Arkansas remains top three cotton producer despite declining acres

Despite declining acres, Arkansas remains one of the top three cotton producing states and will continue that trend through 2026, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Last year the state had its fourth highest yield ever.

NASS released a number of reports this week related to cotton production, including the Cotton Ginnings Annual Summary and Crop Production and County Estimates for Cotton.

“The 2025 Arkansas state average yield came in at 1,239 pounds per acre, the fourth highest yield on record for Arkansas and slightly below the five-year average of 1,250 pounds per acre,” said Scott Stiles, extension economics program associate for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.

The 2025 yield was 102 pounds below the 2024 record yield of 1,341 pounds. In NASS’s county estimates, several of Arkansas’ southeastern counties averaged above 1,300 pounds, as did Poinsett County. Counties in the central part of the state had yields ranging from 1,120 to 1,220 pounds. From NASS’ March Prospective Plantings Report, Arkansas producers are expected to plant 470,000 acres of cotton in 2026.

“That is down 10%, or 50,000 acres, from last year,” Stiles said. “This acreage estimate seemed high in early March.”

Prices have moved up since March going from 69 cents to around 87 cents, which could entice enough farmers so that 470,000 acres is realistic, Stiles said.

“Will prices in the mid-80s keep cotton acres fairly stable? We won’t know until the June 30 Acreage Report,” Stiles said.

Cotton was 66% planted as of May 17, up from 40% the previous week and well ahead of the five-year average. Last year, Arkansas cotton acreage was down 130,000 acres, or 20% for a total of 520,000 acres. The 2025 growing season was a mixed bag.

“We had so much rain during planting last year that we had replants and late plants that caused planting season to extend into June, which is not something we were overly excited about,” said Zachary Treadway, extension cotton agronomist for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. “After we got the crop in, the rain shut off, and we had hot days and nights, which is not ideal for a cotton crop. We rebounded with kind weather during harvest, and the gulf stayed quiet and allowed us to get the crop out in a timely manner.”

Treadway said yields weren’t even across the state.

“I had producers in southeast Arkansas make a bumper crop, and I had producers in Northeast Arkansas struggle to make two bales,” he said.

NASS also posts an annual report on U.S. cotton gins. In Arkansas, “we ran the same number of gins in 2025 as the previous year, which was 26,” Stiles said. “Gin volume in 2025 was down 528,700 bales, or 27%, on lower acreage and yields”

The total number of bales ginned in the state was 1,421,950 compared to 1,950,650 in 2024.

Arkansas ranks behind Texas and Georgia in U.S. cotton production. Texas cotton production dwarfs the rest of country averaging more than 5 million acres per year, according to USDA. Georgia ranks second with about 900,000 acres.