[Chappy]

We finally got back into the fields after some big rains a couple of weeks ago. Harvest overall has gone well but around 3 inches of rain keeps the big equipment out of the field. This past Wednesday we started back but could only harvest until sunset. Moisture rises in the evening and the cotton get wet from humidity and doesn't strip very well. The cotton and burrs get "tough". During the day we saw some mule deer out in the field on the far side. Looked like a couple of big bucks and 5 or 6 does. They were too far away for pictures but I did get a couple of pics from the tractor when they jumped the 5 wire fence and went into the neighbors cotton field.

On Thursday I could only see one buck. He got up and was grazing on the cotton for a bit before laying down in the field. About 30 minutes before sunset, tow big bucks were grazing again in the field. As we moved closer to them I was finally able to get some nice images just before sunset.

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[Mark Garfinkel]

Nice size mule deer. Someday I would like to see a cotton harvest and ride in the tractor. Didn't know that you had to stop harvesting before sunset, thanks for the education.

 

[Chappy]

Nice size mule deer. Someday I would like to see a cotton harvest and ride in the tractor. Didn't know that you had to stop harvesting before sunset, thanks for the education.

Here in west Texas we run a cotton stripper. It takes most of the material off of the plant. We have to defoliate the cotton to drop all of the leaves and open all of the bolls. On the stripper we have what is called a burr extractor that takes a great deal of the burrs, sticks and other materials out of the cotton. When the humidity rises to above 50% it starts getting tuff as the dead leaves, burrs and such gets spongy and brittle. This makes it hard to get the cotton through the machine and even tap dump it out of the baskets and hurts the quality grades of the cotton.

In other parts of the country they use pickers. They use spinning spindles that are serrated that grab the cotton and pull it out of the burr leaving much of the other organic matter on the stalk. Taking the cotton off of the spindles takes a little moisture on pads. The moisture helps the pads grab the cotton. Cotton picking works better in higher humidities and since the cotton is cleaner there is much less impact on the quality.

 

[Larry S.]

Love your “cotton critters”! Nice images

 

[Mark Garfinkel]

Here in west Texas we run a cotton stripper. It takes most of the material off of the plant. We have to defoliate the cotton to drop all of the leaves and open all of the bolls. On the stripper we have what is called a burr extractor that takes a great deal of the burrs, sticks and other materials out of the cotton. When the humidity rises to above 50% it starts getting tuff as the dead leaves, burrs and such gets spongy and brittle. This makes it hard to get the cotton through the machine and even tap dump it out of the baskets and hurts the quality grades of the cotton.

In other parts of the country they use pickers. They use spinning spindles that are serrated that grab the cotton and pull it out of the burr leaving much of the other organic matter on the stalk. Taking the cotton off of the spindles takes a little moisture on pads. The moisture helps the pads grab the cotton. Cotton picking works better in higher humidities and since the cotton is cleaner there is much less impact on the quality.

Thank you for the lesson and information.

 

[Rassie]

Nice work, sir.

 

[ssheipel]

Love that shot of the deer in the cotton; very cool!