As this year’s cotton harvest continues to move into the Southern Plains, Radio Oklahoma Network’s Farm Director Ron Hays caught up with Plains Cotton Growers Executive Vice President Steve Verett to ask what impression he’s getting from producers coming off harvest, which he contends has been fairly positive contrary to what most expected taking this year’s uncooperative weather.
“Everyone is for the most part being pleasantly surprised,” Verett said. “We went into this crop full wet. We didn’t get the kind of rain we need during the summer, but the moisture in the soil carried us through and this crop is doing as well or better than what a lot of folks thought it would be.”
In fact, cotton seems to be gaining in popularity throughout growing regions, says Verett, pointing to other commodities struggling to keep prices up, making cotton seem increasingly more attractive to farmers. He expects to see as much as a 10 percent increase in cotton production in the Northern High Plains north of Amarillo.
Regarding policy matters though as talks of a new Farm Bill become more prevalent, Verett says the focus will be on finding a foothold in negotiations that will provide a better safety net for cotton producers than the poorly equipped 2014 Farm Bill did.
“Cotton basically ended up with a county-based insurance product that is well-designed,” Verett said, “but it’s not bankable. You can’t take it to your bank and say, ‘hey, if the cotton prices in this year fall out of bed, I’m going to get something,’ that’s not the case as it is with the Title 1 programs like PLC, that’s strictly price based. So, we’ve got to do something to try to address that.”
An option being looked at by the industry, says Verett, is a push to have cotton seed designated an oil seed, which would enable cotton producers an opportunity to take advantage of Title 1 programs. But he maintains, too, that cotton should be regarded as a lint like it always has been. In the end, though, his mission is to explore any avenues that will provide relief to the producers he represents.
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