By Clint Thompson and Dale Sandlin
Georgia cotton growers are struggling to stay afloat amid low prices and the state’s lowest acreage since 1993.
Camp Hand, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension cotton agronomist, used the Georgia Cotton Commission’s mid-year meeting on Wednesday to stress the importance of growers using credible management options heading into the second half of the season.
“One thing I talked about here at the mid-year meeting, this crop is listed at 68 cents for a December contract. It’s far below the cost of production. It costs 90 cents a pound to grow it and sell it for 70. It just doesn’t work out,” Hand said.
“But we need to ensure that we’re utilizing inputs that nearly guarantee a return on investment. All of these unproven products, snake oils if you want to call them that, we just need to be mindful of utilizing those things and make sure we are putting ourselves in a position to stay in the black or just less in the red. Utilizing those products, trying to push cotton out of stress or whatever it might be, that’s not the way to do it.
“We need to do things that we know are going to nearly guarantee a return on investment.”