Articles in this month’s issue include:
- High Abandonment Acres for U.S. Cotton Projected Due to Drought (Yangxuan Liu)
- Importance of End of Season Irrigation Termination and Disease Control in Cotton (Bob Kemerait, Wesley Porter, David Hall, Jason Mallard)
- Weather and Climate outlook for September 2022 and Beyond (Pam Knox)
- Late Season Management Considerations for Diseases and Nematodes (Bob Kemerait)
- Terminating Insecticide Applications (Phillip Roberts)
- Defoliate in a Timely Manner to Manage Silverleaf Whitefly Populations and Preserve Yield and Fiber Quality (Phillip Roberts, Camp Hand)
- Defoliation Considerations for 2022 (Camp Hand)
High Abandonment Acres for U.S. Cotton Projected Due to Drought (Yangxuan Liu): Every year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) releases its projected harvest acres for U.S. cotton starting in August. The report provides updated information about expected U.S. cotton production. In 2022, the U.S. planted 12.3 million acres of upland cotton, the highest in 3 years, which was mainly due to historically high cotton prices during the decision-making and planting window.
However, in 2022, the overall U.S. abandonment rate for upland cotton is estimated at 43.4%, which is the highest on record since 1953. The abandonment rate, which measures the percentage of unharvested acres compared to total planted acres, provides an estimate of the number of failed acres versus the number of acres that will be harvested. Severe drought conditions hit the largest cotton production regions in the Southwest (Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas) and the West (California, Arizona, and New Mexico). The abandonment rate for Texas (Figure 1A) reached 69%. Texas planted 7.1 million acres of cotton in 2022 – by far the largest of any state – representing 57.6% of total U.S. planted acres (Figure 1B). By contrast, drought impacts were less severe in the Delta (Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee) and Southeast (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia). [READ MORE]