In this post, I’ll provide data supporting what I have penciled to be an ~860 lb per acre average lint yield for Tennessee.  I’ll also provide a little background on how the USDA NASS numbers are generated and what we can do to make sure these estimates are improved when data is being collected by USDA NASS. Continue reading →

The 2025 Tennessee Cotton Variety Trial Results (PB 1742) publication is now available online.  Included within these results are fourteen large strip trials (CSTs) and six small plot trials (OVTs) testing 40 experimental and commercial varieties.

Special thanks to all of the agents and producers who helped generate this data.  Additionally, thanks to the USDA Classing Office in Memphis for assisting with this effort.  If you have any questions on location response or variety placement, please do not hesitate to reach out directly to your county agent.

Below you will find three average tables from the 2025 University of Tennessee Cotton Variety Testing Program.  The first link contains the averages from the 40 entries planted at six official variety trial locations.  The second link consists of two tables, the first table containing the averages from 13 XtendFlex varieties planted at eleven county standard trial locations and the second table contains averages from 6 Enlist varieties planted at seven county standard trial locations.  Special thanks to the USDA-AMS Quality Assurance Office in Memphis- I received the last of the quality data from their office this past Saturday.  These average tables are a precursor to the complete report, which will likely be complete later this week.  Continue reading →

We are close to the end but a few still have acres left to defoliate.  Others are considering applying another application to remove small amounts of leaf.  Generally, most all of the harvestable bolls are open.  Yields are off, in many areas considerably more than expected.  At this point, we need to consider what we have in the field and what we might gain from another defoliation application.  Most acres loosely break out to either 1,000+ lb per acre  or far less than 1,000 lb per acre.  The approach on these fields should generally be different. In this blog, I make a few comments and give a couple of examples of the best approach to wrap up 2025.

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Defoliating the 2025 crop just became more difficult.  While you wait for your fields to dry, I’ve got a document that I believe may come in handy over the next few weeks.  Each year, the MidSouth Cotton Specialists’ Working Group generate a defoliation guide.  This document is a collaborative effort between Dr. Bradley Wilson (Missouri), Mr. Tyler Sandlin and Dr. Joshua Lee (Alabama), Dr. Brian Pieralisi (Mississippi), Dr. Shelly Kerns (Louisiana), and Dr. Zachary Treadway (Arkansas).

The 2025 document is just short of a complete rewrite and is worth your time to peruse.  I’m particularly proud of the breakdown of the factors which influence plant response to product and rate along with the decision matrix and the streamlined program product selection guide.  Special thanks to each of the authors for their time on this revision!

I’ve had a flurry of calls wondering what should change as we move into slightly cooler and *possibly* wetter conditions.  I’ve also had several questions about why we’ve seen different responses to our concoctions this year than in years past.  In this short blog, I list a few points to keep in mind. Continue reading →

There has been uncertainty around the impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill.  I’m posting today to highlight a recent Cotton Specialists’ Corner podcast which covers this topic and let growers know about an upcoming meeting hosted by the National Cotton Council at the West Tennessee Research and Education Center (605 Airways Blvd Jackson, TN 38301).   Information on the meeting hosted next Thursday, Sept. 11th at 3PM can be found by clicking here.  

You can listen to the podcast by clicking here. 

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