MACON — Rodney McGill sat in the office at the Bogue Chitto Cotton Gin on Monday, calmly assessing this year’s crops.
The Ohio native, who has been farming 3,100 acres of land in Noxubee County since 1999, shrugged when asked about his efforts this year. This year, he planted 1,000 acres in cotton, 900 acres in corn and 400 acres in soybeans.
All three crops, he said, went “OK.”
“I’m just getting started with the cotton,” he said “I’ve only harvested about 170 acres. I’d say, so far, it’s OK. It’ s not great, but it’s a whole lot better than what it looked like it would be a few months ago.”
McGill said dry weather in May and June hurt cotton during the early part of its growing season, but after some rain at the end of July, and dry weather during August and September — conditions that are favorable for cotton after the cotton bolls open — prospects have improved.
The price, he said, has stabilized after a low of 62 cents per pound followed by a high of 78 cents.
“Right now, it’s at 70 cents, which means its about in the middle,” McGill said. “For me, the break-even price is around 65 cents. So at 70 cents, it’s just OK. Not great. Not terrible.”
Experts from the Mississippi State Extension Service tend to agree. This year’s cotton, corn and soybean crops were about average, as a whole. While cotton and soybean suffered from the effects of dry weather early in the season, the corn crop — which is planted earlier in the year than cotton and soybeans, suffered from the opposite problem. Steady rains in April delayed planting, said Extension corn specialist Erick Larson.
“That probably was the main cause for the decrease in acreage for corn this year,” Larson said. “Some of the farmers probably decided to make the shift to beans or cotton when they couldn’t get in the field to plant corn.”
Cotton outlook
During the mid-19th Century Mississippi was once the greatest cotton producing region in the nation. While the state is still among the top cotton producers in the nation, cotton is no longer “king.”
Soybeans are the largest crop, and since 2007 corn has been the second largest.
Statewide, cotton acreage increased by 41 percent, to 420,000 acres this year, said Extension cotton specialist Darrin Dodds. “All the prices were down at the beginning of the year — cotton, soybeans, corn. Cotton was the best of the worst, you might say.”
Cotton acreage in Golden Triangle area has increased steadily over the past five years.
Much of that increase can be attributed to the arrival of the Bogue Chitto Cotton Gin. McGill was one of 25 area farmers who joined to build the gin five years ago. Since then, said gin manager Aaron Litwiller, cotton production has increased dramatically.
“The first year we ginned about 15,000 bales,” Litwiller said. “You look at the number since then and you see the results. It’s gone from 35,000 bales the next year to 55,000 bales and then 65,000 last year. I think having the gin has a lot to do with that. It meant lower costs for the farmers.”
Based on what he has seen so far, Litwiller expects to gin 70,000 bales this year.
“Combining what we expect here and figuring the gin in Hamilton will gin 20,000 bales, you’re probably looking at 90,000 bales for the whole area,” Litwiller said.
The gin doesn’t charge a fee to farmer. Instead, it keeps the seed as its fee.
“It works out pretty well on both ends, I think,” Litwiller said.
Soybean outlook
As it is with cotton, the soybean harvest is still in the early stages.
Based on what he is seeing so far, Extension soybean specialist Trent Irby predicts modest success.
“It’s pretty good, probably a little above average,” Irby said. “The weather, as a whole, was not great, especially early on. Locally, I’ve heard there are some pretty good yields, probably a little higher than last year, but not as good as the year before.
“Acreage is down a little bit from last year, but there’s still around 2.1 million acres. …Cotton and corn combined are probably in the 1 million to 1.1 million range.”
Market conditions, including seed costs and prices, probably encountered for the small dip in soybean acreage, Irby said.
That was the case for McGill.
“I planted about a 100 acres less this year,” McGill said. “It’s bringing about $9 per bushel. Last year, it was at $10, so it was probably a pretty good decision.”
Corn outlook
Based on Monday’s statewide report, 97 percent of this year’s corn crop has been harvested, Larson said.
“It was a pretty poor planting season, once again,” he said. “We had a lot of wet weather than delayed planting and caused some developmental issues in March and through April. I’d say the yield is moderate. We had about 750,000 acres in corn this year.”
Larson said corn prices are comparable to last year, he said.
“But they are a lot lower than they were three years ago, when the prices were at an all-time high,” he said. “Where that comes into play for the farmers is that seed prices and other inputs used to produce crops don’t cycle with the market prices. A lot of those prices are still high while the crop prices have fallen. That means lower profit margins for the farmers. That’s true for cotton and soybeans, too.”
McGill meanwhile, is taking in all in stride.
“Some years are better than others,” he said. “This is OK, maybe even a little better than last year. But it’s not what I’d call a great year. But, hey, it could be worse.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.