07/27/2000

2000 Cotton Expo Yet Another Casualty of Summer's Severe Drought

AUBURN, Ala.—Many Alabama cotton producers probably already had their calendars marked for Aug. 17 and 18. Those were to be the dates of the 2000 Alabama Cotton Expo, an event presented by the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station (AAES) and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.

This year's two-day expo was to feature the latest in cotton production research going on at both the AAES's Prattville Experiment Field in Autauga County and the E.V. Smith Research and Extension Center in the Elmore County community of Shorter.

But the 2000 Cotton Expo fell victim to Mother Nature.

"This year's expo has been canceled due to the drought," said Dale Monks, Extension cotton specialist and associate professor of Agronomy and Soils at Auburn University. "The purpose of these field days is to give farmers a chance to see and learn new things that can help them in their operations. If we held the expo, all they would see this year is drought-stressed cotton similar to the crop failure most of them are experiencing."

At the cotton research fields in Prattville, farmers were supposed to have heard about the latest findings in insect and weed control and about the performance of several different cotton varieties. At E.V. Smith in Elmore County, in addition to more variety trials, they would have benefited from researchers' findings on soil fertility and alternative tillage methods for cotton.

The crops at both locations, however, are in extremely poor condition.

"We're still trying to keep the research projects going, but we wouldn't have much additional information to present to the growers who attended," Monks said. "Plus, when you're 'showcasing' a crop, you want to present it at its best, and this year's crop obviously is suffering."

Autauga County has been hit hard by the extreme drought situation. As of the last week in July, about 46 percent of the 10,354 acres of cotton farmers had planted in the county had been declared a loss and plowed up. In Elmore County, while fewer than 100 of the county's 14,097 acres of cotton had been plowed up, Extension Agent Rick Beauchamp was predicting growers would harvest only about 30 percent to 40 percent of a normal crop. Drought, coupled with hail from a storm system that swept through July 20, has taken a heavy toll on the crop, he said.

Normally, cotton at the E.V. Smith Research Center is irrigated, but Monks said equipment problems and a water shortage stymied most of those efforts this year.

The Alabama Cotton Expo is a bi-annual event. The 1998 expo, held at the Tennessee Valley Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Belle Mina, drew more than 350 cotton producers.

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News from:

Office of Ag Communications & Marketing

Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 Comer Hall, Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)

Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu

07/27/00