(Editor’s note:  This post will be updated annually in mid January with the most recent year’s production numbers.)

When you are really close to something, you sometimes forget that other people will find things you know somewhat automatically of interest. That’s the case with a couple of posts I’ve written over the past couple of years talking about the leading states. People seem to love to know where the most cotton is grown in the U.S. and today (Monday, January 12, 2015) was the day of the year that the USDA sheds more light about the past season! So…. guess how I’m spending my evening!

The USDA Crop Production 2014 Summary gives a lot of information and it will be poured over by lots of economists, media and more. This is my initial take on things related to my favorite fiber.

The Overview of 2014 Cotton

The Annual Production report always opens with quick overviews of each of several key crops. Cotton is one of the most important crops in the U.S. so it is always included in the summary. As I read it, I have to giggle how some of it seems to be a bit boring.

All cotton production is estimated at 16.1 million 480-pound bales, up 1 percent from last month and up 25 percent from 2013. The United States yield is estimated at 795 pounds per acre, up 22 pounds from the December forecast but down 26 pounds from last year. Harvested area, at 9.71 million acres, is down 2 percent from last month but up 29 percent from last year.

If I was to have written the same overview, it would have a lot more “color.” Aw heck, let me go ahead and write one with the same information!

Wow! 2014 was a better year in cotton than we expected! Farmers produced more than 16 million bales of the natural fiber which is a little more than we expected last month and is up 25 percent from last year. When you look at the average yield, how much each farm produced on average, it was almost 800 pounds per acre. Again, we had low-balled it in December — by 22 pounds! Despite that gain, it is still down 26 pounds per acre. The acres harvested were up almost a third from 2013, clocking in at 9.71 million acres of cotton.

How many acres of cotton are grown in each state?

Cotton is definitely a Southern crop and the list of states growing my beloved fiber are mostly places where people who like warm weather feel most at home. Yes, cotton AND Janice love the sun & heat! There is one state that has amazingly large acres devoted to the fluffy fiber! Everything’s bigger in Texas and that is certainly the case when you look at the thousands of acres planted. Texans planted more than 6.2 million acres of cotton in 2014! Georgia was a distant 1.3 million!

1. Texas:  6,217
2. Georgia:  1,380
3. North Carolina:  465
4. Mississippi:  425
5. Alabama:  350
6. Arkansas:  335
7. South Carolina:  280
8. Tennessee:  275
9. Missouri:  250
10. Oklahoma:  240
11. California:  212
12. Louisiana:  170
13. Arizona:  165
14. Florida:  107
15. Virginia:  87
16. New Mexico:  48
17. Kansas:  31

How much cotton is grown per acre?

It is interesting to me that cotton production varies so widely when it comes to how many pounds or bales are grown per acre! I You can see that California and Arizona have much higher production numbers per acre than Texas and Oklahoma in the chart below. Of course, the costs of production differ widely too!

Remember as you look at these numbers in pounds per acre than a bale of cotton weighs approximately 480 pounds… so while Texas and Oklahoma are only a little bit over a bale on average, California and Arizona were in the three bales to the acre zone! I sorted based on yield per acre.

1. California                 1,726
2. Arizona                     1,453
3. Virginia                    1,239
4. Arkansas                  1,193
5. Mississippi              1,183
6. Louisiana                 1,171
7. Missouri                   1,117
8. North Carolina       1,049
9. Florida                        914
10. Alabama                     910
11. South Carolina         898
12. New Mexico              878
13. Georgia                      876
14. Tennessee                 875
15. Kansas                       861
16. Texas                         581
17. Oklahoma                 578

Which states grew more cotton this year? Which grew less?

Looking through the numbers in the overview, I had to wonder, where the extra cotton came from this year. One way to look at that is to check and see which states had higher production per acre this year. I mean, every year some states do better than the year before and every year is seems a few fall on bad luck. So where did farmers grow more pounds of cotton per acre? Well, Virginia farmers definitely noticed the increase pounds in 2014 and the Southwest had a tough time.

1. Virginia:  298
2. Florida:  253
3. North Carolina:  250
4. South Carolina:  207
5. Missouri:  149
6. Alabama:  121
7. Kansas:  104
8. California:  98
9. Arkansas:  60
10. Georgia:  45
11. Tennessee:  22
12. Arizona:  8
13. Oklahoma:  -13
14. Mississippi:  -20
15. New Mexico:  -43
16. Louisiana:  -52
17. Texas:  -65

How many bales of cotton did each state produce?

When you look state to state, the yield per acre and the overall number of acres comes together to provide a look at how many bales of cotton each state produced…. but I have to say the acres grown really seems to catapult Texas to the top! The numbers are thousands of bales so Texas produced more than 6 million bales of cotton in 2014! That’s a lot of blue jeans!

• Alabama:  660 (+70)
• Arizona:  492 (+8.8)
• Arkansas:  820 (+100)
• California:  755 (-188)
• Florida:  200 (+25)
• Georgia:  2,500 (+180)
• Kansas:  52 (+11)
• Louisiana:  410 (+84)
• Mississippi:  1,035 (+316)
• Missouri:  570 (+74)
• New Mexico:  73 (+7)
• North Carolina:  1,005 (+239)
• Oklahoma:  265 (+111)
• South Carolina:  520 (+160)
• Tennessee:  492 (+78)
• Texas:  6,013 (+1,828)
• Virginia:  222 (+71)

More on Cotton

If you are interested in reading more about how cotton farmers produce this awesome fiber that becomes our favorite jeans and hoodies, check out my cotton 101 page where I have highlighted some of the many posts about cotton on the site! And you can always give me ideas for more pieces to write here in the comments section!

The post Which states produce the most cotton? Acres, Pounds & More appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

This past week my Twitter pal @ArveyColumbus sent me a link to a report from one of the organic textile groups. The report said in part:

Despite the recession, manufacturer demand has helped increase global organic cotton production by 15% in 2009-2010, according to a new report by sustainable textile non-profit Textile Exchange, formerly known as Organic Exchange. The Organic Cotton Farm and Fiber Report reveals that India, Syria, and Turkey are the leading organic cotton producers in the world.

Organic Cotton Now Represents 1.1% of Global Cotton Production

Production of organic cotton has grown from 209,950 metric tonnes (MT) in 2008-2009 to 241,276 MT, which is just over 1.1 million bales, grown on 1.14 million acres of land in 2009-2010. According to the Textile Exchange, these figures show that organic cotton now represents 1.1 percent of global cotton production.

via Global Organic Cotton Production Increased 15% in 2010 : TreeHugger.

Since I’ve worked in the cotton business a long time, profess my love of the fiber in my Twitter ID and blog address so Cheri thought I may have some thoughts to share on the topic. Although we traded some quick tweets, its far easier to really put my thoughts together in a blog post. So I’ll touch on a few topics raised in this report. And I have to say, if any cotton experts read this, please point out if my logic or info is incorrect. I worked on this over the weekend, did my own research and would appreciate insight others in cotton can offer. 

Increased organic cotton production in 2010 — This report says organic production grew 15 percent in 2010. That sounds very plausible to me. If you look at cotton production in 2010 compared to 2009, there was about 14 percent increase globally of cotton production in total according to the USDA-Foreign Ag Service according to the January 12, 2011 report. (Screen capture here as I’m not sure how long that report will be live.) With that in mind, organic cotton seems to have increased similarly.

India, Syria and Turkey were the leading producers or organic cotton — Part of Cheri’s interest was about US organic cotton production. I know a few farmers who have grown organic cotton. The crop, like other organic crops, offers a premium to farmers who go through the certification program. This report cited production in foreign countries and there was some interest from Cheri about whether more organic, local cotton production was anticipated. From what farmers tell me the current premium & market doesn’t provide them the incentive needed to plant more organic cotton. Having been to two of the three countries listed (Turkey & India) and having seen their cotton production methods first hand, I think the ability to use manual labor and sometimes child labor has a direct impact on cost of production there whereas US crops are far more mechanized.

Part of the reasoning I’ve heard is that insects can be devastating to cotton — and if you aren’t familiar with the incredibly high insect populations we can have in the Cotton Belt, I’ve got friends in the Delta who would be glad to let you try to sit outside for an evening in July. There are bugs that will eat any and everything, moving or not. Cotton produces some great plant sugars, etc that attracts some of those insects when plants are flowering or putting on bolls. If you want to see some of the insects that can inflict economic damage on cotton, check out this photo library at Texas A&M (caution, seeing this near bedtime could be bad news for sleep patterns if you grow cotton!)

The boll weevil, long the enemy of cotton farmers, has been virtually eradicated as it is not native to the US. Major pests include worm species, aphids & plant bugs, etc.

How much cotton is produced globally or in the US? The USDA-FAS report cited above put 2010 production at 115.46 million bales, with 18.32 million bales of that being grown in the US. The US figure is a fairly dramatic increase compared to the previous crop of just over 12 million bales. There are a number of factors that made 2009 a tough year for cotton producers across a wide swath of the Southern US and the better weather patterns really showed up as did increased acreage.

What does demand for natural fibers look like? Is organic the major component? Cheri asked about with the rise in interest in “natural” categories as it applies to fibers, with a question to organic specifically. Cotton demand is pretty good these days and the price has reflected that — in fact, recently we had historic highs. Personally, I seem to fill closets & drawers with cotton — different styles & colors of jeans, a few more cherished hoodies and the move to business casual and the ubiquitous khakis has been good for cotton demand. But when you look at world fiber demand, you have more people in more parts of the world who as they gain economic buying power may want to purchase something more for their closet or home.

The natural fibers like cotton, wool, silk and linen feel so good that they are a primo choice! The efforts to assess the sustainability of cotton show what the environmental footprint of the crop looks like from farmers throughout the life cycle of the product. And when you talk with many cotton farmers in the US, biotech has enabled them to embrace some environmentally-preferred practices like conservation tillage. When you look at the footprint of cotton, it’s another reason to pick cotton!

I hope that helps answer some of Cheri’s questions. It provides at least my train of thought and experience as I looked at the article and the thoughts she raised.

If you are a person who prefers organic cotton, I’d be interested to know what leads you to that preference.

If you have cotton questions, please feel free to raise them in the comments section. I can either take a stab at answering them here (or in a blog post) or get someone else to since I tend to know a bunch of cotton peeps!

The post Report says Global Organic Cotton Production Increased 15% in 2010 & My Thoughts appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.