ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — The days of high cotton are over.
In fact, for farmers across the southeast, these are the days of low cotton.
The crop is at its lowest price in five years, selling for around 60 cents a pound, compared to 88 cents a pound in 2011. With prices like that, farmers will be lucky to break even on this year's crop, according to an analysis by the National Cotton Council of America. Most of them will lose money.
That appears to be especially true in Alabama. On Nov. 12, Gov. Robert Bentley applied to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for emergency disaster assistance to help cotton farmers in counties hit hard by rain right at harvest time. Rain at the wrong time can delay harvest and allow time for seeds to sprout in the wet cotton before it is picked. When that happens, the value of the cotton drops dramatically.
Standing on the edge of a Baldwin County cotton field, trying to get the last of his crop picked hours before another rain-bearing weather system is supposed to arrive, farmer Mark Mullek was ebullient, despite the slack prices in the market. He said he was grateful "for the chance to farm another year on land my family has worked for 70 years."
"Horrible," he said of the price. "Cotton's an interesting animal.... It will rebound. It's been in a particular sort of slump the last couple of years. It will rebound."
In 2011, the cotton market was at its highest level in a quarter century. Demand in the developing world was growing, and bad weather that year devastated the cotton fields of China and Pakistan, ranked number one and number four in the world for cotton production. The United States ranks third internationally. Cotton prices this year are in a slump due in part to really good crops the last few years.
"The yield this year is good, just not the price," said Mullek. "But it is worth it to still do it. I wouldn't say you are getting rich by doing it. But worth it implies more than the dollar signs at the end of the day. It implies a little bit more about the fabric of our society, and the fabric of our lives. As farmers, you know, even if the prices aren't that great, to grow things that we are eating or wearing, it still needs to get done."
The average acre in the United States yields about 685 pounds of cotton, according to statistics compiled by the National Cotton Council of America. This year, that cotton is selling for about 60 cents a pound. That means each acre is worth about $500 per acre, counting money earned from selling the cotton seeds as well. The problem is, it costs an average of $600 an acre to plant cotton, tend it as it grows, and then harvest tens of thousands of pounds' worth.
