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Farmers cash out of cotton
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP)--In Kansas, wheat is king. It always has been and always will be. But for several years, on the Preisser farm near Cunningham, the family would sow a few hundred acres to cotton. Fluffy white cotton would line the ditches as the stripper machinery harvested the crop. The local gins would be whirling until at least the first of spring. But not this year. Kurt Preisser said his family sowed their typical cotton acreage to corn and milo. Other farmers across the southern plains of Kansas followed suit. And the gins? Well, most operators say they should finish ginning by the new year, if not sooner. "The corn and milo prices were so good," said Kurt Preisser, also a custom harvester, as he stood in a cotton field near McPherson, waiting for the crop to dry. "A lot of farmers did the same thing." Kansas is relatively new to the cotton industry, a crop better in southern states like Texas. Yet over the past decade, acres have grown a little each year. Two gins were built in Anthony and Winfield in the mid-1990s, and two more in Moscow and Cullison became operational in the past five years. However, thanks to $4-a-bushel corn and a developing ethanol industry in the state, the Kansas Agriculture Statistics Service forecast the state's corn production at 500.4 million bushels, up 45 percent from last year's crop. If realized, this will be a record-high production. That comes as a big setback for cotton, which is trying to get off the ground in the state. Last year, Kansas farmers harvested nearly 115,000 acres of cotton. This year, they're expected to harvest just 50,000, according to the statistical service. "It'll affect us," said Roger Sewell, manager of business development for High Plains Cotton at Cullison in Pratt County. "When you have only half a crop, it'll affect us." Other gins reported the same situation. Gary Feist, manager at Southern Kansas Cotton Growers Co-op gin at Anthony, said acres were down about a third. Moreover, at the Northwest Cotton Growers Co-op Gin in Moscow, in the southwestern Kansas county of Stevens, gin manager Jerry Stuckey is looking at one of the lowest harvests the gin has seen. Last year, producers around the Northwest co-op gin harvested 35,000 acres, bringing in about 55,000 bales for ginning. This year, area farmers will harvest about 9,300 acres yielding roughly 12,000 to 15,000 bales, Stuckey said. Despite the setback, cotton supporters remain optimistic. Jeff Preisser said his family first got into cotton in 1995. They fixed up an old gin at Sterling, making it operational to gin their first-ever cotton crop. Even though the first crop was a bust--a freeze hurting the yields--the Preissers saw something in cotton. It uses less water and less fertilizer, to name a few cost-saving benefits, Jeff Preisser said. Next year, the family will probably plant a few circles to cotton. Jeff Preisser said he figures other farmers will do the same. Irrigation costs and the fertilizer bill didn't make $4 corn quite as profitable as thought, he said. Another advantage is rising cotton prices. "How much it will be up? I don't know," Stuckey said. "We did lose a few acres to wheat this fall when the price got up there, but the calls we've been getting, farmers are talking about instead of planting more corn, they're looking at planting cotton again." Meanwhile, what acreage is out there is yielding well, Sewell said. Some dryland cotton is yielding 700 to 800 pounds an acre. Irrigated cotton has yielded as high as 1,500 pounds an acre. "What cotton we do have planted is really good," he said. Date: 12/6/07
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