Cotton 101

Having worked in the cotton industry for longer than I want to remember and having talked to so many experts over time, I’ve been able to pick up some of the basics. As I thought about what unique things I can put out here that may help others better understand ag, cotton was obviously one. While I have posted on the crop off and on since I started blogging, I decided to start an organized series of blog posts in October 2010.

The logo here is used on each post to help draw them together. I’ll keep a running list of them here though since cotton is such a major part of who I am within learning agriculture.

The posts include:

Although most people think of cotton in it’s final mature state, it’s important to remember that cotton has to grow from seed throughout the season to get to that point. And it’s amazing how often I’ve had folks ask me about something they’ve seen in a field as they were driving by, like this recent tweet from Sam Wildman:

http://twitter.com/farmboy09/statuses/51298677167357952

So, I thought I’d put together some photos here, that will help me reply to hopefully lots of interest in southern fields! So let’s look at cotton plants and fields different times of year.

Planting Cotton (US typically begins mid-March & goes through May)

Cotton seed for planting is sold in both bags of 40-60 pounds — since seed size varies, the bag weights vary by variety. And its also sold in bulk boxes which farmers say provides them a way to get planters filled more quickly & efficiently to keep tractors moving. As I mentioned in a post on planting considerations, some farmers plant on beds  and others plant on flat ground. Similarly some use small planters and others use enormous planters on the back of the tractor. Read more of this post

Reminder: I am not a cotton farmer nor cotton physiologist. I’m drafting this Cotton 101 series based on things I’ve learned from the experts I’ve gotten to talk to over time. Its just a start and I’m going to be inviting some of those folks over to add to it & doublecheck things. You can subscribe to my blog at the right. 

Cotton is a warm weather plant and doesn’t like wet feet at all.  That simple sentences guides a lot of planting thoughts for the crop. Like all crops, at planting you want to be sure you have the depth set correctly for the soil type, etc.

Raised Beds for Planting – Depending on the soil types and typical moisture availability, some people will “bed up.” By creating raised beds a farmer can help channel water where they want it. My first cotton farm visit was to Mr. Ray Young’s in Wisner, La. (I blogged about how awesome that visit was for work.)  I was there in the winter and the fields were perfectly in rows for the stale seedbed planting to come. He helped pioneer this version of conservation tillage as the beds would help him keep the seed in moisture but not too wet.

A couple of years later I made my first visit to a farm in West Texas where they bedded up in order to plant between the raised beds. That way water could reach the seed in that truly dryland area. And in lots of places they plant to a level field. Different strokes for different folks or conditions.

Temperatures – A general guideline for planting from a temperature perspective is to wait for 65 degree soil temps at 8 am at a depth of 4-6 inches. You want to get that same temp for a few days and have favorable weather conditions (air temperature and sunlight), as well as consider the moisture, soil texture and ground cover. Read more of this post

Okay, big disclaimer here. I’m not a cotton expert nor a cotton farmer. I don’t mean to in anyway suggest which variety a given farmer should plant, but I thought some of the folks who don’t plant cotton varieties may be interested in some of the considerations cotton farmers have in selecting varieties to plant on their farm. So this is the sort of thing I’ve heard from farmers or experts. (Please weigh in if you are an expert!)

Yield potential — Its obviously what growers look for and it can depend on several agronomic factors including , disease or nematode tolerance, performance under various water scenarios (dryland, various types of irrigation), plant type (fruiting in a columnar pattern or bushy type), etc.

Maturity – The maturity of a variety is usually one of the first factors considered. The typical classifications are early, early-mid, mid, mid-full and full season. Areas in the northern parts of the Cotton Belt (the Missouri Bootheel, Tennessee, North Carolina, etc) tend to plant early season or early-mid varieties whereas areas like Arizona, South Texas and South Georgia tend to go for more full season varieties.

Unlike some crops, the way a crop is managed can result in a cotton variety fitting areas where it wasn’t considered to fit otherwise. This Cotton Maturity Chart for 2011 by the University of Tennessee provides growers the relative maturity of varieties to use in their variety selection process. Read more of this post

Cotton hurting from drought in eastern Arkansas

As I drove up to St. Louis last Sunday, I noticed some field work being done. Some planters running. My guess is the crop going in the ground was soybeans as we are getting too late for cotton and definitely too late for corn in Arkansas & West Tennessee. I noticed the sandbags that have been holding water back for more than a month seems to no longer have a job as water levels began going down.

I spent my week in St. Louis working and can’t get over the reports that were coming in from various parts of the Cotton Belt. To say it hurt my heart may sound like I’m overracting, but the photos really do lead to a physical reaction. It is clear there is the potential for a lot of loss. Of course, things can always turn around too and farmers are the optimistic kind. Read more of this post

I could be in heaven. America’s Heartland, the awesome show that PBS airs to help Americans learn about agriculture is focused on cotton for an entire show! Yes, it’s a must-see Episode 617 – The Cotton Harvest. While I’d suggest you watch the entire episode, the reality that many of us like to watch small clips leads me to do short blog posts on each segment since the segments really range across the cotton spectrum.

I start where the episode starts — on the Louisiana cotton farm of Jay Hardwick. But first I have to tell you a bit about Jay. I first met Jay more than a decade ago! He’s in Newellton, Louisiana and is an avid environmentalist and conservationist.

Like many cotton farmers, Jay doesn’t fit the stereotype people may have about cotton farmers. His story includes a stint as the art department chairman of Southern Methodist University according to this article by the Delta Farm Press with a great photo too!  Read more of this post

One of the folks I met through the National Agri-Marketing Association, Robert Ratliff, recently help me connect the dots.

Robert grew up on a cotton farm and had posted the photo to the left on his Facebook page.  The caption on it pointed to a different machine that he used to pick cotton old school. He explained he “remembers ‘Second Picking’ of the cotton crop in November 1970 when he operated a John Deere, Model 22L, one-row cotton picker.

“It was mounted on a John Deere 3010 tractor, which traveled in reverse when carrying the attached cotton picker. Note the lack of cotton on the stalks in the photo. This is the second harvest of the crop after 95% was harvested on the ‘First Picking.’ Late opening bolls were harvested on the ‘Second Picking,’ also called ‘Scrapping.’  This field appears not to have enough cotton remaining to justify the cost of diesel fuel. this one-row cotton picker harvested more than the Ratliff cotton crop. We also harvested some of our neighbor’s cotton for a custom fee of two cents per pound, which financed my first year of college in 1971.”  Read more of this post

So the reality is, I was so excited to finally get Alicia into a cotton field at harvest, that I was giddy. You can hear it at the beginning of this video. (Yes, I resoundingly admit to being an agnerd.) Read more of this post

Following is a guest post by my niece Alicia who’s currently working on her masters in education at the University of Memphis (she’s the fourth generation of women in my family to go there!).  I’ve been lucky enough to have her living with me — we both seem to be enjoying it! I so appreciate her willingness to share what she learned her first time out on a working farm on this scale.

First I want to say that writing this blog is a little out of my comfort zone, but it was a lot of fun being in the field and I figured I would share what I learned for the rest of the people out there who know little about cotton farming, as I do.

With that disclaimer, let me start my blog post.

I recently had my first experience on a real farm that wasn’t there for tourists.  Janice has worked in cotton since before I can remember and I have always been told how important it and other natural fibers are to our lives.  I went with her to a friend’s farm to see how cotton was picked.  Being from a small town in the South, I am used to fields of crops and farm equipment, however, cotton is not grown near my hometown in North Carolina.  It was quite different from what I am used to seeing.  This was the first time I’ve been in a cotton field and been able to look at the bolls up close. Read more of this post

Pickers roll and depending on the equipment, there are a couple of different things that happen. As Alicia mentioned the other day, there is equipment called a boll buggy that may be involved, or a module builder or the picker can have an on-board moduling system.

Cotton used to be put into wagons. Someone would get in the wagon/trailer and jump up and down to compress it. The trailers would be taken to the gin and once emptied, it could be refilled. Farmers had multiple trailers but almost nobody could afford enough to keep harvesting non-stop. Read more of this post

Farmers have several choices on how to compact their crop (full size modules, smaller modules or round modules). All of them are made so cotton, once picked, can be temporarily stored and transported to the gin.

Those modules are tagged in the field to identify what farm & field it came from. You frequently see them tagged with a special kind of spray paint but there are also physical paper tags placed on the module that begin identifying that cotton. Read more of this post

Cotton gins. They haven’t changed the basic function since they were invented but I do know they have changed dramatically in size & speed. At the end of the day, all of them involve separating the seed from the lint. The vast majority of gin use a system of saws (think about the type used in a circular saw) pulling lint away from seed and through to a cleaning system. There are some gins that use a system of rollers rather than saws. Read more of this post

With grain crops like corn, soybeans and rice, the seed product is the primary commodity you sell. While that’s an everyday realization to farmers, sometimes consumers like myself have to pause to think about that. Yes, the beans we are eating are seeds as are the kernels of corn we are munching on. Well, cotton definitely differs.

Cottonseed are one of the parts of the cotton boll harvested in the picker and once the gin separates the seed from the lint there are a few options for what to do with it. I’ll walk through a few.

Livestock Feed — This one has been mentioned in the blog post that Kathy Swift, DVM wrote on what cattle eat. But I wanted to be sure I didn’t forget it. The seed is a source of good protein I understand. The seed isn’t fed to some other animals due to basic biology. The cotton plant and it seed includes gossypol, a naturally-occurring substance that is difficult for humans and other species with a simple stomach to digest so its fed only to ruminants. You can also feed the hull or meal from seeds to livestock.

Cottonseed Cooking Oil — Trucks from cotton gins frequently head to the press where cottonseed oil is produced. While very few consumers are familiar with cotton seed oil, as vegetable oils or canola oil tend to get the grocery store shelf space, cottonseed oil is something many chefs use.  It is probably one of the oldest oils in the South (according to the cottonseed oil facts) and offers a transfat free healthy oil.  One of the South’s treasures, Cafe duMonde in New Orleans uses cottonseed oil to fry up there famous beignets! You can read that and other tips from them on their website! Read more of this post

Okay. Gin Trash. The two words together… gin trash… the number of jokes that you can come up with based on those two simple words… Its unbelievable! BUT this is a Cotton 101 series so I better get back on track.

But let me start by saying the fact that we call it “gin trash” in no way reflects it has the properties of other trash. It’s very much an eco-friendly product of plant parts. And a number of researchers have looked into the potential uses of gin trash. Read more of this post

I will continue adding to the posts. If there is a particular topic of interest, please leave a comment & let me know.