With most Arkansas cotton in the ground, growers wary of ‘wet feet’
June 23, 2025
By Ryan McGeeney
U of A System Division of Agriculture
Fast Facts:
- Arkansas forecast to plant 580,000 cotton acres; final number likely less
- Persistent rain events saturating soil, may stunt plants
- USDA lowers national cotton projection
(486 words)
(Newsrooms: With file art)
LITTLE ROCK — With most Arkansas cotton in the ground, growers are now contending with high soil moisture and the prospect of stunted plants if things don’t dry out soon.
Zachary Treadway, extension cotton and peanut agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said that the near-weekly rain events Arkansas has experienced throughout the spring delayed many growers’ planting efforts while punishing those who managed to plant their cotton early.
“Some stuff that got in early got a lot of water,” Treadway said. “Cotton, as a crop, does not like to have ‘wet feet,’ staying wet and sitting in water.”
Treadway some growers will likely see a certain degree of plant stunting and other negative effects correlated with cotton roots subjected to excess water.
“I haven’t looked at a hard number, but I think we can count rain in feet, rather than inches this spring,” he said. “It almost feels like it’s rained about every other day.”
In its March 30 Prospective Planting Report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated Arkansas growers would plant 580,000 acres of cotton in 2025. Treadway doubts the state will see that number come to fruition. Ruined plants are far more likely to be replanted with soybeans than cotton, and repeated weather delays have left many growers with the unappealing prospect of planting cotton well into the summer.
“There’s a lot of producers who just don’t like the taste of planting June cotton,” Treadway said. “I think we’ll see a lot of that cotton ground claimed on insurance as prevented planting, or swapped to something like soybeans, which have a slightly later window.”
According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, between 15-20 percent of the state’s cotton crop had begun squaring — developing flower buds — by June 15, placing it just slightly behind the five-year average. Treadway said that all is not necessarily lost if the state can catch a break in the weather.
“I’ve seen some real pretty cotton that can handle the weather well,” he said. “If we could miss some rains and it could heat up some, we’ll be just fine and have the potential to make a very good crop this year.”
Lower expectations nationally
USDA has lowered its expectations for the 2025-26 U.S. cotton crop, however.
“Pointing to the excessive rain and planting delays in the Delta, harvested acreage was lowered 2 percent this month to 8.19 million acres,” said Scott Stiles, extension agricultural economics program associate for the Division of Agriculture.
“The national average yield for 2025-26 was reduced more than 1 percent from last month to 820 pounds per acre, also because of the conditions in the Delta,” he said. “As a result, the production forecast was reduced 500,000 bales to 14.0 million, below the 14.4 million bales produced in 2024-25 and the second smallest crop in the past decade.”
See more of Stiles’ comments in his Southern Ag Today article.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu/. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.
Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.
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Media Contact:
Ryan McGeeney
rmcgeeney@uada.edu
501-671-2120