Thursday, June 19, 1997

Wet weather delays wheat harvest and cotton progress

By J.T. Smith / Abilene Reporter-News

Recent thunderstorms have left many wheat fields still needing to be harvested and cotton crops needing to be planted or replanted.

Many combines were idle earlier this week as custom wheat harvesters waited to return to muddy fields.

West of Abilene, one cotton field between Roscoe and Snyder at Wastella is commonly referred to as "Lake Roscoe" these days.

The wet conditions aren't limited to fields here on the Rolling Plains.

A string of thunderstorms up on the High Plains - the world's most concentrated area of cotton production - has left some traditional cotton acres questionable near Lubbock.

Hockley County also was hard hit by hail. An estimated 25,000 acres could be shifted from cotton to an alternative crop. With the shorter growing season there, it is getting late to plant cotton on the High Plains.

In addition to rain and hail, blowing sand with several of the storms also took out some young cotton.

Forward contracting light in Southwest

Cotton prices haven't been anything to brag about, either. It's clear many cotton growers are resisting booking cotton at current offerings.

USDA estimates that 18 percent of the U.S. upland cotton crop was forward contracted by June. But here in the Southwest, forward contracting stood at only 11 percent.

Texas growers actually decreased bookings from 12 to 11 percent from a year earlier, while Oklahoma growers contracted only negligible amounts both years.

In the Southeast, some 26 percent of the acreage had been forward contracted. Georgia growers contracted 32 percent of their expected cotton production - essentially the same as last year - but neighboring Alabama put only 13 percent under contracts.

Texas winter wheat pegged far above last year

The 1997 Texas winter wheat crop is forecast at 103.6 million bushels, unchanged from last month's estimate, but 37 percent above both the 1996 and 1995 wheat crops.

Meanwhile, the U.S. winter wheat production is forecast at 1.6 billion bushels - up 8 percent from last year, and up 3 percent from the May estimate.

USDA bases its estimate on both a bigger yield and greater acreage.

The Agriculture Department says the national yield will average 39.3 bushels of wheat per acre, up more than 2 bushels over last year's yield. And USDA also says harvested acreage for grain will be 40.8 million acres - some 3 percent above a year ago.

Reaction to the June estimate was bearish in a wheat market that already was under pressure before the latest crop estimate.

Three finalists for ag dean

The search committee for the dean of Texas Tech University's College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources has announced three finalists for the position.

Finalists are: John R. Abernathy, professor and director of the Texas A&M Agricultural Experiment Station, Lubbock; Robert C. Albin, interim dean of the college; and Donald L. Snyder, assistant director at the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station and associate dean of academic programs in the College of Agriculture at Utah State University.