Economics
Weather Extremes Threaten U.S. Cotton Acres
- Plantings will be lower than USDA’s March estimate: survey
- Rain saturated fields in Midwest, while heat gripped Southeast
Cotton bales sit in a field outside Rogers, Texas, on Aug. 30, 2018.
Photographer: Sergio Flores/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
U.S. cotton acres could be the latest victim of the wild weather that’s already hampered corn plantings.
Key American areas for cotton have seen different extremes of the weather spectrum. In the Midwest, relentless rain flooded fields. Meanwhile, parts of the Southeast have been gripped by extreme heat and drought. Both scenarios are terrible for farmers, who likely planted less of the crop than projected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this year, a Bloomberg survey showed.