Farm Director, KC Sheperd, is visiting with Mark Nichols about Oklahoma’s cotton crop. Nichols is the President of Jess Mark Nichols Farms, Inc. and President of Hess Farms, Inc., a fourth-generation farm he has managed since 1980. He farms with his brother-in-law, son, and son-in-law, growing irrigated cotton, wheat, and milo. Recently, the Cotton Board elected a new slate of officers to serve one-year terms, including Nichols.
The Cotton Board, Nichols said, is the arm of the industry that collects the fees on the bales produced. The Cotton Board contracts with Cotton Incorporated for research and promotion, he added.
“The big deal right now in the industry is traceability,” Nichols said. “That all came from the China issues. So, there was legislation passed in Washington that restricts the imports coming in from that part of China. That turned into a big traceability issue in the industry, and how do you trace where these products are coming from.”
There is also a lot of focus on regenerative agriculture, Nichols said, and what that means to different people.
“We are not sure exactly what regenerative means,” Nichols said. “They are actually working on a definition of what that means right now.”
Nichols also talked about the condition of Oklahoma’s cotton crop.
“It is pretty tough out here, even when we have water, or had water, a lot of the wells in Tillman County, western Jackson County, Harmon County- a lot of those wells are starting to give out on guys,” Nichols said. “It is so tough because we had such a beautiful crop to start out with.”
With enough rain through the spring to help last year’s crop along, Nichols said that when it turned hot and dry, the crop collapsed in a hurry.
“I think we are looking at the same kind of crop we had last year in Oklahoma,” Nichols said. “There is going to be a little bit harvested. There is just not going to be a lot of acres harvested.”
Nichols said he expects Oklahoma’s cotton crop to be ready to harvest around October.
