From Droughts to Strategic Evaluations: The Resilient Journey of Cotton Producers in Southwest Oklahoma with Mark Nichols

Listen to KC Sheperd talking with Mark Nichols about what the Cotton Board is doing for producers and the condition of cotton in Southwest Oklahoma.

Farm Director KC Sheperd caught up with Altus Cotton Producer and Cotton Board Chairman Mark Nichols to talk about the recent National Cotton Council meeting, which was held August 6-8, at The Phoenician Hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona. At the meeting, the Cotton Incorporated staff presented the upcoming year’s budget to be approved by both the Cotton Board and the Cotton Incorporated Board.

As Cotton Board Chairman

One issue that the Cotton Board continues to work on is profitability on both the producer’s and the importer’s sides. “There are requests for proposals out right now to do a strategic evaluation of Cotton Incorporated’s procedures to reassure our stakeholders – producers and importers – that they are doing everything they can do to make sure that we are trying to help. We know that we are, but it is good to be able to show that we are doing everything we can,” Nichols said. “The next step is evaluating the cotton board’s communication staff which goes out to the stakeholders to assure them that we are doing everything we can in this tough market situation.”

While these evaluations have been a goal of Nichols’s since he took the Chairman position, he said that it wasn’t easy to get it done as Cotton Incorporated has never before had an evaluation conducted from an outside entity. “It was a challenge for everybody to come together on a path moving forward. We were able to get the process rolling and I will continue to chair the committee that will be in charge of the process.”

He added that his close friend and Cotton Incorporated Chairman James Johnson will serve as Vice Chair of the committee, and the evaluation is projected to be completed within 8 to 9 months.

As Altus Cotton Producer

Although Nichols irrigates his fields, the southwest Oklahoma heat and drought is no picnic for him. “Our cotton under pivots in Tillman County still looks good, but we are running on fumes as far as water goes,” he said. “In Jackson and Harmon County, we are in a much tougher situation. I’m hearing that guys in that area had really good crops, but water is beginning to play out on them. We are still likely going to make a better crop in Oklahoma than we had last year, because we had a good underground season from winter and spring rains. It’s sure not what we would hope for, though.”

The area missed most of the large rainfall events that much of the rest of the state saw in July and August. They had isolated pockets of rain, but the Drought Monitor continues to increase their drought status each week. “Harmon Country caught a little bit of rain. Clouds set over there for hours looking like they were getting big rains, but they only got ½ to ¾ of an inch. When it’s this hot and dry, you have to be watering while it’s raining for it to help very much.”

On a high note, Nichols said that pests have been less of a problem this year. “We used a new technology on our cotton this year called ThryvOn. It’s main purpose is to help with Thrips early season, and it may help a little with fleahoppers. We sprayed about 100 – 150 acres for fleahoppers and that is the only pesticide we have had to spray for insects.”

He said that grasshoppers have been very prevalent in dryland fields and caused problems early on, but as the cotton matured, it became less appealing to them.

The fate of the Cotton crop boils down to cooler temperatures and more rain which just isn’t in the forecast for Nichols and the other southwest Oklahoma producers. “By the end of August in the hot temperatures, this irrigated cotton will be pretty much a made crop,” he said. “It has a tremendous load on it right now, and if we can hold that for the next couple of weeks… that’s what we are looking at right now.”

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