Crop Year Begins With Mixed Conditions

As the first final planting date approaches for the Plains Cotton Growers service area, conditions across the region are mixed, with some growers enjoying beneficial rains that will boost their early crop and others experiencing everything from painfully dry conditions to severe weather that will force some to start over – or plant something else altogether. Planted acreage for the PCG service area is expected to be about normal, but it remains to be seen how much will be viable. In the northern parts of the PCG service area, where the May 31 final planting date is in immediate sight, most cotton has been planted and in some areas, has been for two weeks. Generally, central counties have until June 5 to plant, and southern counties have until June 10. For information on a specific county’s final planting date, contact PCG. Garza County was the target for severe weather over the Memorial Day weekend, with a confirmed tornado, damaging hail, high winds, and anywhere from 3 to 8 inches of rain in three hours. Growers from the affected area report that the ground is packed and they likely will not be able to save their planted acres. Severe storms have impacted several other counties across the region as well. Some areas in the region still are in desperate need of a rain, especially on dryland acreage. For example, West Texas Mesonet stations in Seminole, Denver City, Muleshoe, Amherst, Welch, and Plains have recorded only a few hundredths of a inch of rainfall in the month of May.