Several Factors Vital To U.S. Cotton Industry Growth

 

Maintaining market share, enhanced consumer awareness and continued investments in research and development are needed to keep the U.S. cotton industry advancing.

 

Steve Verett, executive vice president of Lubbock-based Plains Cotton Growers, Inc., reviewed the 2017 cotton crop and the industry overall during an October 26 speech at Texas Tech University (TTU) about the 2017 cotton crop and the industry overall.

 

The talk was held in a conference room in the TTU chemistry building, prompting Verett to quip that chemistry drove him from majoring in agricultural science to business school when he entered Tech in fall 1971. Now, Verett – who farms 5,000 acres in Crosby County and holds an accounting degree from TTU – returned to the chemistry building four decades later to interact with students and scientists on the current status of the U.S. cotton industry.

 

Reviewing current crop estimates for the High Plains, Verett noted that two weeks of cool weather in late September and early October would impact this year’s crop, but that overall the High Plains crop would be good. “It is hard to get additional heat units in October for maturity,” he stated.

 

Commenting on the estimates by the USDA, he stated that due to established procedures, at the end, they come out to be right. The projected crop from the High Plains this year will be about 5.44 million bales, while for Texas, it will be 9 million bales.

 

Asked about the survival of High Plains’ cotton industry in the next 20 years, Verett was very optimistic, as the area’s weather will support crops like cotton which is highly drought-tolerant. There is a need to produce a quality crop, since the majority of the market for U.S cotton is overseas. Even though U.S. consumers use textiles equivalent to 20 million bales, 80% of the country’s crop is exported.