Ga. Cotton Commission gives season’s crop update

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - On Tuesday, Jimmy Webb, the Chairman of the Georgia Cotton Commission joined WALB’s Jim Wallace regarding the cotton update in the state.

“How is the cotton crop in Georgia looking so far?” asked Wallace.

“Well, you know Jim, we were off to a tough start with high temperatures and dry weather. But if you got a stand and have some irrigation, you are in good shape. We have pumped a lot of water. But I do think overall we are off to a good start and these rains we’ve started getting these last couple of weeks really helped. Things look pretty good,” said Webb.

“That’s good news. A lot of farmers have switched some of their crops from peanuts to cotton. How is that going to work economically for farmers around here?” Wallace asked.

“Well at the time they switched, it was probably a really good move. Cotton had got up to about $1.30 and the peanut price was good, but $1.30 was better for what you were going to get for peanuts. So it was a pretty smart move. But I checked a little while ago and now cotton is going for 90 cents. And a lot of us felt okay with high inputs because our commodity prices were so good. But in the last three weeks, we’ve had a major crash. Corn is down. Everything is way down, way down compared to where we were. So I’m kind of worried now about coming out because of the input prices we have. Everything, as any consumer knows, has gone up and it’s going up out here at our level. Usually, what happens when inputs go up, they fall a whole lot slower than the commodity prices, which hurts us.”

“So the cotton crop is about halfway through, I think through the crop. So what do you need to have a really good crop, and hopefully the farmers make a profit?”

“Well, we need some timely rains. We need some light insect pressure, insect pressure you can control. One of the worst things that hurt us is nighttime temperatures being high. When the nighttime temperatures are high, the plant can’t, what I call, rest. I’m in good shape. A lot of my friends are in good shape, that I talk to. But we got a long way to go.”

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