Cotton farmers in West Texas appreciate their “boll” in the hand, but it doesn’t stop them from wishing for just the right set of weather events that will yield a large crop.
And in Scurry County, with one gin still in operation, total bale count stands at 32,478.
“We got the number of bales that we expected to get,” said Jim Edmunds, manager of Scurry County Gin. “We needed more rain back in August to really finish out a good crop, but we’re satisfied.”
Edmunds reported a final bale count of 3,278 for this year’s growing season.
“I think we did a little better than I would have expected,” said Robbie Robinson, manager of Farmer’s Co-op Gin. “Rain would have helped. Had we had some good spring and summer rains when we needed it, we might have had a bumper crop. As it was we had a dry July and August. We just didn’t have it when we needed it.”
Robinson reported 14,506 bales for the year.
Inadale Co-op Gin, however, is still in operation for the season. They have ginned 14,694 bales thus far and are expected to continue for another week.
“We’re very pleased with the way that ginning has been this year,” said Inadale manager David Server. “Back in the fall, we really didn’t know what to expect, but what we’ve seen so far has been really good.”
According to USDA reports, West Texas cotton produced higher amounts than did South Texas and while the total number of bales was good, Server is pleased with the quality.
“The quality of cotton has been very good so far. I believe this turned out to be a better year than farmers expected it to be in a lot of ways,” he said.
The next step cotton growers will tackle will be the removal of stalks from the field in preparation for next season.
“Farmers will be busy getting their fields ready,” said Server. “They’ll want to be ready to get that rain, which I hope will get here. But not until after next week when ginning is over.”