ABSTRACT

Cotton production in the Mississippi Delta is influenced by weather scenarios each year for the final outcome. Weather and weather-related factors are by far the most limiting factors in yield and quality for each cotton crop. Cotton cultivars have been developed in consideration of climate windows that occur in order to take advantage of both precipitation and dry times during the growing season. Management decisions with an economic impact develop when any particular year does not follow near normal weather patterns. Yields are affected for the better or worse depending on the timing of weather events during critical growth stages. In 2002, the Mississippi Delta cotton crop had an excellent profit potential due to near perfect timing of particular weather events, until harvest. Tropical moisture, from the Gulf of Mexico, developed into eleven rain events over ten weeks beginning with the second week of cotton harvest and ending almost a month after the prime harvest window. Yields and quality were drastically reduced from their earlier potential. Final Delta average yield numbers emphasized this potential and outcome. Even with the damage and lateness of the harvest, the Delta was still above the annual state average compared to prior years. If the Delta would have had a near optimal harvest season, there is little doubt that record yields would have been recorded.