Cotton Grower Acreage Survey: American Acres to Hold Flat in 2026
January 13, 2026 Just as the cotton market has remained stagnant and subdued throughout 2025, so too has enthusiasm for planting the crop as the nation’s producers look ahead to 2026.
For weeks, the Cotton Grower staff has conducted a thorough survey of cotton producers, Extension specialists and other industry stakeholders with unique knowledge of the American cotton industry. Over that time, respondents pointed to a broad range of issues that would impact planting decisions in the spring of 2026. One issue stood out due to the frequency with which it was referenced by survey participants — subdued market prices and, inevitably, their relation to input costs.
Widely respected North Carolina Extension Cotton Specialist Guy Collins made his low acreage projection “all because of prices,” he wrote. “Cotton has become a very expensive and high-risk crop to grow with very thin margins.”
Echoing many of his industry peers, Collins did recognize a grace note for growers of the crop in his state – a very successful year for yields.
“Many growers made high yields across the board this year and last year,” Collins noted, “yet they barely broke even.”
This was the prevailing sentiment among respondents to Cotton Grower’s 2026 Cotton Acreage Survey, conducted between the third week of November and the third week of December 2025.
In that survey, U.S. cotton producers indicated they will plant a total (upland and ELS) of 9,005,000 acres of cotton in the 2026 crop year. This total would represent a slight decrease from 2025, a year which saw USDA peg final cotton plantings at 9.277 million acres. The total of 9,005,000 acres, if realized, would represent the smallest U.S. planting total since 2015, when American production fell to 8.6 million acres.
Texas Leads the Way
Producers in the Lone Star State will once again produce over half the nation’s crop, if survey results hold true. Growers in Texas indicated they would plant some 5,220,800 acres of cotton next season. This projection would represent a modest decrease from 2025 acres – — and some respondents suggested they could see Texas plantings go higher.
“We had really good yields and fiber quality,” wrote Ken Lege, Extension cotton specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife. “While the commodity price was lacking, the volume we produced helped rescue the ginning and related industries. I think growers, many of whom are invested in gins, will want to build on that success and the momentum it represents.
“Additionally,” Lege wrote, “for most of Texas, there are few alternative crops. And most of those crops’ price aren’t much more attractive vs cotton.”
Elsewhere in the Southwest, Oklahoma producers also indicated their acreage would be down in 2026, but only marginally. Their projection of 375,000 acres would represent a decrease of only 10,000 acres from final 2025 tallies.
Georgia Finds Some Footing
With only 840,000 acres planted in 2025, Georgia’s growers had planted a historically small crop. But if their responses to our survey are to be believed, they will rebound in the coming year. Growers in the Peach State intend to plant 900,000 acres in 2026, according to survey data.
University of Georgia Extension Cotton Agronomist Camp Hand mentions peanut pricing points, and the cotton market, as the two biggest factors holding cotton acreage down – although there are others in play as well.
“None of this is taking into consideration issues we had with cotton jassid in 2025, and how that may have left a bad taste in some growers’ mouths,” Hand said. “On a good note, we are likely staring down the barrel of the second-best crop Georgia growers have ever produced.”
Elsewhere in the Southeast, growers aren’t so optimistic. Alabama producers have indicated they will plant 255,000 cotton acres in 2026, down significantly from 2025’s 290,000 acres – and dramatically from the 400,000 cotton acres growers there planted in 2024. Major factors here include “…market uncertainty and threat of a new invasive insect pest (cotton jassid),” wrote University of Auburn Extension Cotton Specialist Joshua Lee.
Mid-South Acreage Dwindling
Nearly every state in the Mid-South indicated that its cotton acreage would be down compared to 2025. But to best capture the extent to which acreage is decreasing in the Delta region, it’s best to compare 2026 projections with final totals from 2024.
Arkansas producers, for example, intend to plant 450,000 acres in 2026, according to the Cotton Grower survey. This represents a whopping 200,000-acre decrease from 2024.
Similarly, Mississippi producers indicated they would plant 340,000 acres of cotton next season – down significantly from the 520,000 acres of growers there planted in 2024.
“We have skinned our Mississippi acres down to fewer growers and isolated to the best land suited for cotton production,” said Mississippi State University Extension Cotton Specialist Brian Pieralisi. “We had a really good year in terms of lint yield, but still a lot of growers are not returning a profit.”
Far West Plantings Holding Flat
Producers in Arizona, California and New Mexico indicated mostly flat planted acreage expectations for 2026. In many cases, all variables remained largely unchanged from the previous year.
“I think things will probably be pretty similar, no shift either way,” said Dr. Randy Norton, University of Arizona Extension Cotton Agronomist. “There is less appetite for alfalfa – particularly in the western counties, up to Maricopa. And there’s not a huge appetite for going back in with more cotton in many places.”
Producers in Arizona indicated they will plant 100,000 acres in 2026 – down only 6,000 acres from the previous year.
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