Cotton harvest underway

Average temperatures across the state for the week ending Aug. 26 were slightly higher this week than the previous week, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, Southern Plains Regional Field Office, Texas. Bands of rain brought from trace amounts up to 2 inches of precipitation to South East Texas, the Upper Coast, parts of Central Texas the Trans-Pecos, the High Plains and the Northern Low Plains. There were 6.6 days suitable for fieldwork.

Field preparations continued for the 2019 wheat and oat crops. Early winter wheat seeding was underway in areas of the Northern High Plains.

Cotton was setting bolls in the Northern Low Plains; however, flea hopper presence was reported in irrigated fields. Cotton harvest was underway in the Blacklands, East Texas, South Central Texas, the Upper Coast, South Texas and the Lower Valley. Producers in the Northern High Plains were using pesticides on sorghum to control populations of sugarcane aphids and head worms. Rice harvest was nearing completion in South Central Texas. Soybeans harvest continued in the Upper Coast.

Pecan leaf scorch was showing up in some orchards of North East Texas. The pecan crop was in need of water in areas of the Trans-Pecos. Cantaloupes and watermelons were progressing well in South Texas. Producers in South Texas and the Lower Valley were preparing vegetable land for planting.