7/13 - West Texas: Here’s a good picture that pretty well illustrates the condition of the West Texas cotton crop. Spring planting rains were really spotty and most of the non-irrigated crop south of Lubbock has failed (Approximately 1 million acres). No rain means dry soils that equals violent sand storms like this one when storms roll in, off the mountains of New Mexico. This picture was taken just southeast of Lubbock, TX at my daughter’s home in the small lake community of Lake Ransom Canyon. The picture was taken facing to the west and the Lubbock skyline is usually clearly visible from this vantage point and there is a huge electric power generation plant only 3 miles away. This storm was packing 80 MPH winds and the sand literally shreds the young cotton cotyledon leaves that were emerging on the day of this picture (6/18). We lose much more cotton to sand storms like these that we ever lose to a hail storms.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 11:01 am and is filed under Softs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.