cotton

Georgia ’25 Cotton Acres Expected to Decline

Clint Thompson Georgia

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By Clint Thompson

Georgia’s cotton acreage for the upcoming season is expected to drop amid low market prices. But Camp Hand, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension cotton agronomist, said Georgia’s reliance on cotton farming will prohibit most growers from cutting back a lot of their production acres.

“I’ve told people, I was at Beltwide (Conference) a couple of weeks ago, in Georgia, we’re married to it; for better or worse or death to us part. We’ve got the gins, we’ve got the pickers, we’ve got the infrastructure and dryland acres that you can’t plant anything else on,” Hand said.

“What else are we going to do? A lot of guys are going to shorten up their peanut rotation, and that’s fine for a couple of years. But at the end of the day, we need a little help in getting this thing turned around. That way we can get back on track with right rotations which will help peanuts out, and it’ll help cotton out, too.

“I don’t see how we go much lower than we did last year, but it’ll probably happen.”

Acres in 2024

Georgia produced 1.1 million acres last year, which was a decline from the 1.25 million produced when cotton was selling much higher. Now it is around 68 cents per pound. It is likely to lead to additional peanut acres planted this season and less cotton acres.

“I’ve told (UGA Peanut Agronomist Scott Monfort), I can see a world where we plant a million acres of cotton and a million acres of peanuts,” Hand said. “I can see a world where something like that happens. I think it’s unlikely, but it could happen.”