Cotton Farmers

DeltaRed · Nov 22, 2016

Curious. How many 'bales' of cotton come from an acre? How heavy are the bales.? Average yeild?Days to 'maturity? Thanks. Steve

shaun wallace · Nov 22, 2016

Here in West Central Texas a bale to the acre is good dry land cotton. Bale is 4-500#.

showcrop · Nov 22, 2016

Aren't they called "units" ?

JMS/.MN · Nov 22, 2016

I"m still looking for an AC cotton picker/stripper. Would be a good attraction for local threshing shows. I do have one contact in western TX, also TN, but no leads. email open.

Pair-a-dice farm · Nov 22, 2016

(quoted from post at 22:03:51 11/22/16) Curious. How many 'bales' of cotton come from an acre? How heavy are the bales.? Average yeild?Days to 'maturity? Thanks. Steve

According to the University of Arkansas, the state average is about 2.5 bales per acre of ginned cotton. Irrigated cotton can fetch a bale to the acre more. I don't know what the days till maturity is on the new varieties, it used to be around 140 days.

LAA · Nov 22, 2016

Depends on type of cotton grown and location, Louisian grows mostly ''short staple'' varieties and two 500 pound bales to the acre is an excellent yield with 1 1/2 bales being considered the average yield. California grows mostly ''long staple'' varieties in the San Joaquin Valley and the yield is almost double that of most southern states.

Zach from TX · Nov 22, 2016

AC strippers were and still are very popular here in this part of TX. We still have ours although we don't run them anymore. Still have a old AC dealer now Agco that fixes them up for resale. Used to 1/2 bale was considered good yield here. This year we are making way over a bale some fields almost 2 bales. Poor old AC machines don't handle that kind of cotton very well.

fixerupper · Nov 22, 2016

JMS, there used to be an Allis dealer in Cordell Oklahoma that had some AC strippers sitting around. Last time I was there about ten years ago the dealer had become a huge Kubota place.

Old Bob · Nov 22, 2016

A guy who post on here as Rick Deere has an odd self propelled cotton picker that is definitely different. It is not an Allis Chalmers.

Good luck.

JMS/.MN · Nov 22, 2016

I have been in contact with him as well...gave him some info regarding my TN contact who had a machine similar to his.

Old Bob · Nov 22, 2016

Looked back at out previous text, it is a Ben Pearson Rust.

Traditional Farmer · Nov 23, 2016

Used to be a bunch of the D17 cotton pickers in Eastern NC,they ran 'backwards' with a single wheel on the rear.And had a reverser so it had 4 forward and backwards gears.

NEKS · Nov 23, 2016

Would like to see some pictures on here of cotton pickers working, old and new. Know nothing about cotton, only what Johnny Cash and Charlie Pride sing about.

Leroy · Nov 23, 2016

What tempeture does cotton need to grow?

JMS/.MN · Nov 23, 2016

That would be a shuttle shift...lever like the Power Directer (hand clutch), but different operation with internal components being different. It was used on loader tractors and fork lifts.

gene bender · Nov 23, 2016

With the newer balers wouldnt lbs per A seem more modern as some now are round others are module new hybrids and fert i would think make a diff. So diff soils and moisture there would be lots of variables

keh · Nov 23, 2016

Cotton likes hot weather. Planting time is well after the last frost in the spring. Here in SC It had plenty of time to grow before fall frosts. It can be picked well after Christmas, but no one wants to do that. Cotton also tolerates dry weather well.

KEH

Smalltowner · Nov 23, 2016

Do you remember the Oliver 2 row pull type strippers? Model 23A I think, not sure, but they were everywhere in this (Ellis) county back in the fifties when cotton was king here. A 30 HP tractor would pull one but 40 or more was better. I remember a lot of Farmall M or Oliver 77's pulling them. You had to have a guy in the trailer "throwing back" to fill the trailer with about 2 bales worth of loose cotton and then off to the gin. The cotton was defoliated with a sprayer in September which killed the leaves. Nowadays they wait for the first killing frost because the defoliate was outlawed. Spraying cotton was a bad job and probably did a lot of harm to some farmers back then.

JMS/.MN · Nov 23, 2016

google "cotton picker videos" or pictures.

showcrop · Nov 23, 2016

(quoted from post at 19:33:08 11/22/16)
Aren't they called "units" ?

I meant "modules"

Pair-a-dice farm · Nov 23, 2016

. The cotton was defoliated with a sprayer in September which killed the leaves. Nowadays they wait for the first killing frost because the defoliate was outlawed. Spraying cotton was a bad job and probably did a lot of harm to some farmers back then.

Cotton is still defoliated, at least it is in Arkansas. It may not be the same chemical as before. We haven't had cotton on our farm in a number of years but because of boll weevils, the stalks had to be cut before a certain time, December 1st I think. Our renter quit growing cotton because of the boll weevil tax that was added to cotton ground to cover mandatory spraying.

jim buford · Nov 23, 2016

I grew up on a cotton farm in the 40's and 50's and by the time I left the farm after high school cotton pickers were just beginning to be used to any extent. Way back then we didn't defoliate but waited for frost so we picked (by hand) the hill cotton first. It was usually Christmas before the cotton was completely harvested. At that time a bale (500#) per acre with the seed removed and a price of 40-50 cts per pound was considered good and any more was gravy and we got paid for the seed as well. A family of 4 who all worked in the fields could handle 15-20 acres if one didn't want to hire help. This was in Western TN and no one irrigated here.

Copperhead don't play · Nov 24, 2016

As a boy I hated Cotton. We were allowed by the government to plant 13 acres.
I hated chopping cotton (do you know what that is ?).
I hated hoeing cotton (do you know what that is ?).
My sisters were the best hoe'rs in the county. Ha Ha
And, I hated picking it so bad that if it was left up to me every one would have to go naked.

mb58 · Nov 28, 2016

Get this book from Amazon. I have read it and it is very interesting. It explains in detail how the cotton picker was developed, how share-cropping worked, and also covers the different varieties of cotton seed available back in the day. I found it interesting that Deere kinda waited until Harvester developed the cotton picker and then moved in and built their own picker, improving in areas they thought needed it.

SECOND GREAT EMANCIPATION: The Mechanical Cotton Picker, Black Migration, and How They Shaped the Modern South
by HOLLEY DONALD Hardcover
$ 39 95
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