e has grown double-row 30-inch cotton, he has averaged a quarter-bale more cotton per acre than convention, single row 30-inch cotton. However in a year like '05 Burns expects to yield a half bale more per acre with twin-row 30 than single row 30.
“Twin-row really shines in a poor planting season year like this year,” he said.
600 acres twin-row
Burns grew about 600 acres of twin-row this season, which is the maximum he can efficiently plant with his Monosem stagger planting unit planter. The rest of San Juan's 2,300 acres of cotton is single row 30s This season was one of those lousy years. It started late with cold wet weather delaying planting. The crop hit an blistering July hot spell with daytime highs above 105 almost all month long and then when the weather cooled and the crop began to set cotton in August and September, fall arrived early, precluding that late summer/early fall boll set from maturing into harvestable bolls.
Untimely rain is particularly onerous in UNR because San Juan's 15-inch cotton was planted flat and water stood in the field. The rain was not good for the other cotton on 30-inch cotton, but it was on beds and the water shed off the plant rows into the furrows.
Early in the spring Burns ran an all-in-one Eliminator cultivation implement once and pulled borders to pre-irrigate. He sprayed emerged weeds with Roundup just ahead of planting with a new Deere offset planter designed to plant 16 15-inch rows.
A week after he planted, it rained about 2 inches and the field crusted over. Burns ran a rotary hoe over it, and it started to come up when another 1.5 inches of rain fell on it.
May 8 stand
By then he needed to replant, but Deere had already trucked the planter to another state. So, he just decided to take what he had, assuming it would emerge.
“It was planted April 27 and we did not get a stand until May 8th,” he said. However, it developed into a “pretty decent” stand, he admitted.
After the stand was established, it was treated for weeds twice with Roundup on May 10 and May 25.
University of California Extension Cotton Specialist Bob Hutmacher, who is doing research comparing the three narrow-row production systems along with Madera/Merced counties farm advisor Ron Vargas said, “it's amazing Daniel got a stand considering the nasty conditions he encountered.”
After the cotton emerged, it never saw iron again until it was picked. His management, other than insects, was to water-run UN 32; about 125 units.
”It did not look too bad considering what we went through just to get a stand.” The established plants filled in skips well.
When it came time to pick, the 12-row Deere behemoth began rolling through the three fields.
“The picker had a row guidance system, but it was not equipped with GPS and it was a bear to pick the cotton. I had my best driver on it and he had a heckuva time finding the rows. And he could not drive after dark because he could not see the rows. The picker was the biggest downfall of the whole thing,” he said. There also were problems with weeds plugging the 12-heads.
The picker has operated in the South and Southeast, recording significant yield increases in 15-inch cotton. “I think the difference in the West is that we have bigger plants and that made it more difficult for the picker to operate,” he said. Burns surmised that UNR cotton in the South reaches only about two feet in height while Western UNR could be twice that tall.
He tried to mount the AutoFarm GPS guidance system he uses on tractors on the Deere picker, but it was not compatible with the harvester.
Burns said it was not a good growing season to evaluate the narrow-row cotton, but he still believes the potential is there. “We have not ginned all the modules, but it looks like one field of 15-inch cotton went one bale; another a bale and a half and another probably two and a half bales, which is not bad considering what we went through just to get a stand,” he said.
“There is no question the potential is there for 15-inch cotton if it can be picked with GPS,” he said. “There was a yield monitor on the pick