Cotton mill decline reflects changing trends | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

At first glance, the loss of a cotton picker in Arkansas might seem to reflect the number of cotton acres being reduced in a given year, but the picture is a bit more complex, said Scott Stiles, program associate for extension economics in the University of Arkansas System’s Department of Agriculture.

An annual report of gin counts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service found that there were 28 gins operating in Arkansas in 2023, down one from the previous year. NASS does not identify which specific gins closed. The number of gins in Arkansas fell from 138 in 1991 to 28 in 2023.

There are 14 counties with gins, most near the Mississippi River. One is closer to Central Arkansas in White County.

“This reflects a larger trend that has been going on since the early 20th century,” Stiles said.

“As yields have increased, the number of bales being ginned in Arkansas in recent years has been very similar to what it was in the early 1990s,” he said. “However, the number of ginned kernels available to process the state’s cotton has declined significantly.”

The remaining gins can handle much higher volumes than in previous years, thanks to innovations from field to gin. One of these is the compaction of harvested bulbs into rectangular or round modules to improve storage and transport.

“Every part of the ginning has evolved over the years to be faster and more efficient, from the module feeder system to the gin stands — the machines that separate the fiber and the seeds — to the baler,” Stiles said. “There’s also an emphasis on producing a cleaner, more contaminant-free bale of cotton. It’s very high-tech.”

In 1991, the total number of bales ginned in the state was just under 1.53 million, which gave an average number of bales per gin of about 11,075. In 2022, with only 29 active gins, Arkansas processed about 1.64 million bales, or about 56,691 per gin. However, about 9% of those came from out of state, primarily Mississippi and Missouri.

For comparison, in 2023, the average volume per gin fell to 53,402 bales, but so did the acres planted in Arkansas. That year, Arkansas cotton acreage fell by 130,000.

“In recent years, we’ve seen more cotton modules coming in from neighboring states,” Stiles said. “Over the past five years, gins in the state have averaged 108,000 bales per year coming in from across state lines. This is another byproduct of the module and the ability to ship seed cotton over longer distances.

“The module and the ability to transport it over long distances has also contributed to the continued decline in gin numbers,” Stiles said.

ACRE VOLATILITY

Between 1991 and 2023, the number of cotton acres harvested in Arkansas increased from a low of 207,000 in 2015 to a high of 1.16 million in 2006. These fluctuations in acreage are largely driven by commodity markets.

“Over the past 30 years, our growers have discovered that they can grow high-yielding corn, soybeans, and more recently, peanuts. Many have abandoned the centuries-old practice of monocropping cotton in Delta counties and replaced gins with grain elevators,” Stiles said.

“These large swings in cotton acreage actually began in the early to mid-1990s as we irrigated a greater percentage of the state’s farmland and changes in farm programs gave growers more flexibility to respond to the market.

With 86 percent of the world’s cotton produced outside the United States, “it’s really a global market to compete in and the U.S. is almost exclusively dependent on the ability to export cotton,” Stiles said. “Brazil and Australia are increasingly taking a larger share of the Chinese market, which historically has been our primary destination for cotton.”

He said that with “irrigation, farmers in the state can respond to market signals and grow what the market wants and choose the crop that is most profitable. Irrigation, along with the climate and soil, all serve to expand our crop options here in the Delta.”

An added benefit is that “cotton can be easily rotated with corn, soybeans and peanuts, using much of the same equipment before harvest,” Stiles said. “We can grow not only corn and soybeans, but cotton, peanuts, rice and other crops. I would say our cotton fields are unstable for that reason.”

For more information about extension programs in Arkansas, contact a local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

Mary Hightower is affiliated with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.