Cotton Harvest Pictures

We just about have our cotton harvest wrapped up here in north Texas. Crop was pretty good considering the drought. This is all dryland country. Averaged one half to three-quarters of a bale per acre. These are pictures of our cotton stripper, a Deere 7455 with a SH broadcast header, and our module builder and Ford tractor. Also there is a picture of the old Allis 880 that we didn't run this year because we didn't have that much to harvest.

Where at in north Texas? My nephew is a gin manager up at White Deer, east of Amarillo.
Don't see much broadcast cotton around here anymore in central west Texas. Thanks for posting the pics!

Elliott, Texas About 30 miles west of Wichita Falls.

Thank you for posting the pictures. Its always nice to see other parts of the country and how they harvest.

Bummer, I always thought that you southerner always picked by hand dragging a sack behind you. Anyway that's all the guy at work from the south would brag about. When asked if I ever picked cotton I would just say we have machines out here for that.
Walt

The obvious loss would take some getting used to. Grain I leave behind is hardly visible.
Kind of reminds me of when we grew red kidney beans. Yields got so poor we quit. Actual harvest loss was worse with a poor crop(small vines/pods, etc.) Then if you figured harvest loss on a percentage basis, it was horrendous!
I don't see the AC?

Our guess was Lubbock area; Cap Rock country. Good crop drought or no drought. Happy for you.

On the no field hands comment, back in the '60's Texas agriculture was having problems and the cause was that the fertile plains had been cottoned out. The natural nutrients had been exhausted.

A research station was established at Renner, TX. (now gobbled up by Plano some 30ish miles N. of Dallas). It was staffed by some PhDs from the A & M College and others. They published many papers with adequate pictures and published at least one hard bound book of their experiments. Very handy guide to the young farmer.

They got funding from PRIVATE interested parties that were concerned about the decline of productivity in the state.

They went to great lengths to show the farmers the benefit of commercial fertilizers and other things which did a turnaround on the poor productivity and the increase in TX. farm revenue.

The point here is that one of the findings of the research team was that "you cannot have a profitable business with manual labor". They highly stressed mechanization.

Course they were addressing dryland farming techniques in the blacklands (Houston Black Clay) of a good part of the state and the crops were usually rotated between corn, wheat, cotton, and milo. Crop residue was very important in soil moisture retention and breaking down of the clays and were stressed. The crops mentioned did that and helped to supply valuable nutrients back into the soil but supplemental fertilization was still necessary.

Mark

Interesting pictures about the cotton fields/harvesting. My part of the world does not have any knowledge about planting and the harvesting or what takes place during the growing season (for cotton). Whenever this information is posted alway's interesting to read how others grow crops and make their living from the land. Cheers, Murray

small world, Im in Wichita Falls, been here all of my 46 years, Travel to Vernon area often out to the power plant.

A/C pic didn't post.

I just spent a very nice week down in that area, ( Gorman TX) and saw some cotton harvesting going on there. Just beautiful weather the whole week, 60,s - 72 degrees and sun the whole week. Left just in time I guess by the weather reports. Trouble is had to go back to MI and plow driveways first day back. RB

Zach:

Good looking crop for a drought; THANKS for the pictures. Reminded me of when we grew cotton here in Pahrump, Nevada - last crop was 28 years ago. We had the ONLY cotton gin in the State of Nevada. I have the LAST bundle of sequentially numbered Bale Tags - (collectors items). Cotton Gin is gone now, in it's place is a large Hotel / Casino.

Again, thanks for sharing the pics; Happy Holidays !

Doc