Drought and poor prices loom as cotton producers begin a new season, but industry leadership sees hope on the horizon.
Despite the ongoing drought, cotton acreage is expected to increase within the Plains Cotton Growers’ 42-county coverage area. But before seeds are sowed, growers are looking to the sky for moisture and for tools to help them navigate difficult economic times.
“We’re still in dire need of good moisture going into planting season,” said PCG CEO Kody Bessent.
Outside of moisture, conditions are prime. Soil temperatures are adequate, the weather is warm, and some areas have “good, deep soil moisture,” Bessent noted. But to plant, growers are going to need rain.
“We are in a tremendous drought,” confirmed Brent Coker, Lamb County, Texas, producer and PCG president. “It’s about as dry as I’ve ever seen it, and we can get really dry out here.”
Bessent and Coker recently spoke with Farm Press at PCG’s annual meeting in Lubbock, Texas. PCG’s cotton producers are expected to plant 3.2 million to 3.5 million acres this season, about 100,000 more than last year, but still below the historical average of 3.7 million acres, Bessent said. Across Texas, growers are projected to plant 5.6 million to 5.9 million acres.
While they wait for rain, “everybody’s at a bit of a loss about what to do,” Coker said.
His plan is to plant more cotton, but between the drought and escalating fertilizer prices, he’s going to be more conservative.
“We just can’t get too much money in this crop until we receive some rain,” he said. “My plan is to get a crop up and established before we start fertilizing heavily.”
On some of his acres, he’s applied compost and manure purchased from local feedyards. Coker’s holding off on his nitrogen applications until it rains.
“We usually put out dry urea this time of year,” he said. “But with the prices and the drought, the combination of both, I just can’t do it right now.”
Agriculture grants
Despite these challenges, growers have reasons to remain hopeful. Bessent, who noted the dire farming challenges over the last couple of years, said this year, there is a sense of optimism.
“It’s still challenging, don’t get me wrong, but the tone and feel is very different than what it was a couple of years ago,” he said. “There’s a lot more tools available.”
Coker echoed his sentiments, noting cotton’s recent policy wins. “Cotton has been very well treated, from federal subsidies to [House Bill 43] that we just got passed through the statehouse to support our gins,” he said.
HB 43, passed during Texas’ most recent legislative session, also supports Texas growers. The bill includes the following grants targeting four agricultural industry tiers:
AgPRO, or the Agriculture Production Resource Opportunity grant, is available to producers, who the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) defines as an “individual or entity directly engaged in the production of agricultural products for commercial purposes, including crops; livestock; forestry products; hydroponics; nursery stock; or aquaculture, whereby 50% or greater of their gross income is derived from those products.”
Bessent said applications are currently being accepted and that producers of any age or size can take advantage of the funds. The deadline is 5 p.m. on May 14.
Grant recipients will receive a minimum of $5,000 and no more than $500,000, while also being required to provide a cost share toward the total project cost, an amount specified in the program guidelines.
To be eligible for AgPRO, grant funds must benefit a Texas location, and applicants must be Texas residents. Minors are eligible with involvement from a parent or guardian, and prior TDA or federal funding will not affect eligibility.
“There’s not a hard-copy form. You do have to go through the online portal,” Bessent noted, adding that the process is user friendly. However, applicants must register a TDA-GO account at least 72 hours before applying.
It is also important to remember that AgPRO is a reimbursement grant, and funds are not provided up front.
Buying American Cotton Act
The possible passage of the Buying American Cotton Act, a policy PCG has aggressively sought support for, is another tool that would benefit growers and the industry as whole.
“It will help with increasing sustainable demand for domestic cotton producers,” Bessent said.
He explained that the bill’s incentives become greater the “closer [brands and retailers] are to home.”
“Whether you’re consuming cotton in the U.S. through a retailer or brand, there is an incentive base that rewards you for doing that,” Bessent said. “The further away you get from the U.S. — let’s say, if you’re a country that’s in a free trade agreement with the U.S. — you get a different type of initiative. And then, if you’re in a country that’s still doing business with the U.S., but not part of a free trade agreement country, you get a little less incentive.”
Bessent is optimistic the bill will pass. “It certainly encompasses the ‘America First’ agenda that President [Donald] Trump and the administration have built out since his tenure, even in his first election, and now in his second term,” he said. “Now the goal is to keep it bipartisan.”
As the cost of doing business continues to rise, Bessent said market prices unfortunately reflect the lack of demand, which is “all the more reason for the Buying American Cotton Act, just to spur demand, spur market prices in a natural manner.”
One Big Beautiful Bill
More tools creating optimism are the provisions included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed into law last summer. The bill includes several farm bill safety net provisions, including:
- raising the reference price for Title I programs (Price Loss Coverage and Agriculture Risk Coverage)
- increasing the marketing assistance loan rate from 52 cents to 55 cents
- enhancing crop insurance tools for better risk management
- allowing restructuring of operations (e.g., joint ventures into limited liability companies or an S corporation) and treating them the same as pass‑through entities under the program
In the fight
PCG celebrates its successes while recognizing challenges, and Bessent highlighted the growing momentum these tools are creating to advance the industry.
“I think that’s what’s giving people some pause and hope,” he said. “When everything materializes, it will help producers stay in business while markets correct themselves and develop with a long-term, sustainable solution to our demand issue that was born of a market-share loss to Brazil and others.”
In the meantime, Coker said PCG will continue to battle on behalf of the industry and its growers.
“The battle never stops. We’ve got to continue to fight,” Coker said. “Whether it’s pesticides or it’s farm benefit relief, we need to be looking for the next opportunity to see what we can inject ourselves in and try to make something good happen for the farmers on the High Plains.”
Take a look through the following gallery to see who attended the 2026 Plains Cotton Growers annual meeting.
Source: https://www.farmprogress.com/