Cotton production varies within the South Central region

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

September 4, 2003 -- If you are wondering how the cotton crop and harvest is progressing in South Central Texas, it's according to which part of the area you are talking about.

While most of the entire area received more than enough rain in late winter and early spring, crops around the East Bernard region have had too much rain early, and not enough rain, later.

According to Cynthia Beseda, office manager at the Farmers Co-op in East Bernard, due to the unpredictable weather, most cotton growers planted less acreage this year. It was wet too long to get the crops in on time, and once the cotton was planted, the rains ceased.

Due to the unpredictable weather, most producers planted smaller crops, this year.

As far as harvest goes, Beseda said the cotton is about 40 percent off the stalks, but some producers are having trouble getting into the fields to harvest, due to several recent storms, including Hurricane Claudette.

Another problem facing producers is the expected price of cotton, this year. Beseda said they are hoping to get at least 50 cents per pound. She said producers are still remembering when the price of cotton was up around 90 cents per pound in the 1980s.

Down the coast in Taft, near Corpus Christi, Larry Keeney, gin manager of the Taft Gin and Seed Company has a different story. He said they are "almost done" with their ginning, with about 98 percent of their crops harvested.

To this point, Keeney said they are averaging 1.75 to 3.0 bales per acre. He said the coastal area is expecting to harvest around 600,000 bales this year, up from the average amount of 350,000 bales.

The Taft Gin has ginned about 13,000 bales so far, but expects to have 40,000 bales ginned at the season's end. The cotton, this year, was mostly harvested the first three weeks of August, which was several weeks late due to rains, Keeney said.

One of the problems they is facing is having the room for all the cotton modules, since they are running a month behind. Keeney said he has 14 trucks running 12 hours a day to get the cotton into the gin.

"The rain hit it (cotton) just right," he explained.

One problem Keeney commented on was the low price of cotton. In his 24 years in the business, this is the lowest he said he's seen cotton prices, but expects at least 56 cents a pound for his product.

He remembers when the price was up around 85 cents a pound, but said over the years, it had stayed around 70 cents a pound until the last few years.

According to Keeney, the government isn't helping the country or the farmers by importing crops American citizens can grow. When you figure it costs the producer about $23 per acre to produce the cotton, there's not a lot of room for profit, with the prices as low as they have continued to be. The prices have "taken all the fun and money" out of raising cotton, he noted.

"Without a farmer, you don't have a country," Keeney added.

Charles R. Stichler, professor and Extension agronomist out of Uvalde said the crops between San Antonio and Uvalde are in "pretty good" shape, but most of it is irrigated land. The recent rainfall has "helped and hindered," with only about 25 percent of the cotton defoliated.

Stichler said yields are between 2.5 to 3.0 bales per acre on parts of the land, but said producers have been spraying insecticide more often. Although the last three years have seen few ... if any ... boll weevil problems, this fourth year producers have experienced problems with them, again.

Dr. Steve Livingston, professor and Extension agronomist, said the Gulf Coast region between Kingsville to Houston is about 95 percent harvested, with modules of cotton "everywhere," with San Patricio seeming to be the leader.

In an article released Aug. 21 by Texas A&M ag news service, another problem may be looming in the cotton producers' future. A recent study indicated that a more restrictive farm payment program could cause significant financial hardships."

The study presented to the federal Payment Limitation Commission in Washington, D.C. "analyzed the current three-entity payment system versus the one-entity rule." It (study) involved 61 family-operated farms, 10 of which were Texas cotton producers.

According to the study, nearly all would likely "exceed either counter-cyclical or direct payment limitations if the one-entity rule were in place."

Currently, farmers abide by the three-entity rule which is part of the 2002 Farm Bill. This means a producer can receive a full payment, directly, and up to "half payment from two additional entities." If the one entity rule should go into affect, it could reduce the amount of the farm program payments to producers by half, according to Dr. James Richardson and Dr. Joe Outlaw of Texas A&M University.

Information from the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Texas crop and weather report indicated that although some areas of deep South Texas are completing their harvests, the majority of South Central Texas still has a way to go, but most are expecting good yields for the 2003 crops.