Crop Outlook And Defoliation Playbook From Louisiana To Tennessee

Harvest season doesn’t wait for perfect cotton, and a hot, dry finish can turn “normal” defoliation into a real test. We sit down with Mid-South cotton specialists Dr. Shelly Kerns (LSU), Dr. Brian Pieralisi (Mississippi State), and Dr. Tyson Raper (University of Tennessee) to compare what they’re seeing across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee as pickers crank up and defoliation calls flood in. Acreage is nudging upward in several areas, early-planted cotton is showing strong potential, ...