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The Kansas Cotton Industry Has a Bright Future
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Cotton is king. Up until recently, that wasn’t a widely used phrase within Kansas agriculture. But over the past few years, the versatile white fiber has grown significantly as a top pick for the state’s row crop farmers.
“The cotton industry here has changed tremendously since I first came in 2000,” says Rex Friesen, cotton consultant for Southern Kansas Cotton Growers. “In the last four years, cotton acreage has skyrocketed, thanks to great yields and returns. Other commodities have been suffering from poor prices, so farmers turned to cotton.”
In fact, as of 2019, Kansas has more than 400 active cotton producers in the state and four cotton gins, located in Moscow, Anthony, Pratt and Winfield.
The growth resulted because of numerous factors, but the main one has been increased income for farmers, thanks to the high-yielding, quality cotton crop that has a variety of uses. Similar to the rest of the U.S., most of Kansas’ cotton is used to make denim. Other reasons for growth include crop diversification and improved water conservation efforts.
Friesen has been working with cotton professionally since 1995, and as a consultant, he works with Kansas growers as a resource to give advice and visit fields if needed. He also works with a lot of schools to promote the crop and provide education. Friesen says that cotton is a great rotation crop and Kansas’s climate makes it an ideal growing state.
“We have good heat in the summer and good rainfall,” Friesen says. “Even our dryland acres are taking off like crazy because our climate is very friendly to cotton. People are finally seeing that.”
See more: Growers in Kansas Try Their Hand at Industrial Hemp
Risk Equals Reward
While the crop is ultimately a rewarding one in terms of return, Friesen warns new growers that it is not for the faint of heart.
“It’s risky and expensive, and takes specialized equipment,” Friesen says. “I tell growers that if they plan on growing it long-term, they eventually need to get their own equipment.”
He says there’s also a learning curve and the crop is much more management-intensive than others.
Conservation Crop
Farmer Kent Dunn has been growing cotton in the southwest corner of the state since 2002, after watching some neighbors grow it for several years. He says the environmental aspect of the crop was one reason he started growing it.
“We started growing cotton as a way to conserve water in areas of our farm that had wells that were declining in their pumping ability,” Dunn says. “Cotton does very well on rotation with corn and wheat,” which Dunn also grows, along with milo, soybeans and alfalfa.
Cotton helps with water conservation because it is a more drought-resistant crop than its fellow row crops, so it doesn’t need as much water, allowing the water supply to last longer.
Dunn echoes Friesen that there are some risks associated with cotton but adds that new technology and infrastructure growth have helped bolster the industry.
“The infrastructure here in Kansas has really expanded in the last three years or so with all four gins expanding and updating their facilities,” Dunn says. “I see cotton being a very viable crop for the future, with acres continuing to expand all across the southern tier of counties in Kansas as well as northern Oklahoma.”