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The 2013 winners – Johnny Little, Holcomb, Miss.; Linwood Vick, Wilson, N.C.; John Wilde, San Angelo, Texas; and Chad Crivelli, Dos Palos, Calif. – have continued the High Cotton Award traditions of growing good, profitable cotton in an environmentally friendly manner. And they’ve done it despite a less than favorable price outlook, excessive moisture in some areas and drought conditions in others and rising input costs.
John Wilde
Like many Texas and Oklahoma growers, John Wilde, this year’s Southwest High Cotton winner, is still battling the lingering effects of the Drought of 2011.
Wilde produced more than four bales per acre on a field of drip-irrigated cotton near Miles, Texas, in 2012. About 800 acres of the Wilde cotton operation, centered in San Angelo and including farms to the east near Miles and back west near St. Lawrence, are drip-irrigated.
“Water is the key,” says Wilde, who is doing all he knows how to make every drop count. Subsurface drip irrigation helps, as do reduced tillage and rotation and subsoiling between the drip tapes. He also uses furrow diking to reduce runoff and has installed wildlife vegetation strips on CRP land.
He is committed to producing the best yields possible. He’s also devoted to conserving soil and water so the land that has been in the family – some for as long as 100 years – will pass on to his heirs in better condition than when he took it over.
Wilde is also adamant about finding something to control root rot, the most economically devastating cotton disease in his area. He has a long term commitment to helping Texas AgriLife Research and Extension discover a management option for the disease.
Eight years ago, Wilde recognized the importance of increasing irrigation efficiency when they installed the first subsurface drip irrigation on 38 acres. Now they have 800 acres of drip-irrigated cotton. “We started small,” he says. “We had some of the first drip irrigation in the area, and we saw the benefits.”
They’ve reduced tillage over the past few years as well. “We’re not quite to minimum-till,” he says, “but we have reduced tillage.”
They also use reclaimed wastewater to irrigate some fields. “We filter it and put it through the drip irrigation system.”
His sons, Doug and Matt, work with him as partners on the farm. “It’s what they want to do,” he says. “And where else but a farm can you have the opportunity for parents to work so closely with their children?”
