A look at Dunklin County's 2009 Cotton Crops

Aaron Jamerson, Charles Parker, Alan Jones, and Greg Harris, all Dunklin County farmers, display their new John Deer 7760 Cotton Pickers, which are equipped with an onboard module builder and were used during the 2009 cotton harvest season. The cotton pickers are being driven by Alan Jones; Chad Payne, who works for Jones; Greg Harris; Nick Gates, who works for Harris; and Aaron Jamerson. Photo courtesy of Sean Droke

A number of Dunklin County farmers recently noted that, although that farming cotton was challenging for the 2009 year, it was better than expected and could have been worse.

A long-term average precipitation departure of 12.50 inches was recorded from May 2009 until October 2009 in Dunklin County, according to University of Missouri Extension.

The University of Missouri Extension Dunklin County Weather Station data documented that the month of April in 2009 consisted of 4.25 inches of rainfall. The majority of this rainfall took place between April 27 and April 30 with 3.55 inches of the 4.25 inches, of total rainfall, occurring in these days.

The weather station's data shows that 6.53 inches of rainfall occurred in May of 2009. Of the first 11 days of May, only two of the days had no precipitation fall. The dry part of the month occurred May 17 through May 23, and May 27 through May 31, which recorded no precipitation. Following the month of May, the 2009 year had already accumulated 22.91 inches of precipitation, according to the data collected by the Dunklin County Weather Station.

The 2009 month of June only added 2.69 inches of rain to the running yearly total. This was due to only six of the 30 days of June recording precipitation at the weather station. Following the dry month of June, the first 15 days of July only recorded 0.15 inches of rain in three separate days, the first of these days being July 11. However the rain returned on July 16 with 3.19 inches of precipitation being documented at the weather station. Also, 2.53 inches of precipitation was recorded on July 21 and 2.43 inches was recorded on July 26. Although some days recorded several inches of rain, only a total of nine of the 31 days of July recorded precipitation. The total precipitation for the month of July was 9.78 inches, which brought the yearly total to 35.38 inches.

Five days in the month of August 2009 received precipitation with a total of 3.75 inches of rainfall. This month also recorded two full weeks of no precipitation, according to the Dunklin County Weather Station Data.

September 2009 documented the majority of its precipitation on the 5th, 14th, 16th, and 24th of the month. These days recorded a total of 2.28 inches of rainfall, which was noted by the data of the Dunklin County Weather Station.

Thirteen of the 31 days of October 2009 recorded precipitation with the most consecutive days without rainfall being six days in this month. These six days occurred in the middle of the month from October 16 to October 21. The total precipitation documented for the month of October was 9.79 inches, according to the Dunklin County Weather Station.

The first two weeks of November 2009 documented no precipitation and the first day of the month to record any rainfall was November 15, according to data documented by the Dunklin County Weather Station.

Glen Whitlock, of Kennett, noted that the heavy rain effected the cotton primarily at the beginning of the year. He added that following the first heavy rain, the cotton still "looked good."

After the middle part of the crop season, another heavy rain hit the Dunklin County fields, according to Whitlock.

Whitlock suggested that the crops turned out "mediocre."

"I would say it was due to rain and how late we were forced to plant," Whitlock said. "[The rain] kept us out of the field and from planting."

He added that the crop produced "about what expected," with the weather conditions.

Daniel Jackson, of Senath, Mo., noted that the rain caused fields, that usually don't perform well, to out perform fields that were usually consistent in performance.

"It could have been a lot worse," Jackson said. "[The crop] turned out better than expected, but was not as good as it has previously been."

Jackson added that the Wheat Bean produced the best crop result that it has ever put out due to the heavy amount of rain.

Steven's Gin Inc., noted that some of the crop received had been "better than expected," but some was still "really bad."

A representative of the gin added that the average was down quite a bit from the previous year.

"A lot of it was caused by the weather," the representative said.

He added that the cotton crop was rained on when it was opening and after it was opened. This caused less cotton to be available once it was time to harvest, according to the representative.

He noted that some of the cotton, which was the victim of the heavy rain, rotted once opening.

"[The crop] was better than we thought it would be, but still was not good," the representative said.

He added that if the two or three weeks in November, without rain, had not occurred then the farmers would have "missed the crop."