Record low number of cotton gins in Arkansas; state acres projected to be down

The number of cotton gins in Arkansas is down to 26, tied for the lowest number of gins ever, according the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Despite the loss of at least one gin, Arkansas ranks third in the country in cotton production, trailing only Texas and Georgia.

Last year, Arkansas’ cotton acreage increased by 27%, or 140,000 acres, to 650,000 acres, which is the highest since 2011. Arkansas’ average yield in 2024 was a record 1,341 pounds which was the highest in the U.S. Total production was 1.788 million bales. That was up 426,000 bales from 2023 and the highest since 2007, according to NASS.

“Gins close for various reasons – a decline in cotton acreage, obsolescence, and consolidation with another gin,” said Scott Stiles, extension economics program associate for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. “It’s the continuation of a long-running trend.

“Are 26 gins enough? Maybe so,” Stiles said.

“The sheer number of gins seem small relative to the almost 2 million bales of volume ginned in 2024, but the overwhelming majority of gins are running well over 40,000 bales through them,” he said.

Stiles said Arkansas had the gin with the highest output in the U.S. in 2024 — McClendon Mann & Felton Gin in Marianna — ginning 242,706 bales of cotton that year.

Cotton is a challenging crop to grow.

“Production costs are high relative to soybeans. It’s management intensive. The harvesting equipment is one-dimensional and takes a massive capital investment,” he said. “On top of all that, for the U.S., cotton is an export-dependent crop and world trade of cotton is becoming more competitive each year.”

The state’s cotton acreage has ranged from 450,000 to 650,000 acres with growers responding to the market in recent years.

“The top end of the range was where we were in 2024 and that did extend the ginning season into early 2025 for a few gins,” he said. “That was longer than usual.”

In its March 31 Planting Intentions report, NASS reported Arkansas farmers were expecting to plant 580,000 acres of cotton this year.

“There’s some question whether we will reach that level,” Stiles said. “It sounds like we’ll be closer to 500,000.”

Planting cotton has been slow this year. In the May 12 Crop Progress report, cotton was 36% planted.

“That’s close to the five-year average of 37% but behind last year’s 44%, said Stiles. “The fields are wet and progress may be nil this week. If the planters are parked all of this week, soybeans might start to look good. Beans made a nice run higher after today’s USDA report.”

Despite the challenges, “Arkansas had a state record average yield in cotton and the highest state average yield in the U.S. — in spite of Francine and Helene,” Stiles said.

“We can attribute a lot to our producers. They did a phenomenal job of managing the crop and making the best of some bad situations — like two hurricanes in three weeks,” said Zachary Treadway, extension cotton and peanut agronomist for the Division of Agriculture.

“Cotton is resilient too. So even though we took those storms basically back-to-back, the crop was able to rebound,” Treadway said. “The weather last fall was warm and very kind post-hurricane, which helped us dry out from the rains and get through harvest in a timely manner.”