From hurricanes to drought, U.S. cotton crop farmers weathered a tough year.
When Hurricane Helene roared across Georgia, she took out almost one-third of the state’s cotton crop, leaving many farmers with no income and mounting debt.
On the other side of the cotton belt, the country’s biggest cotton patch, the Texas High Plains, looked to harvest a marginal crop at best, and faced a market in the doldrums.
University of Georgia Extension cotton specialist Camp Hand, Tifton, Ga., estimated the state lost 600,000 bales to the hurricane. Georgia farmers planted an estimated 1.1 million acres.
“Heavy losses occurred from Brooks County all the way up to Burke County. Yield loss occurred 250 miles from landfall. We saw some damage on the west side of the interstate (I-75), where rain on open bolls resulted in yield loss of less than 20%. We will also record some quality losses,” he said.
Insurance adjusters responded quickly, Camp said. “They were highly encouraged to pay out within 30 days.”
In addition to the immediate crop loss, farmers faced the daunting task of renovating fields. “We have a lot of erosion, not from Helene as much as Debbie, which hit in August. Helene didn’t bring much rain, 4 to 6 inches, but we had a lot of rain from the August storm.
“It will take time to bring the land back to productivity. And it will take time to repair roads,” Camp said.
Camp said damage to cotton gins appears to be minimal, but farmers did suffer damage to outbuildings.
“I’ve talked to some growers who had finally decided their cotton was going to break even,” he said. “Hurricane Helene is going to put those guys in the red.”
Cost-price squeeze
The combination of high production costs and low prices will be hard to overcome. “Some couldn’t pay their bank notes last year,” Camp said. “This year is worse. It will be tough to get another chance without government help.”
Too little rain and too much heat limited cotton production in Texas.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension cotton specialist Ken Lege, Lubbock, said this season marks three consecutive years with limited cotton production across the High Plains.
“The Texas Panhandle suffered two years of massive abandonment, across dryland and irrigated acreage,” Lege said. “It’s better this year. Abandonment will be minimal in the Northern High Plains, average to slightly above average but not nearly as bad as 2022 and 2023. Most irrigated cotton is in fair to good shape, depending on water availability,” Lege said.
Abandonment south of Lubbock will be greater, Lege said. “Irrigated acreage varies widely. They do not have enough water to irrigate fully. Fields with decent irrigation are few and far between.”
He said yields south of Lubbock “are very disappointing. Dryland losses are not at a historic level as the last two years but significantly above average.”
Producers are waiting to see how much dryland cotton remains to be harvested. “Anecdotal evidence indicates about 50% of dryland acreage has been released and is being shredded. Adjustment comes later. We could see more abandonment. That much abandonment is tough on gins, especially the ones that didn’t open last year.”
Delta
Cotton in the Delta fared better. Mississippi State Extension cotton specialist Brian Pieralisi expected cotton to be “slightly better than last year. The low end is not as low as last year. It’s probably an average or slightly above average crop, maybe an 1,100-pound average yield.”
He said one grower with fairly large acreage averaged three bales, or 1,500 pounds. Another grower with less acreage averaged 1,700 pounds.
“We’ve seen some very good cotton and have had favorable harvest weather, hot and dry,” he said.
June and July provided the biggest challenge.
“We had hot, dry conditions that were tough on cotton. We also had some wind and rain from Helene at the early side of harvest that resulted in some hardlock bolls on open cotton. Overall, it was about as mild as we could get from a tropical disturbance,” he said.
Harvest was almost complete as of late-October with a few fields of late-planted cotton to be harvested through mid-November. “That cotton is not as good.”
Irrigated cotton performed well “with a little water when needed. We’ve had better years, but this is not the worst,” he said.
Specialists say farmers will face a dilemma this winter as they review planting decisions.
“No one is excited about next year in this economic situation,” Hand said. “But many are not sure what else they would plant.”
Lege said grain farmers in the Northern High Plains may turn to cotton as water becomes even more limited, depending on commodity prices. “We have to learn to grow cotton in hot conditions.”
Pieralisi expected little change in Mississippi acreage in 2025. “We could drop a little but probably stay at 400,000 to 600,000 acres.”
Source: https://www.farmprogress.com/