The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Prospective Plantings report estimates Georgia cotton acreage at around 1.2 million acres for the upcoming season. It would be comparable to what the National Cotton Council projected earlier this year, says Taylor Sills, executive director of the Georgia Cotton Commission (GCC).
“Earlier this year, the National Cotton Council projected Georgia to plant around 1.1 million acres. Now, the USDA has us around 1.2, which I believe is what we relatively planted last year,” Sills said. “The difference in the two time periods is the cotton market. We’ve still got a little ways to go before we get there. We feel confident that it’s somewhere in that range. We’ve got a lot more unknowns over the last couple of years than we traditionally have. It just goes to speak of the issues that our farmers face in multiple arenas.”
According to the report, Georgia planted 1.19 million acres in 2020. But this year’s bump in acreage is still well below the 1.4 million acres planted in 2019.
“We did have a big crop that year. Hopefully, we’re on the up and up as we move forward,” Sills said.
Sills believes that cotton could start to be planted in the middle or last part of April. But the vast majority will be planted in May.
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