Planting and Defoliation Timing Impacts On Cotton Yield and Quality

Timing of defoliation and planting can affect both cotton yield and cotton quality, which will impact net returns from cotton production. Typically, previous research has focused on examining these factors separately.  These effects can be further complicated by using a conservation system.  Cotton planting in conservation tillage with cover crops is typically delayed to avoid cool and wet soil conditions, which can inhibit crop establishment.  However, planting too late can impact cotton yields and quality due to cool, wet weather conditions at harvest.  Timing of defoliation is usually recommended when cotton is at 60 percent open boll, but defoliating earlier may increase cotton quality, although crop yield is likely to decrease, sometimes substantially. In contrast, defoliating too late may increase yields, but decrease cotton quality.  Discounts for poor cotton quality can add up quickly and any increase in yield will not be economically justified.  Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine economically optimal planting and defoliation dates for conservation tillage cotton that will maximize net returns.  Combining these results across multiple years should allow trends to become more apparent and enable different management strategies to be tested across various climatic and market conditions.