By Emmy Powell
Communications Specialist

Farmers in the U.S. and Texas are expected to plant fewer cotton acres in 2023.

According to the National Cotton Council’s (NCC) 42nd Annual Early Season Planting Intentions Survey, farmers intend to plant 11.4 million acres in the spring, down 17% from 2022.

Farmers are projected to plant 11.2 million acres of upland cotton. That’s down 17.3% from last year.

Intended acres of extra-long staple (ELS) cotton, however, increased by 0.5% to a total of 184,000 acres.

“Planted acreage is just one of the factors that will determine supplies of cotton and cottonseed,” Dr. Jody Campiche, NCC vice president of Economics & Policy Analysis, said. “Ultimately, weather and agronomic conditions are among the factors that play a significant role in determining crop size.”

Dry conditions and high costs forced many farmers to abandon their cotton crop in 2022, and NCC is estimating that both factors will continue to influence the abandonment rate in 2023. The organization projects total harvested areas in the Cotton Belt to total 8.8 million acres for 2023 with a cotton crop of 15.2 million upland bales and 466,000 ELS bales.

“History has shown that U.S. farmers respond to relative prices when making planting decisions. Relative to the average futures prices during the first quarter of 2022, cotton prices are lower while the prices of most competing commodities are relatively unchanged. Price ratios of cotton to corn and soybeans are at the lowest level since planting the 2009 crop. In addition, production costs remain elevated,” Campiche said.

Farmers in the Southwest, including Texas, intend to plant 19.6% less cotton and indicate an increase in corn, sorghum and wheat acres for 2023.

Texas contributes to the large decrease in planting intentions with a decline of 21.2% to 6.2 million acres.

But planted ELS cotton acreage in Texas is expected to increase 18.2% to 39,000 acres. Across the Cotton Belt, ELS acres are also projected to increase by 0.5%.

Farmers in the Southeast intend to plant 2.4 million acres, down 9.5% from last year.

Mid-South farmers intend to plant 1.7 million acres, a decline of 16.2%, and cotton acreage in the West is projected to decline by 33.7%.

NCC mailed the questionnaire to farmers in the Cotton Belt in mid-December, and survey responses were collected through mid-January.

As farmers continue to monitor challenges and changes in prices and input costs, planting decisions may vary from when NCC distributed the surveys in December.