Cotton growers are studying their options now as they anticipate the 2025 planting season. James Bookhart is a technical agronomist with Deltapine in North and South Carolina and suggests with the current price climate, one major consideration must be yield potential.
“If you look at economic times, which is on a lot of people’s minds, obviously, because the cotton prices is just not where we like it to be, let’s be honest, and when you do that, you really have to do a good job of choosing the highest yielding variety, because you got to make pounds to come out of the out of the gin to maximize your benefits economically.”
With more and more extreme weather impacting the field, Bookhart says versatility is a key consideration.
“We don’t know whether we’re going to have that wet year or dry year for that matter. So we need products that will perform in a wide range of environments. So that would be my suggestion. Talk to me, talk to your experts in the field, and make sure you protect yourself and really are prepared for a challenging environment with the varieties that you choose.”
Regardless, he says, never give up on a cotton crop.
“We had an absolute challenging year where we had about eight weeks with no rainfall. Cotton looked pitiful. Then we had to direct hits with tropical storms, so an extremely challenging year, and lo and behold, our cotton crop exceeded expectations tremendously. So just the nature of the cotton plant and why we grow cotton in the southeastern United States, I think, was really emphasized in 2024.”
Bookhart recommends growers be aware of the trait packages that are in the marketplace today.
“We have ThryvOn coming on a lot of varieties, and people need to be aware of what thrive on brings to them, as far from a thrift standpoint, as well as plant bugs. And that’s something that people need to be aware of when they’re choosing a variety. The same as our nematicides or our nematode traits. You know, because our varieties now, or some varieties have root knot. Some have reniform, and some have root knot and reniform resistance, and growers when choosing varieties need to really pay attention to how those traits fit in their management system and fit on the pest that they have and how they do and things on their farm.”