Arkansas Cotton Gins At All-Time Low Despite Most Productive Gin in the U.S.
While the number of cotton gins in Arkansas has declined to tie the all-time low of 26 set in 2015, the state still boasts the nation’s busiest gin.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, tracks the number of gins in the United States.
“Gins close for various reasons: a decline in cotton acreage, obsolescence, and consolidation with another gin,” says Scott Stiles, Extension Economics Program Associate for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. “It’s the continuation of a long-running trend.
“Are 26 gins enough? Maybe so,” he notes.
“The sheer number of gins seem small relative to the almost 2 million bales of volume ginned in 2024, but the overwhelming majority of gins are running well over 40,000 bales through them,” he says.
Stiles said Arkansas had the gin with the highest output in the U.S. in 2024 — McClendon Mann & Felton Gin in Marianna — ginning 242,706 bales of cotton that year.
A Challenging Crop
Cotton is a challenging crop to grow.
“Production costs are high relative to soybeans,” points out Stiles. “It’s management intensive. The harvesting equipment is one-dimensional and takes a massive capital investment. On top of all that, for the U.S., cotton is an export-dependent crop, and world trade of cotton is becoming more competitive each year.”
In recent years, Arkansas’ cotton acreage stayed in a range of 450,000 to 650,000 acres with growers responding to the market. Last year, Arkansas harvested 640,000 acres of cotton, according to NASS.
“The top end of the range was where we were in 2024 and that did extend the ginning season into early 2025 for a few gins,” Stiles says. “That was longer than usual.”
In its March 31 Planting Intentions report, NASS reported Arkansas farmers were expecting to plant 580,000 acres of cotton this year.
“There’s some question whether we will reach that level,” Stiles says. “It sounds like we’ll be closer to 500,000 acres.”
Planting cotton has been slow this year. In the May 12 Crop Progress report, cotton was 36% planted.
“That’s close to the five-year average of 37% but behind last year’s 44% percent,” explains Stiles.
However, on May 12, “the fields are wet and progress may be nil this week,” he says. “If the planters are parked all of this week, soybeans might start to look good. Beans made a nice run higher after the USDA report.”
Despite the challenges, “Arkansas had a state record average yield in cotton and the highest state average yield in the U.S. — in spite of Hurricanes Francine and Helene,” Stiles notes.
How’d they do it?
“We can attribute a lot to our producers,” says Zachary Treadway, Extension Cotton and Peanut Agronomist for the Division of Agriculture. “They did a phenomenal job of managing the crop and making the best of some bad situations, like two hurricanes in three weeks.
“Cotton is resilient too,” he adds. “So even though we took those storms basically back-to-back, the crop was able to rebound. The weather last fall was warm and very kind post-hurricane, which helped us dry out from the rains and get through harvest in a timely manner.”
The Stats:
- Arkansas’ cotton acreage increased by 27%, or 140,000 acres, to 650,000 acres, which is the highest since 2011. As noted above, 640,000 acres were harvested.
- Arkansas’ average yield in 2024 was a record 1,341 pounds — highest in the U.S.
- Total production was 1.788 million bales. That was up 426,000 bales from 2023 and the highest since 2007.
- Arkansas’ cotton production ranked third in the U.S. behind Texas and Georgia.
Information from the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
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