We are doing the U.S. a great favor. Helping them to see how the US wastes money. "The cost of growing cotton is much higher than it is for soybeans, wheat and corn," Burmester said. "Now that prices for the grain crops have increased substantially, the return farmers can get from growing other crops is much more appealing than cotton."
Is cotton still the king?
With corn, soybeans and wheat prices up, a new king of farm crops could be emerging in the Tennessee Valley
By Dennis Sherer
This is the first in a two-part series that examines cotton from crop to textile.
Snow white fields of cotton ready for picking - a sign of fall - are less common this year and could become even more scarce in 2008.
With prices for corn, soybeans and wheat at record levels while the price of cotton remains lackluster, a new king of farm crops in the Tennessee Valley could be emerging.
"Cotton has historically been the main cash crop in the Tennessee Valley, but with prices for corn, wheat and soybeans at historic levels, we are seeing a shift of acreage to those crops," said Lawrence County farmer Larkin Martin. "We are not going to see a total shift away from cotton, but we are going to see more diversification of crops. Cotton will be part of that mix, but it will be to a lesser extent than we have known in the past."
Increased demand for grains around the world, fueled in part by a rush to produce ethanol and biodiesel, has driven up the price for corn, soybeans and wheat. Farmers throughout the cotton-growing regions of the United States are responding by planting more grains on their farms, said Gary Adams, chief economist for the Memphis, Tenn.-based National Cotton Council.
Alabama farmers planted more than 175,000 fewer acres of cotton and 120,000 additional acres of corn this year than in 2006, said Charles Burmester, a cotton specialist for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. He expects that trend to continue in 2008.
"The cost of growing cotton is much higher than it is for soybeans, wheat and corn," Burmester said. "Now that prices for the grain crops have increased substantially, the return farmers can get from growing other crops is much more appealing than cotton."
The trend of growing corn and other grains in fields where cotton has traditionally being planted is apparent this fall at Oakland Gin in Lauderdale County. Tim Higgins, manager of the gin on Waterloo Road, said this year's cotton ginning season will the shortest he can recall.
Ginning is the process where seed, leaves and other debris is removed from cotton before it is pressed into 500-pound bales and prepared for shipment to textile plants around the world.
"In the past, we have operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week from around the first of October until early December processing cotton," Higgins said. "This year, we're running one shift a day and not operating on the weekends and we should be through ginning by the second week in November.
"The drought cut the cotton yields around here, plus we had a lot fewer acres of cotton grown this year. Some of the farmers around here who have always grown cotton, didn't plant a single stalk of it this year."
Higgins expects the decline of cotton fields in the Shoals to continue during the coming year.
"We were down 45 percent from 2006 in cotton acres around here this year," he said. "I suspect we will be down 50 to 55 percent from 2006 next year. We're going to see a lot more soybeans planted next year than have been planted around here in a long time. The price for soybeans is pretty good, plus it doesn't take a lot of fertilizer to grow them. The price of fertilizer is going through the roof, and farmers are looking for ways to use less."
Courtland-based Martin Farm, traditionally one of the top cotton producers in Alabama, will plant more grain crops than cotton in 2008, Martin said.
Adams said the popularity of using crops for feeding livestock, like corn and soybeans, is not the only factor in the decline in cotton fields around the South.
China, India and Brazil have increased their cotton acreage in recent years, which has helped drive down the price of the crop on world markets. With the majority of the cotton grown in the United States now sent to textile mills in other countries, American farmers are at the mercy of the global market, Adams said.
"We now send cotton halfway around the world for processing only to see it wind up in retail stores that might be within sight of a cotton field right there in north Alabama," he said.
Much of the cotton grown in the Shoals is now shipped to China, Pakistan and India to be made into clothing that was once produced at mills in the Tennessee Valley, Adams said. As textile mills have moved out the United States, cotton farmers have found it more difficult to earn a profit.
Higgins, a cotton farmer, does not expect the downturn in cotton grown in the Tennessee Valley to be permanent,
"I just don't think it will last," Higgins said. "I think this surge in the grain markets is going to last a couple of years or so and then people are going to start moving back to cotton.
"This is cotton country around here. We're better suited for growing cotton than we are other crops. Our soil and the hot summers we have are perfect for cotton. Plus cotton can stand drought better than other crops. Cotton might be down around here, but it's not out."
He said Tennessee Valley farmers who grow cotton have too much invested in the crop to abandon it.
"If you own a cotton picker, you can't use it for anything besides picking cotton," he said. "It's not like a combine where you can put a corn head on it and pick corn or put a grain head on it and pick beans or wheat. Our farm infrastructure around here is set up for growing cotton."
Martin said the lack of infrastructure for growing corn was apparent this year when grain elevators around the Tennessee Valley were overwhelmed. She said a shortage of barges to transport corn out of the Tennessee Valley caused a backlog at grain elevators and many had to temporarily suspend purchasing grain from farmers.
"We had a short corn crop this year; the yield was below normal," Martin said. "I would hate to have seen the problems we would have had getting our corn shipped out of here if we had a full crop."
She and Higgins expect many Valley farmers will build storage bins on their farms this winter to store the corn they grow next year until sending it to market.
While growing pains are likely as area farmers shift from cotton to grain crops, Martin said the move will be good for agriculture in the Tennessee Valley.
She said after corn and other crops are produced in fields where cotton has been grown year after year, cotton yields will increase when planted there again. Rotating crops allows farmers to combat weed and insect pests that are difficult to control when only one crop is grown in a field.
In addition, growing multiple crops on a farm allows farmers to spread their risks, Martin said. By growing crops that do well in different weather conditions, farmers are less likely to suffer a disaster if it's overly dry, wet, cool or hot.
"In the long run, the move away from cotton is going to be good for the farmers," Martin said. "The pinch point is going to be at the gins. You can't use a cotton gin for anything else besides processing cotton."
Higgins is hopeful enough Shoals farmers will continue producing cotton to keep local gins in business. "We used to have a gin on every corner it seemed like. Now we're down to two in Lauderdale County and two in Colbert County. We can't afford to lose many more."
Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis.sherer@timesdaily.com.
US industry will press Washington to decided if ti wants to protect the farmes or the US industry. That because: "Brazil has said it would target U.S. goods, as well as trademarks, patents and commercial services, under provisions in the global commerce body's intellectual property and services agreements." |
