The fields are white and harvest is happening!

by admin

Harvest is in full swing across the county. Grapes are done. Pumpkins and watermelons are finished. We are down to mostly peanuts and cotton, and some milo.

Most of the peanuts have been dug and thrashed. Harvesting peanuts is a two stage process. They are dug, which means they are pulled up out of the ground and flipped over by a peanut digger machine. They have to lay there for a few days to dry out. Then, the thrasher comes in and picks up the peanuts and separates the plant from the nuts. The nuts, still in the shell, are then transported to a peanut facility. Locally, they usually go to Tejas, Birdsong or All Star Peanuts.

There are still some peanuts awaiting digging and some lying out, awaiting thrashing, but it appears peanut harvest is 70-80% done at this point.

Cotton harvest is another story. Cotton harvest is very much dependent on when the seed was planted, what type of weather we have had, and what type of seed was planted, as in quick maturing or not.

Back in the old days, farmers would wait for a freeze to start harvest. Now days, chemicals are used to essentially kill the plant and cause the foliage to fall off, leaving the white cotton bolls.

Cotton strippers or pickers roll through the fields harvesting the cotton off the stalks. Taking the field from a beautiful snow white to a brown, barren field with stalks standing with bits of lint hanging on here and there.

Our local guys have been hard at work, from early in the morning, working on equipment and getting ready for the day, to late at night, trying to work while the humidity is down and the wind is not a factor. It is not uncommon to drive around in the country and see all kinds of lights moving through the fields in the dark.

Jon Williams stated, “Our harvest is going pretty well, so far. Right now, I have about 1,200 acres harvested. The yield has been phenomenal on our dryland. A lot of the dryland is bringing a bale to a bale and a half of cotton. It is just amazing how God can change the outlook of a crop and the attitudes of producers with a good rain and fair weather!”

Rhett Green, who has been pretty busy with his cattle operation stated, “I have my cotton sprayed and peanuts are dug, waiting on the thrasher. I am not as far along as some of the other guys.”

Gabe Neill is pretty excited with how things are going right now. He stated, “This is the best crop I have had in 23 years of farming.”

Kirk Martin stated, ” It has been going great so far. We are almost half-way done with cotton. The yields are little lower than we were expecting, but with these prices and still having an exceptional dryland crop, there is no room to complain. Peanuts are about three-quarters of the way done, and they made more than I expected and have graded out really well, too.”

Kirk added, “This is the most fun I have had farming out of the last five years. I am just thankful for the weather we have been blessed with this year.”

Tate Newsom said, “I am not very far along at all. It seemed to get ready really slowly. We should be running non-stop from here on out. It is making a little less than I expected but the price will make up for it, if it stays high.”

Right now, the market is better than it has been in a very long time. As Tate said, we all just hope it holds. These guys have had a long run of tough years. They deserve a bit of a break. Terry County really caught a break on rainfall this year, during the growing season. The rains fell pretty generally across the county, for the most part. The weather was good otherwise, allowing the cotton to use the heat units it needs to mature.

Looks like a banner year for Terry County cotton farmers, finally.

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