Weekly in-season Updates
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INFORMATION |
May 15, 2006 Talkin’ Cotton With the recent drought not forgotten and not completely over, dryland farmers, particularly cotton farmers, do their best to conserve every drop of moisture in their soil. No-till and minimum tillage practices, the management of residue left in the field to prevent erosion and to prevent water runoff, are ideas whose time has come, according to Dr. J. C. Banks, OSU state cotton specialist. Dr. Banks, also the director of the OSU Southwest Experiment Station south of Altus, Ok., believes these practices are a beneficial way to grow cotton. No-till farming first became a way of life in the 1960s, Dr. Banks says. "Today, it is the preferred way to grow cotton." Modern planting equipment allows farmers to plant seed effectively in ground cover. Acceptance of no-till has been slow by some farmers, Dr. Banks says. Generations of farmers have been proud of their clean, weed less fields. Growing up in Washita County, Oklahoma, Dr. Banks has come into contact with this belief of farmers more than once. "In 2002, I established a 25 acre no-till test plot in Washita County," he remembers. "Using a no-till planter, I planted the plot myself and while I was working there, a farmer who knew me walked out in the field and watched me for awhile. Finally, he came over to me, pointed to the residue on the ground and said, 'Your dad wouldn't have liked this." Now, times have changed, Dr. Banks believes. TALKIN' COTTON is a feature of NTOK Cotton, a cotton industry partnership which encourages increased cotton production on the Rolling Plains of North Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. For more information on the current cotton scene, check out our website, ntokcotton.org. For comments or questions about Talkin' Cotton, contact us at lventerprise@westok.net
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