This year's monster cotton crop on the High Plains is causing thrills and chills among producers and ginners, Texas Cooperative Extension reports.

Extension agronomist Randal Boman said the High Plains is expected to produce a record 4.6 million bales of cotton this year, up from the previous record of 3.5 million bales. However, much of the crop is still in modules in the field.

The excess production could be attributed to the record rainfall and very healthy dryland crop, he said. "We've got more cotton this year than we have in probably 10 years," said Michael Brooks, Extension agent in Howard County.

Producers were surprised by the quality of the county's 120,000-bale crop, he said, since they expected the grade to be lower after the record rainfall. Instead, the grade was higher.

According to http://www.cottoninc.com , cotton is graded by color and by how much leaf tissue, or trash, is in it. The higher the cotton is graded, the more it is worth.

The rain wasn't all good news, though, Boman said. The wet fields made it difficult for strippers to get into the fields to harvest the cotton. "We had a real dickens of a time getting it harvested."

The biggest concern for the High Plains crop is the micronaire, or maturity of the cotton. Boman said the micronaire isn't as high as would be liked because of the cool growing season.

David Hawkins, Extension agent in Briscoe County, said the harvest in several thousand acres has been delayed due to wet fields. Conditions prevented the producers from working in the fields and lowered the crop's grade.