Report: Kansas Cotton Dropped by Half

Associated Press/AP Online

WICHITA, Kan. - Cotton was once touted as a promising alternative crop for Kansas farmers, and cotton gins were built to handle the increased acreage as farmers took to the idea.

But a government report issued this week showed the state's cotton crop this season was reduced by more than half from last year as farmers returned to more profitable grain crops, such as corn.

"If you are in agriculture, you are used to this up and down," said Gene Latham, customer manager at the Southern Kansas Cotton Growers Cooperative in Winfield. "You have to play things closer to the vest and watch what you do, but you are still going to be in good shape with continued production."

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported in its December crop production forecast that Kansas will harvest about 45,000 acres of cotton. That is well below the 110,000 acres harvested a year earlier.

High yields averaging 533 pounds per acre were not enough to offset the decline, the report released Tuesday showed.

Latham blamed the decline in planted acres of cotton on high grain prices. Cotton prices have gone up, but have not made the huge climb that grain prices have made.

However, Latham was optimistic that many farmers will eventually return to planting cotton, especially in arid western Kansas, because input costs such as fertilizer and irrigation are so much higher for grain crops.

Kansas has four cotton gins. Latham's gin in Winfield, built in 1996, is the oldest, with another gin in Anthony built in 1999. The others - located in Moscow and Cullison - were built within the past four years.

While the decline in production has affected his gin's revenues, which are based on volume, Latham said he anticipated no layoffs at the Southern Kansas Cotton Growers Cooperative.

Before the sharp decline this season, the total acres of cotton planted in Kansas had generally shown steady growth since the early 1980s, when between just 400 and 800 acres of cotton were harvested. By 1992, harvested acreage totaled 2,500 acres.

Kansas has remained a relatively small player in the production of the U.S. cotton crop, which has also declined. The nation's forecast cotton production of 19 million 480-pound bales is down 12 percent from last year's 21.6 million bales, NASS reported.

The more modest cotton crop this season comes in spite of forecasted record yields nationwide of 864 pounds per acre. About 10.5 million acres of cotton were harvested across the nation, down 17 percent from last year.

On the Net:

Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service: usda.gov/Statistics-by-State/Kansas/index.asp

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