Cotton Specialists Expect Acreage Boom in 2011
January 4, 2011 If state cotton specialists’ initial estimates are correct, cotton will see a substantial surge in acreage for the 2011 growing season.
At a dinner for the specialists provided by Dow/Phytogen on Monday night, some of the nation’s leading cotton experts agreed that conditions are prime for a large cotton crop in the coming season.
“I suspect in Mississippi we’re going to have between 500 and 550,000 acres,” says Mississippi Extension cotton specialist Darrin Dodds. If true, that would represent an increase of as many as 130,000 acres over last season in the Magnolia State.
In general, though, the Mid-South states were projected to increase by the relatively small margins compared to other areas of the Cotton Belt. Texas growers could plant as many as 6 million acres in 2011 according to Texas Extension specialist Gaylon Morgan.
In the Southeast, North Carolina acreage estimates range as high as 800,000 acres, while top-end estimates for Georgia show the state planting as many as 1.6 million acres. Both state estimates represent a substantial increase over the previous growing season.
Specialists agreed that strong prices entering the 2011 planting season are the primary driver of the high acreage estimates.
The cotton specialists were gathered in Atlanta on the front end of this week’s Beltwide Cotton Conferences.
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