Happy to Split My Shorts
April 7, 2009 USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) says cotton plantings for 2009 will be 8.81 acres, down 7% from last year and the lowest since 1983.
When I saw that number at 7:30 a.m. on the morning of March 31, I was so happy I flipped over backwards in my chair and split my shorts. Boxers, not briefs.
It’s okay to think that along with splitting my shorts, my brains came out of my ears.
It’s okay to paraphrase Ellen Griswold from National Lampoon’s Family Vacation: “Henry might be going away for a little while.”
Oh, no. Happiness is relative. Hit yourself in the thumb with a hammer. Aren’t you happy when it stops hurting?
Well, that’s my comparison. Surveys by Cotton Grower and the National Cotton Council (NCC) were, respectively, 91,000 and 70,000 lower than that just a few months ago. Some estimates are now suggesting that acreage may well wind up at over 9 million, depending on the weather.
Remember that conditions have changed since we and the NCC took our surveys, but let’s look at some selected states:
It’s too hard to make Texas’ numbers fit with the chart, but Cotton Grower predicted Texas would have 4.6 million acres, NCC said 4.542 and USDA says 4.7. At the Texas Gin Show last week in Lubbock, there was some speculation that the High and Rolling Plains would have acreage increases high enough to overcome sizable weather-related acreage drops in the Coastal Bend and Rio Grande Valley.
Where cotton acreage will take its biggest percentage decreases again will be in Mississippi and Louisiana. USDA says Mississippi will have only 300,000 acres this year – the lowest ever. Louisiana will plant only 240,000 acres.
Last week’s poll question concerned the House and Senate wasting our time and money holding hearings on how the NCAA’s Division I determines a football champion in the midst of running up a $1.3 trillion deficit. We asked you how important a change to the NCAA’s system was. Here’s what you told us:
This week’s poll question is:
Do you think the USDA’s cotton planting intentions report is:
Too high?
About right?
Too low?
Click here to vote
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