Drought will leave about a third of the cotton planted in the US Southwest unharvested this season, USDA projects, All Ag News reports from Lubbock, Texas. The agency puts the region's upland cotton abandonment rate for 2026/27 at 34%, up from about 24% last season.
Planted area in the region rose 12% to 6.5 million acres, but only 4.3 million acres are expected to be harvested. Regional upland production is forecast at 4.6 million bales, 23% less than the 2025/26 crop, and the yield at 517 pounds per harvested acre, the lowest since 2003/04 and well below the five-year average.
The Delta and the Southeast expect stronger crops. Nationally, USDA forecasts 13.4 million bales, the second smallest US cotton crop since 2015/16.
The smaller crop shows in the outlook for prices: USDA projects the 2026/27 upland cotton farm price at 77 cents a pound, nearly 15 cents above last season, and US ending stocks at a three-year low of 3.8 million bales.
For Southwest growers, high abandonment and weak yields mean sharply lower output despite the larger planted area. The report is by Tony St. James.
Photo: Calsidyrose / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Source: All Ag News
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