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Title: The Drought is Worse than 2011 for an Area Known as the Largest Cotton Patch in the U.S.
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URL Source: https://www.agweb.com/news/crops/co ... -known-largest-cotton-patch-us
Published: Jul 24, 2022
Author: Mike Rivero
Post Date: 2022-07-24 19:41:46 by Horse
Keywords: None
Views: 28
Nearly 57% of Texas is in extreme drought, and with the most severe level of it parked over West Texas and the Texas Panhandle, the drought is starting to rob even irrigated cotton fields of a crop. USDA's supply and demand report earlier this month showed higher cotton abandonment due to deepening drought in Texas. The harvested area is to be nearly 600,000 acres less - or 32% abandonment - which is the third-highest on record. The last time Texas saw cotton production forecasts so bleak was in the drought of 2011. Then, multiple days of triple-digit heat, combined with deepening drought, pushed abandonment to a record 36%. This year, the situation for farmers around Lubbock is worse, as the drought started earlier, and now the consecutive days of temperatures in the triple digits, along with no rain, is creating historically dry conditions. “The biggest problem in West Texas is there's absolutely nothing to fall back on,” says Brad Rippey, USDA meteorologist. “There's no subsoil moisture. Or there’s very little topsoil moisture. And so with each day of triple-digit heat continuing to add insult to injury, we've got more than 70% of the U.S. cotton crop considered to be in a drought area right now." 
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