Cotton: Softer Side of West Texas
Jordan Williams, staff writer

During the month of October, the air turns colder, the days become shorter, and the leaves begin to change colors.

In West Texas, however, the scenery is different. The familiar sights are of running cotton strippers, module builders, and boll buggies dominating the spacious landscape.

In 1910, half of everything planted in Texas was cotton. By 1928, researchers figured out a way to irrigate the Panhandle, and 17,000,000 more acres were planted.

West Texas is known as the “nation’s cotton patch.” Nearly two-thirds of Texas cotton is produced on the South Plains, which overlooks the Caprock and sits about 4,400 feet above sea level. The winds can be brutal, the terrain unforgiving, the hail, drought, and heat unrelenting.

The state of Texas ranks first in the nation for exports of cotton, with nearly $803 million in sales abroad.

Just south of Lubbock sits the Nation’s largest cotton warehouse, the Farmer’s Co-Op Compress, with 8 million square feet of storage.

When local farmer Dennis McGehee talks about the family business, his eyes light up. You can see the excitement when he talks about that great season, and the pain when you mention that season when he got hailed out and lost nearly his entire crop.

“Some people say that I am not a farmer, but I know that I am,” McGehee said.

 Teamed with his son Heath, they own McGehee Farms. Together, in the Southland-Post area, they farm around 6,500 acres of cotton a year.

Earlier in the year, though, the weather took a major toll on their crops.

“We lost almost half of our crop due to hail or rain,” McGehee said.

After re-planting later in the season, this looks to be a promising crop.

“This year, everything has been so far so good,” McGehee said.  

Stripping season officially begins in October and can continue for two or three months.

“Depending on the weather, the process can be delayed even longer,” McGehee said.  

McGehee explained that there are two different types of cotton. Dry land cotton is planted on land where water is not readily available. The only water these crops tend to see is the precious rainfall they so desperately need. Irrigated cotton is on land that receives water either by way of a pivot or by drip irrigation. Pivots contain huge hoses at the ends, and literally pivot around the land, watering the thirsty plants. With drip irrigation, huge PVC pipes are placed in the rows of cotton, and the water runs down the rows, wetting the hard ground. There are massive wells on this land that continually pumps thousands of gallons of water daily.

This year, McGehee estimates to get one bale of cotton per acre of dry land, and two bales of cotton per acre land that has been irrigated.

“During the harvest season, we have 10 full time hands, including me and Heath, working,” said McGehee. “Right now, we have three John Deere 8-row strippers, three module builders, and three boll buggies we use.”

They try to employ one farm hand for every piece of equipment, with one extra to help when needed.  

One bale of cotton weighs about 480 pounds and is 55 inches tall, 28 inches wide, and 21 inches thick. One bale of cotton can produce one of the following: 215 pairs of jeans, 249 bed sheets, 690 Terry bath towels,      1,217 men’s t-shirts, 1,256 pillowcases, 2,104 pairs of boxer shorts, 3,085 diapers, 4,321 mid-calf socks, 21,960 women’s handkerchiefs, and 313,600 $100 bills.

After the cotton is stripped off the stalks, it is sent to local gins, where massive blowers dry the cotton. Then, it is tightly packed, and rotary saws separate the seeds, sticks, and leaves from the white cotton lint. Every minute, an average gin presses a 480-pound bale of cotton. Nothing is thrown away, and everything from the seeds to the oil from the seeds is used in something.

As of October 13, the price of cotton was 51.51 cents per pound. McGehee said he hopes that the early storms will not hurt this year’s harvest. With the harvest in full swing, McGehee will have to wait and pray that this year will be productive and successful.