It’s go time (Camp Hand): It is that time of year again – the planting conditions calculator says
“excellent”, meaning that cotton planting is imminent. I know many people are excited to officially put
2020 in the rear-view mirror, but in the words of Lee Corso (college football analyst), “Not so fast my
friend!” Last Friday (4/2) we finished ginning the on-farm variety trial samples from 2020. Our new
ginner, Chandler Rowe, is a champ and worked hard to make sure we got those samples ginned last week.
With that being said, the finalized lint yields for the 2020 on-farm variety trial is now posted on the UGA
Cotton Team website, and can be found here: https://www.ugacotton.com/2021/04/finalized-2020-onfarm-variety-trial-lint-yields/. Although variety decisions are probably already made for many growers,
there will inevitably be changes and some people may even have a change of heart and decide to plant
cotton this year. If that is the case, I would urge you to refer to the 2020 results prior to settling on a
variety. These provide a good guideline and can help you discern which variety has the best fit on your
farm.
If you have your variety picked out and are “sitting on go”, I would encourage you to check out the
planting conditions calculator from our friends at NC State. It can be found at this link:
https://products.climate.ncsu.edu/ag/cotton-planting/. You can select your location, and the calculator
then utilizes the National Weather Service 7-day forecast to calculate DD-60’s and can determine what
planting conditions look like for any given location. It’s a great resource and can assist in planting
decisions.
As always, your amazing county extension agents, along with myself and the other specialists, are here to
help. If you ever need anything don’t hesitate to ask. Be safe out there, and happy planting!