An abundance of untimely rainfall has forced many cotton growers in Georgia to push back their planting.

While many people believe you can’t get too much of a good thing, don’t tell that to those that have had to delay their planting date due to heavy rainfall throughout April.

“Yeah, we always get excited about getting started to plant. This year we’ve had a lot of difficulty with too much rain and got a late start. We normally start planting cotton in our area around, somewhere around the 10th or 15th of April. This year, we didn’t get started until the 28th of April,” said farmer Bart Davis.

That means growers are already a couple of weeks behind schedule in the process. It also means many have started planting in less than ideal conditions.

“It’s been sort of a struggle. We’ve had to actually work from fields and do a little planting a little bit damper than we’d like to. Normally, we’d be at 70 percent planted now, but we’re only 30 percent today,” Davis said.

It hasn’t come from a lack of effort as farmers spent more time than usual preparing the fields in wet conditions.

“Well, this year took a little extra because we had several big rains, 4, 5, 6-inch rains. So we actually had to go in and do a little maintenance on washes and waterways ahead of the planting. So it’s taken us a little longer. It slows us down a little bit,” said Davis.

Growers remain optimistic about getting everything planted on time, but they’re at the mercy of Mother Nature.

“It’s starting to get a little critical. I mean we can get the crop in by the end of May, we just have to have the weather to work with us. We can get it planted if the weather will work with us from here on,” he added.

While growers have encountered their fair share of obstacles this planting season, the amount of acres is likely to remain steady.

In fact, the number might actually increase as rains earlier this year could cause corn acres that couldn’t be planted to turn into cotton.

“The total U.S. crop will probably be close to 11 million acres, which is pretty much on par with where we’ve been, give or take. I think with the weather that way it has been we may see a little more cotton planted,” said Chris Chammoun, with the Georgia Cotton Commission.

That is good news for growers and the industry as a whole as demand for U.S. cotton is projected to remain strong thanks to competitive prices and a shortage in other countries.

“Yeah, I think U.S. cotton is going to remain competitive. If you look at cotton, it’s a true global commodity. Right now, the reports coming out of Australia is that their cotton crop may be a little low. Same in India, their cotton crop may be a little low. China, parts of China have actually experienced some pretty wet conditions like we’ve experienced, so their crop may be a little low,” said Chammoun. “As far as prices go, prices are still looking pretty good for cotton right now. The December futures prices is getting close to about 85 cents, which makes it pretty competitive with other crops.”

The Commission continues to support research in the industry.

“We actually at the Cotton Commission just completed one of our board meetings where we approved almost, or actually, a little over three quarters of a million dollars of research. So we actually hope that this year is going to be good not only for the farmers, but also for our researchers that we fund every year.

Source - http://www.rfdtv.com/