Ben McKnight
As the 2025 growing season draws to an end in the South, East, and Central regions of Texas, many producers across these areas are pleased with cotton yield and fiber quality. With the price of cotton where it’s at, high yields and good fiber quality are imperative to begin to offset lower commodity price. In many cases, the 2025 growing season presented some early season challenges within these regions, but the remainder of the growing season made up for it leading to a mostly positive conclusion.
Planted acres in the Lower Rio Grande Valley were approximately half of what has been planted in the previous few years, and flooding events in late March further reduced cotton acres. The cotton acres remaining finished good with average to above-average yields in some fields.
Producers further north in the Coastal Bend capitalized on more favorable weather conditions compared to previous years, and good yields and fiber quality across this production region puts this year into perspective.
Average to above-average yields, along with mostly good fiber quality was also the case for growers in the Upper Gulf Coast.
The Blackland Prairie region experienced some hail events after planting that destroyed many cotton fields, and in some cases, the damage was too late for a replant. Many of the cotton acres that crossed the finish line in this region had outstanding dryland yield for this region, and many fields were above average.
One of the suggestions I often discuss at winter grower meetings is management decisions that will reduce unnecessary costs. One practice is to be active in soil testing to a depth of 18-24 inches during the fall and winter. Through detection of plant nutrients that are present and can be credited towards cotton yield goals, growers may be able to reduce expenditures on fertilizer by using the existing nutrients in the soil.
benjamin.mcknight@ag.tamu.edu