Cotton and grain
Feb 1, 2010 10:43 AM, By David Bennett, Farm Press Editorial Staff
To accommodate the Mid-South’s shift of acreage from cotton to more grain, several ginners are expanding their factilities.
Raley is cognizant that his family’s agriculture-related businesses were built upon ginning. But as cotton acres dipped, new opportunities surfaced.
“In 2005, we ginned around 40,000 bales. In 2006, we ginned around 57,000 bales — a big year for us since, generally, we had ginned around 35,000 bales. But from 57,000 bales we dropped to 18,000 bales. Last year, we ginned 8,000 bales. This year: 6,000 bales.
“I can’t tell you how many gins have shut down in the last three years. We’re hanging on, though, for a couple of reasons. One big reason is cottonseed prices — and we run a seed-house — have soared along with other commodities the last couple of years. That’s helped to offset the decrease in bales ginned but we’re still feeling the pinch.”
What is the main reason bales ginned have dropped?
“I’d estimate it’s around 70 percent due to a drop in acres and 30 to 40 percent due to bad growing conditions. The last two seasons have been horrendous for cotton. In 2008, we had two hurricanes during harvest. The first one came through the Southeast in early August and it rained for four or five days. Then, about a week later, another hurricane hit.”
The area received over 15 inches of rain in about three days — just as beans and cotton were ready to harvest.
“That’s hard to overcome and cotton yields were cut in half. Growers that would have picked 900- to 1,000-pound cotton picked 500 pounds per acre.”
The biggest reason for the drop in acres, though, isn’t that cotton is so bad. Instead, it’s the bottom line.
“When you can make $10-per-bushel soybeans, then that’s what is going to be planted,” says Raley. “Weather permitting, growers here can harvest 50- to 80-bushel beans with minimal costs per acre compared to cotton.”
During harvest, farmers “tore fields to pieces” getting the crops out.
With “a fair amount” of no-till acreage, the needed field prep work is already having an effect, says Raley. While prices have been “really good” for booking corn next year, growers are “very hesitant to lock up acres because they have none ready. If they tie up acres booking grain, they’re gambling they’ll be able to get out and get X amount of corn planted on time. And they may not be able to do that around here in this black land. They’ll have a much better chance to get things ready for soybeans or rice. Corn is shakier.”
Raley is optimistic the 2010 crop mix will be more favorable for the gin.
“Of course, we’ve said that for two years, now. But there’s chatter from folks saying they’ll plant more cotton. Then again, others say cotton will have to get to 85 or 90 cents before they’ll plant it. It’s hard to turn away from soybeans at current prices.”
The future
Back in Missouri, Mayberry plans to add nearly 300,000 bushels of additional storage and increase the elevator’s dumping capacity to almost 20,000 bushels per hour.
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