Agricultural News
Cotton Acreage Survey Suggests Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas Growers to Lead Another Record Crop
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 16:18:41 CST
According to the results of the annual Cotton Grower Acreage Survey, cotton producers are expected to plant 13,661,889 acres across the US during the next crop season. This would make the combined crops of 2018 and 2019 the highest two-year total of planted cotton acreage since 2005 and 2006 - assuming those numbers are realized.
Although the expected total for planted acres this year falls just short of 2018's total of 14,042,000 acres, USDA statistical data indicates that 2019 could potentially mark the highest total of planted acres in the past decade.
Cotton Grower Magazine reported that growers were "generally rewarded for the large amount of cotton they planted in 2018, with moderate market price increases and significant yield gains playing a major role in the optimism cotton growers displayed for the crop in 2019." The magazine contends that the market situation unfolding here in 2019 continues to favor cotton with the added potential for cotton prices to increase slightly during the year as well if competing crops stay at their current price levels. While current global trade disputes have created uncertainty for several crops - including cotton - it appears growers have more faith in cotton than in soybeans as a result of that ongoing situation.
The Cotton Grower Acreage Survey was conducted in November and early December of 2018, collecting its largest response the survey's history. This has helped to capture possible one of the most accurate snapshots of growers' general attitudes going into this season, with distinctive differences noted region by region. Once again, based on the summary report, it looks as though the Southwest region of the Cotton Belt will continue to leads the way with a projected 8,279,000 acres in 2019 - slightly lower than the previous year.
Of that total projection, Texas - which is for the most part already at its maximum capacity for cotton - is expected to plant over 7,243,000 acres of the crop.
Producers in Oklahoma and Kansas though, continue to grow more excited about the crop. Oklahoma could see an increase in cotton acres this year, up to 825,000.
"This increase will be driven by the success cotton producers had in 2018, and the fact that cotton seems to be providing one of the best values from the crop options our producers have," said Seth Byrd, state Extension cotton specialist with Oklahoma State University.
In Kansas, producers are also expected to increase cotton plantings to more than 210,000 acres - up from 165,000 acres in 2018.
Source - Cotton Grower
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