1996 BOOTHEEL COTTON CROP AMONG BEST

Southeast Missouri cotton growers are enjoying a great year.

"We're more than 95 percent harvested," said Dr. Bobby Phipps, cotton production specialist at the University of Missouri Delta Research Center at Portageville. "Most farmers have completed the harvest, and we're looking at about 725 pounds an acre."

That tabulates into more than one and one-half bales an acre. A bale weighs 480 pounds. In some cases, two bales an acre have been produced.

That's about 20 percent over the 554-pounds-an-acre yield of 1995, but below the 856-pound average of two years ago.

"We've had good corn crops and good cotton crops this year," said Phipps. "The cotton was not like the 1994 crop year, but a lot better than last year."

1996 production is expected to top 600,000 bales, 17 percent more than the 500,000 bales of 1995. A record 615,000 bales were harvested during the record year of 1994.

Only a few of the more than 400,000 cotton acres in seven Southeast Missouri counties remain unharvested.

"It may be awhile before cotton-picking machines can get in these wet fields," said Phipps. "Some farmers may wait until a winter freeze to pick the cotton."

Dunklin County, one of the southernmost counties in the Bootheel, is the major cotton-producing county, generating more than a third of the cotton in Missouri. Based on a five-year average, cotton provides more than $44.2 million a year to Dunklin County's economy.

"Dunklin County has some of the best cotton in the area, and it's a big county," said Phipps.

During the record 1994 year, 136,000 acres of cotton produced 886 pounds per acre for 249,000 bales. In 1995, farmers planted more than 164,000 acres in Dunklin County. But last year, fields averaged only 505 pounds an acre, for 173,000 bales.

New Madrid County is usually second on the Missouri cotton-production list, followed by Pemiscot County. Cotton is also produced in Butler, Mississippi, Scott and Stoddard.

Until two years ago, seven Southeast Missouri counties produced 100 percent of Missouri's cotton. That changed a year ago when Rick Beussink planted 50 acres of cotton on the Bollinger County side of County Line Road, which divides Bollinger and Stoddard counties. Beussink planted another 50 acres this year.

"Some farmers planted about 1,200 acres of cotton northwest of Springfield this year," said Phipps, who keeps tabs on the cotton crop. "I visited the Springfield area, and the cotton crop looked good."

Nationwide, cotton production this year is forecast at 18.2 million bales, an average of 698 pounds an acre, the third highest on record and fourth-highest yield. Total acres for harvest in the U.S. is 12.8 million acres.

Thirty percent of cotton harvested is hauled to gins in four-wheel trailers. The remaining 70 percent is formed into modules, covered with water-resistant tarps and stored in the field until it can be ginned.