Five Percent of 2014 Cotton Crop is Still in the Field, 2015 May See Decrease in Number of Acres Planted

Mary Jane Buerkle with Plains Cotton Growers stopped by the News/Talk KFYO 790 studios to talk with Lubbock's First News' Tom Collins and Laura Mac about the 2014-15 cotton crop Thursday morning.

Buerkle said that the precipitation the West Texas region received late in the growing season caused a delay in harvesting this year's cotton crop.

She estimates about five percent of the crop is still in the fields.

"Typically we are completely done by now," Buerkle said. "But no one is going to turn back the moisture we've gotten."

Buerkle also discussed the closure of the American Cotton Growers denim mill that closed earlier this week in Littlefield. The closure cost more than 300 South Plains residents their jobs.

Buerkle attributed global competition as being a key factor for the closure.

"We hope some other segment of the industry can pick up those jobs," she said.

Buerkle said the Caprock Cotton Conference is scheduled for the Friends Unity Center in Muncie on January 21.

But the biggest news in the cotton industry according to Buerkle comes out of the recent Belt-wide Cotton Conference in San Antonio. That's whether there will be a decrease in the number of cotton acres planted in the South Plains and across the U.S. in 2015.