Mixed report for 2023 Oklahoma cotton crop; acres planted up, yield down

STILLWATER ― Oklahoma cotton producers are bucking a national trend in 2023, planting more acres than their counterparts across the country.

This year’s Oklahoma cotton crop finished 35% higher in acreage over last year with a 13% increase in bales harvested. The cash value of this year's cotton crop in Oklahoma is roughly $88.5 million, according to Troy Marshall, Oklahoma Statistics for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Oklahomans planted 570,000 acres in cotton this year.

Nationally, the United States planted 11.1 million acres in cotton this year, down 19% from last year.

The state is forecasting the cotton harvest to end with roughly 350,000 bales. Yield is averaging 542 pounds per acre compared to 634 pounds per acre last year. Each cotton bale weighs 480 pounds. The effects of the current drought are seen in yield per acre. In 2021, yield per acre was 756 pounds and then dropped in 2022 to 634 pounds per acre. The yield drop continued this year at 542 pounds per acre.

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“This year we were blessed with a good cotton crop,” said 62-year-old Rodney Cowan. “This is the best harvest we ever had before.”

Cowan, who farms outside of Watonga, increased his cotton coverage to 1,200 acres. It was a gamble with the weather, but he said it paid off. He has been planting cotton now for five years.

“It gives a better return than wheat,” said Cowan.

Cotton production in the United States has been in decline for the last two years with 14.5 million acres in 2022 and 13.1 million acres this year, said Kim Anderson, Oklahoma State University agriculture economist. Oklahoma is bucking this trend.

“The weather made the difference,” Anderson said. “We started out really good rain wise, then it got dry, and then it rained some more.”

Cotton continues to be Oklahoma’s fourth-largest export commodity after beef, wheat and pork, but the uptick in this year’s harvest has cut into pork’s lead, said Marshall.

There are concerns, Marshall said.

Only 84% of cotton planted was harvested, while drought destroyed 16% of this year’s crop. Nowhere was the drought's toll higher than the Altus area in southwest Oklahoma.

“For Altus and the irrigation district here the losses are considerable,” said Maxwell Smith, Oklahoma State University assistant extension specialist. “It was another tough year due to the drought for many of our growers.”

Smith said the rain turned off in July and the heat turned on, destroying acreage.

Smith said there was good access to rain here and there, but yields were not as high as they would have been if there had been more rain.

Smith said a spot check of Oklahoma’s roughly 12 cotton gins shows they should be wrapping up processing by Christmas.

Besides southwest Oklahoma, cotton is produced in the north-central counties of Grant, Kay and Noble, as well as Texas County in the Panhandle. Cotton growers in the state’s north-central counties take their crop across the border into Kansas for processing. Oklahoma’s cotton gins are clustered in the southwestern part of the state.

Where does Oklahoma rank among national cotton producers?

In both acreage coverage and earnings, Oklahoma edged out Mississippi regarding cotton production.

The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture said the state is 10th overall in the United States for cotton production this year.

Oklahoma’s cotton crops peaked in the 1920s at roughly 5 million acres per year. The state’s rural population sustained itself as sharecroppers in the 1920s with entire families in the field picking cotton and spending their wages at local company stores with exuberant prices for retail goods.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma cotton crop acreage, bales harvested rise in 2023