Tag Archives: Georgia cotton farming

Georgia Cotton Growers Face Challenges & Change in 2025

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Collins, GA |

Cotton continues to be a major driver of Georgia’s economy, contributing nearly $1 billion in statewide economic impact last year alone. But those numbers don’t come without months of hard work and preparation—efforts that begin long before a single seed hits the soil.

“Oh, that’s a lot of work,” says Willie Scott, a Tattnall County cotton grower. “You’ve got to watch your equipment and scout your fields. It’s a daily and weekly job—watching the weather, making timely inputs like spraying and fertilizing, and trying to work with the conditions you’re given.”

Now that planting season is officially underway, growers like Scott are focused on getting their crop off to the best start possible. Though harvest is still months away, timing is everything when it comes to yield.

“This time of year is important,” Scott explains. “You’ve got to have the right amount of moisture, the right temperature—not too cold, not too dry. Getting it in at the right time makes a big difference. It probably takes me about a week to get all of mine done. I told my wife, these next couple of weeks, don’t have anything planned for me.”

With dicamba no longer an option for weed control going into 2025, many producers are turning to cover crops and other strategies to keep fields clean—especially with margins tighter than ever.

“Watching input costs is very important,” says Scott. “You’ve got to pick the right variety and do proper farm management so you can cut costs without cutting yield. If you can start clean, Liberty still works. You hope to get all the weeds out early, and then use Liberty to clean up any pigweed that escapes.”

Market volatility has also led to strategic decisions around crop selection. Cotton prices are hovering around 67 cents per pound—less than half of what they were just two years ago. As a result, planted acres in Georgia dropped by 8% in 2024, including on Scott’s farm.

“Cotton is our main source,” he says. “But we did put corn in the program this year, and we have peanuts in the rotation as well. Still, cotton is my main crop.”

Despite the challenges that come with farming—rising costs, market swings, and regulatory changes—Scott says it’s a life he was born into and wouldn’t trade for anything.

“I’m a third-generation farmer. My grandfather bought this home place back in 1940. Then my father started farming. I grew up watching them, and it’s just something I knew I loved to do. It took off from there, and I took the reins and started doing it on my own.”

Georgia Cotton Growers Face Tough Times: Low Prices, High Costs & Hope for 2025

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Tifton, GA |

Recently in Tifton, cotton growers here in Georgia gathered for their annual meeting for a time of fellowship and education, which of course couldn’t come at a better time as growers saw one of the toughest years they’ve ever seen in 2024.

“This is really an opportunity for the industry as a whole, beyond the producer level, even to come together to really, come together and fellowship or, as it turns out, in 2025, maybe commiserate, with this really bad confluence of situations that we have here. Economic, weather, policy, all that have kind of come together and really detrimental to our cotton industry here in Georgia. But also to learn about solutions, how we’re going to improve the situation, what the industry is doing to to move us forward, how we’re going to meet our consumers, how our mills and manufacturer customers, and how we’re going to meet them where they are to move, to move cotton production forward in Georgia in 2025 and beyond,” says Taylor Sills, Executive Director of the Georgia Cotton Commission.

Most of the situation can be attributed to low commodity prices that aren’t covering the costs of their inputs, and unfortunately, according to Extension cotton agronomist, Camp Hand, the situation for 2025 isn’t looking much better.

“It’s the price of cotton and the cost of the inputs. I’d say it cost ninety cents per pound of  cotton to grow the crop, but then you are selling it for right now, today, a December 2025 contract is going for sixty-eight, sixty-nine cents. So you’re twenty cent below the cost of production. That’s serious, and so it’s tough. We’ve been put in some tough situations because the international market is just a different place than it was a few years ago,” says Camp Hand, Extension Cotton Agronomist.

However, according to Hand, even though growers are in a tough spot, the only thing that would make it worse is to not try to grow a good crop, which is why he and other extension experts are there to give growers the tools they need to do so.

“At the end of the day, these growers in Georgia, whether they want to be or not or are married to it. What we want guys to know is that if you put a crop in the ground, you gotta make it, and so we’re trying to give them the tools that they need to make the most out of a bad situation,” says Hand.

Despite the tough economic situation, there is some good news for growers heading into the 2025 season, as extension plant pathologist, Bob Kemerait says that disease pressure growers saw in 2024 shouldn’t be a problem this season, thanks to good, actual winter weather the state has seen.

“Going into 2025, I’m really excited. This cold weather, this snow we’ve had, freezing temperatures; I call it a reset button because what happens with the freezing temperatures is we kill off some of our volunteer cotton, which can bring forward, be a bridge. Also, those cold soil temperatures are going to start to send those nematodes to bed for a while; slow them down, maybe kill some of them, but certainly break their life cycle. So what we’ve had with this cold weather is we are now completely in 2025 season and not bringing 2024 along with us,” says Bob Kemerait, Extension Plant Pathologist.

By: John Holcomb