North Alabama farmers are harvesting mixed corn yields but predict better-than-average soybean and cotton crops.

Spring rain left fields water-logged, stunted crop growth and forced farmers to replant, causing a month’s difference in many farmers’ oldest and youngest corn, said Larkin Martin of Martin Farms in Courtland.

A summer dry spell also damaged some fields.

“Corn really needs moisture when it’s tasseling,” she said. “Some fields were tasseling and were hurt. Others were tasseling at a different time and had adequate moisture.”

While corn yields vary from field to field, Martin said, she expects a successful soybean yield.

Charles Burmester, extension agronomist, said he’s heard corn is average or above average.

Rain has been good for soybeans, but cotton needs sunny, warm days to mature, he said.

“It’s been a very good year as far as (cotton) production,” he said. “The biggest drawback right now is all the cotton is later than normal.”

Late replanting

Some farmers didn’t replant until the end of May, about a month behind normal, because of rain in the early part of the month.

Cotton crops are better than average, while acreage and the price of cotton continue to decline.

The August price received by farmers for cotton was about 48 cents per pound, up 1.2 cents from the previous month but 10.1 cents below August 2008.

The prices received by farmers in August for soybeans and corn per bushel were $10.70 and $3.31, respectively.

Gin managers in Limestone and Lawrence counties said they expect improved yields on fewer acres.

“We’re expecting a really good crop out of it,” said David Dollar, manager at Moore and Newby Gin in Athens.

“It’s going to be at least two and a half weeks later, but as far as the cotton, it looks really good.”

Dollar said he expected cotton harvesting in his area to begin around Oct. 15. Farmers harvested around the last week of September in previous years, he said.

“It was so cold starting off the year,” he said. “They tried to get it in, and when they did get some decent weather, it turned off cold and killed a lot of cotton and they had to go back and replant.”

Bobby Greene, president of Servico Inc. in Courtland, said he hopes for a warm, sunny fall.

“The yield potential is there,” he said.

“We had a very mild summer from a temperature standpoint, not much heat stress or water stress.”

According to the National Weather Service, 2.26 inches of rain has fallen this month at Pryor Field near Decatur. In August, 4.09 inches fell. No portion of Alabama is experiencing drought.

Farmers reduced cotton acreage during the past three years as the price of cotton decreased. Input costs for cotton are another reason for the switch.

According to the National Agriculture Statistics Service, Madison County topped all
Alabama counties in cotton
production in 2008 with 51,600 bales.

The 26,000 acres the county’s producers harvested averaged 953 pounds per acre. Other top producing counties were Monroe, Houston, Limestone and Escambia.

Lawrence County produced 20,600 bales on 14,800 acres at 668 pounds an acre. Limestone County produced 24,100 bales on 14,900 acres at 776 pounds an acre.

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