High temperatures have wilted cotton plants, leading to poor yields and reduced fiber quality.
Image Credit: Mike Jones / Clemson University
This summer, extreme became the norm. Columbia had 17 days when the temperature exceeded 100 degrees, the highest number since 1993.
“And it wasn’t just Columbia,” said David DeWitt, Clemson Extension’s area row crop agent for Lee, Sumter and Kershaw counties. “Heat was a problem pretty much everywhere. With all these 100-degree days, it’s hard to make a crop. Corn is trying to pollinate. Cotton is trying to hold onto its blooms. When the heat is that intense and there are no rain showers to cool things off a bit, it’s just amazing that the plants are able to survive at all, much less produce anything.”
It is ironic that this summer’s dry conditions were immediately preceded by a period of above-average rainfall. It was as if the drought, well, fell from the sky.
“We had a wet winter that extended into March and April,” DeWitt said. “In fact, it was so wet, a lot of our corn acreage didn’t even get planted. And then we came to the end of April and the rain just stopped. In Darlington, Lee and Sumter counties, we received no rain — that’s zero tenths — from April 22 all the way through June.
“This is probably as widespread of a drought as we’ve had in more than 15 years,” he said. “And it’s had an unusual feel. Scattered pockets have received rain, but it’s as if Mother Nature drew lines that the rain couldn’t cross. I’ve had farmers tell me that one side of their field got rain and the other side didn’t. They’re looking at 600 pounds of cotton per acre on one end and 200 pounds on the other.”
The hot, dry summer has devastated corn harvests throughout the state.
Image Credit: David DeWitt / Clemson University
As if this weren’t bad enough, commodity prices for most crops are way down this year. And the few growers who managed to produce yields of relatively high quantity are likely to see decreases in the quality of some of their crops, as well.
“With cotton, excessive heat reduces fiber quality as well as yield,” said Mike Jones, Extension’s statewide cotton specialist and an associate professor of agronomy at Clemson. “The plants are under stress and don’t grow like they’re supposed to. They’re trying to conserve moisture and don’t absorb enough nutrients. The bolls don’t open properly, which makes the crop really difficult to harvest. Plus, a lot of cotton drops to the ground, where it can’t be picked up. Growers are going to be leaving a lot of cotton out there. It’s not an ideal situation, to say the least.”
Other crops are feeling cotton’s pain.
“Peanuts are really suffering, too,” DeWitt said. “Over the past few years, farmers have been averaging about two tons. This year we’re looking at some that will average less than a ton. And the dry, hot weather also introduces diseases and insect pressure that we wouldn’t have in a normal year, which further reduces yield. There’s just no way around it. Bad weather makes everything more difficult.”
This graphic shows the current seasonal water balance for a cotton crop planted on May 15 near Blackville. Water use (ETc) is the crop water used by evapotranspiration, the process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from soil. The rain deficit is the difference between crop water use (ETc) and rain.
To make matters worse, another potential problem is looming like a dark cloud. The climate phenomenon called El Niño, which is predicted to be unusually severe from late autumn through Spring 2016, is set to arrive at least a day late and a dollar short. The widespread effects of El Niño, which result from warming of tropical portions of the eastern Pacific Ocean, typically reduce the severity of hurricane season, but increase the winter and spring rainfall in the Carolinas. Though this would wash away any remnants of the drought, it could also induce heavy downpours that would hamper some of 2015’s remaining harvests.
“Farmers should be aware that if a window of opportunity opens to harvest, they should go ahead and do it,” said Jose Payero, Extension’s statewide irrigation specialist. “They shouldn’t sit around and wait, because excessive rainfall from El Niño could close the window for good.”
Source:clemson.edu