmers.
The challenge has been to get neighbors to cooperate, to prevent drift. He said many had voluntarily given up the use of the chemical, and more education is ongoing, to help producers of other crops understand the ramifications of drift in order to minimize it.
"With the newer gins closer, the farm program supporting us, and with a little help on the insurance side, it looks like the crop is going to be here for a while," Strawn observed.
