Get The Most From Your Cotton Harvest Aid Program
By Bill Robertson
Cotton Grower
Each crop year presents a different set of challenges, prompting many producers to recall the number of experiences they have had in farming as opposed to how many years of experience they have farming. The 2024 growing season is running ahead for most by about a week based on USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Information reports released the end of July. Some regions are running as much as two weeks ahead of the last five-year average. This certainly calls for an evaluation of your harvest aid strategy and program.
A harvest aid program’s main objective is to preserve the crop’s quality. It is often stated that defoliation is as much of an art as it is a science. A big part of the art is reading the plant, while a big part of the science is knowing how products work.
10 Tips for Program Evaluation
Establish your target harvest window dates. In order to finish on time, we have to start on time.
Know your harvester capacity. Most harvesters are stretched thin. The more acres on a machine, the earlier we have to start to avoid being excessively late on the back end.
Don’t wait on your neighbor. Oftentimes the only real decision with timing is the initial application. After that, we just stay ahead of the harvesters.
Don’t get too far ahead. Hardlock and other related issues can take a big bite out of profits if we treat too many acres at one time. Cotton is more weatherproof with leaves on the plant.
Know your varieties. Some varieties will wait much better than others. Varieties that tend to string out and be in the discount range for mic must be moved accordingly.
Consider maturity and harvest anomalies. Relying on percent open bolls alone to trigger harvest aids can sometimes put you behind by as much as seven to 10 days. Use multiple techniques to evaluate maturity. Boll slicing is much more reliable to evaluate maturity. In some regions, a day lost on the front end of the harvest window can translate into a week’s delay on the back end of harvest with a wet fall.
Consider regrowth potential. Favorable temperatures and moisture coupled with excessive nitrogen at the end of the season can make life difficult. A single shot approach for defoliation and boll opening is often not as successful as we would like. Any delays in harvest usually will trigger an additional trip across the field to address regrowth. Build regrowth control in these situations on the front end.
Note temperatures before, during, and after application. Defoliation and boll opening is an active process. Plant activity of cotton slows greatly when nighttime temperatures drop to the low 50s and upper 40s. Hormone-type products such as ethephon and thidiazuron should be used when the plants are active and sufficient heat units are available. Once low temperatures have occurred, further fiber and seed development slow to a snail’s pace.
Rank growth and weeds. When canopy penetration is reduced, greater concentrations of product are delivered to the top of the canopy that can result in greater levels of desiccation. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by trying to do too much with any single application.
Be mindful of application techniques. Follow recommendations for product rates, carrier volume, and droplet size to ensure performance. Use a coarser droplet size if carrier volume is a little less and speed of the ground applicator is a little faster than recommended.
Considering these tips, coupled with local Extension recommendations, can help you modify your program where needed to help maintain yield and quality potentials of this crop for improved profitability.