Stoddard County cotton harvest going strong

DEXTER, Mo. -- The cotton harvest in Stoddard County is in full swing and the yields are very good in spite of a hot, extremely dry summer, according to area farmers and cotton gins in Risco and Bernie.

The Dexter Daily Statesman reported farmers say that the cotton harvest should be complete within a couple of weeks. Cotton prices are also on the upswing for those farmers who did not book their crop early.

Jason Blunt, a farmer east of Dexter, said he is very pleased with his cotton crop this year. Blunt and his family have 600 acres of cotton this year. The rest of his acreage is in corn and soybeans. He said the cotton that was irrigated is doing "really well". He said even the cotton on non-irrigated land is doing better than anticipated.

"It surprised everybody," Blunt said of the cotton crop this year.

Blunt said that cotton crops in China and Pakistan have been hit by natural disasters and that has driven the price of cotton up at harvest time. He estimated Thursday that he was about two-thirds done and around a week to 10 days from completing the harvest.

Blunt said his corn was off about 10 to 15 percent from past years due to the drought over the summer. He said he was fortunate that the corn was on irrigated land. There have been several reports that corn on non-irrigated ground failed to produce this year.

A spokesman at J.P. Ross Cotton Company estimated that it may be another three weeks before the cotton harvest is complete in Stoddard County. He said the trend in yields this year could make it the second biggest cotton crop in recent years. The largest yield was in 2007. He also noted that cotton prices were "pretty good" at harvest time.

Scott Wethington, an Essex farmer, said he hoped to have the last of his cotton harvested by early next week.

"We've had really good yields this year," Wethington stated. All his cotton is on irrigated land.

While cotton is a major crop for Wethington, he also has corn and soybeans. He, too, said the corn crop was off this year by around 20 percent.

"Cotton is going to be our best crop this year," Wethington said.

He said he was surprised by the price of cotton which has been on the incline in recent weeks. He noted that many farmers contract the price of their cotton in advance because of the uncertainty of prices at harvest time.

Bill Hutchcraft, manager at the Stoddard County Cotton Company in Bernie, echoed the others in saying that the cotton crop this year is providing "good yields".

Hutchcraft said it may be a little longer than two weeks before the cotton harvest is complete. He said many bolls are slow in opening and may delay harvest for some farmers.

The new cotton

Cotton seen growing in the county appears different from the way cotton looked several years ago. The new plants are shorter and the boll configuration is much different.

Blunt says farmers apply a chemical "growth regulator" to the cotton plants several times in the growing season to keep the plants shorter and provide more bolls. He said the chemical is applied to reduce the stalks so that not as much plant energy is expended on the stalk. Instead, the growth takes place in the fruit (bolls). It also makes for a more efficient harvest by machine.

Wethington agrees that cotton growing has benefited from scientific genetic advancements. He said the shorter cotton yields more bolls which leads to more cotton harvested.