From the ground up: Cotton farmers having a difficult harvest

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - This year’s drought conditions have affected all types of crops. Plants like cotton that usually thrive in dry conditions are even having a difficult growing season.

Dry temperatures and rising input costs have farmers struggling to make harvest.

“You might call it a perfect storm this year because not only do we have difficulty growing a crop, but we spent more money than ever doing it. So we’ve had higher temperatures than ever, we’ve had higher temperatures for a longer period of time than ever, we had more expensive inputs than ever, and we had to work harder than ever,” said Brazos Valley cotton farmer John Malazzo.

Cotton usually is good in warmer temperatures but the crop still needs relief from the heat.

“The difference has been the nighttime temperatures. This cotton here never got a chance to cool down. It stayed hot all night and the plant just used all of its carbohydrates trying to survive rather than reproduce,” said Malazzo.

Malazzo thinks this will be a season farmers are going to remember for a very long time.

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