Our farming operation is a diversified one. We farm about 2,000 acres of row crops with a split of 900 acres of cotton, 550 acres of corn, 350 acres of soybeans-wheat, and 150 acres of peanuts. We also have a 1,000 herd swine farrowing and grow-out operation.

We have been involved in evaluation of the GOSSYM cotton growth simulation model for the past two years.

In 1984, we were late in getting everything together. We had a very wet spring. Our cotton was planted on time, but then we had to replant because of stand problems. We finally got the cotton up and established about mid-May. The computer and weather station needed to run the GOSSYM program were also late arriving. They were installed during July and we made our first runs late in the month.

With the crop well along at this time, we didn't realize the full potential of GOSSYM in 1984. However, we did find it useful in scheduling irrigation and estimating the nitrogen status of the crop.

Multiple runs of GOSSYM in 1984 predicted we would increase yield by irrigating on July 25 with 1 inch of water. Although we didn't have a comparison with cotton that was not watered, we feel cotton yield from the test field was increased as a result of this water addition.

Similarly, multiple runs of the model predicted an addition of 20 lbs of N on August 6 would increase yield 80 lbs of lint/A. This was later than we're accustomed to applying nitrogen, but we decided to make the N addition. We are satisfied this extra nitrogen was beneficial and resulted in a yield increase.