CropLife Retail Week: Beltwide Cotton Buzz; 2026 Acres; Grower Aid

In this episode, CropLife Editor Eric Sfiligoj and Cotton Grower Editor Beck Barnes dig into what’s happened at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences, cotton acreage projections and EPA’s move to reevaluate paraquat.

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*Below is a partial and edited transcript:

Eric Sfiligoj:
Hello. Welcome to another edition of CropLife Retail Week. I’m Eric Sfiligoj, editor of CropLife and CropLife IRON, joined again by Beck Barnes, editor of Cotton Grower, our sister publication. Beck, welcome back to the program.

Beck Barnes:
Thank you, Eric. Thanks for having me back, man.

Eric Sfiligoj:
There’s a reason I asked you back. I know last week you were spending time at the annual Beltwide Cotton Conferences. I was curious what the scuttlebutt was at the meeting—what people were talking about and what your main takeaways were.

Beck Barnes:
Yeah, we were actually down in San Antonio.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Oh, River Walk country.

Beck Barnes:
That’s right. We spent the week on the River Walk in San Antonio for the National Cotton Council’s Beltwide Cotton Conferences. It’s kind of the last true industry-wide hurrah the cotton industry has these days. That said, it’s not what it once was.

Twenty years ago, it was much more grower-focused. The big seed companies were flying farmers in from all over the country. There were big meals, lots of entertaining, and plenty of partying. It’s a very different scene now.

If you’d been in a coma since 1998 and woke up and came to this conference, you probably wouldn’t recognize it. Today, it’s very much a technical conference. University researchers and others present research from the previous year, focused on specific problems popping up around the Cotton Belt in 2025.

For example, we sat in on a great presentation from several Southeastern extension entomologists about the cotton leafhopper pest and what they’ve learned as this new threat has spread across Southeastern states. It’s really interesting stuff.

I spent most of my time with consultants. There’s a consultants conference that’s more grower-adjacent than the research presentations, which are very scientifically oriented. You’re not going to find a journalism guy like me hanging out with the lab coats and goggles crowd.

The National Cotton Council deserves credit for continuing to put on this show. It’s vital for the industry. As far as what people were talking about, the focus was on 2025 challenges. Cotton Grower also made a bit of noise with our acreage projection that we released the day before everyone arrived.

I got a lot of texts and emails from economists and merchants. People definitely wanted to talk about that.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Since you brought it up, I wanted to ask about the acreage projections. What’s the read heading into 2026? What kind of year does it look like for cotton, and what were people saying about it?

Beck Barnes:
For context, the last USDA plantings report for 2025 suggested 9.3 million acres of cotton planted in the U.S., including upland and ELS. We ran our survey between mid-November and mid-December, crunched the numbers, and came back with about 9 million acres—9,005,000 to be exact.

That’s only marginally lower than USDA’s 2025 figure. We don’t just ask respondents for a number; we ask why they think that number will happen. Almost unanimously across the Belt, growers told us they harvested bumper crops last year. Yields were through the roof, with timely rains across much of the Belt, including the crucial Southwest region.

But despite great production, prices were so low that many growers barely broke even. That’s extremely discouraging when thinking about planting acres for the next season.

We conducted our survey before several bullish developments occurred. China announced it would reduce cotton acres, and Brazil indicated it would have to reduce cotton output. In response, the market moved 5 to 6 cents higher, which is huge given how stagnant prices had been.

That’s great for the market, but it’s bad if you’re someone like me who spent six weeks predicting an acreage number that suddenly became less relevant. I told people at Beltwide to keep an eye on the National Cotton Council’s acreage projection coming out in March, which will better reflect recent developments.

Another big factor encouraging more acres is the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, which cotton stands to benefit from significantly.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Before you jump into that, I want to comment on something you said earlier. We’ve heard the same thing from corn and soybean growers. Great yields, cooperative weather, but price points just weren’t there. That concern made its way to Washington, D.C.

At the end of 2025, USDA announced a $12 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, with $11 billion directed to row crop growers. When I looked at the per-acre payment rates, corn was $44.36, soybeans $30.88, but cotton was $117.35 per acre. What were people saying about that at Beltwide?

Beck Barnes:
No two ways about it—growers were relieved. They’re happy to get assistance and wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Of course, they’d rather have a bullish market that pays them fairly without assistance.

But that hasn’t been the case. Cotton prices traded in a very narrow range throughout 2025. Futures never touched 70 cents, which is below breakeven. Assistance was necessary.

Yes, $117.35 per acre is a big number, especially compared to other crops. But cotton is expensive to produce. You’re putting more into a cotton crop than many others.

The average cotton farm is around 1,200 acres. If you round that to 1,000 acres, that’s about $120,000 in assistance. That’s meaningful, but it’s not a windfall. Growers will invest that and more into their crop.

What it does do is encourage production and give banks confidence to lend. It’s a real boost for an ailing cotton industry heading into 2026.

Eric Sfiligoj:
You also host a podcast companion, and you recently had National Cotton Council President and CEO Gary Adams on. What did he say about the bridge assistance?

Beck Barnes:
Thanks for the plug. You can find that episode at cottongrower.com/companion. The episode focuses on what the $12 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance Program means for cotton.

Gary has to be very measured, given the National Cotton Council’s work in Washington. He was pleased and appreciative, but this didn’t happen overnight. It came from months of meetings with senators and USDA officials, including Brooke Rollins, discussing the state of the farm economy.

My understanding is that cotton associations took the lead on behalf of agriculture as a whole. We’re fortunate to have strong representation in this industry, and Gary Adams is a prime example of that leadership.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Absolutely. The American Soybean Association echoed similar sentiments. They’d prefer organic market growth but are thankful for the assistance.

One more topic before we wrap up: EPA announced on January 12 that it will reevaluate the safety of paraquat. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency will hold pesticides to the highest safety standards based on gold-standard science. Paraquat is used in cotton as a desiccant, correct?

Beck Barnes:
Yes, it can be used toward the end of the season. Cotton growers do use it.

I was reminded of what we’ve seen with glyphosate. For years, it was crucial to cotton production, but lawsuits piled up, and it felt like at some point the science no longer mattered.

I don’t want to see that happen with paraquat. We already have limited tools in our toolbox. Of course, safety matters, and reviewing it is fine, but I hope it doesn’t become a political football like glyphosate did. Hopefully, cooler heads prevail.