Here’s Why You’ll See Less Cotton Around Lubbock This Year

Cotton is KING in Lubbock, but the king may be taking a break this year.

I really do love the look of the cotton fields around here. For part of the year, it seems like they're the only thing growing and green on the South Plains. Then comes *that moment* when all those cotton bolls start busting out and it almost looks like a field of flowers.

Texas grows over twice as much cotton as any other state, and most of it is grown right around this region. Cotton is absolutely, positively, what we do best. So if it's the thing we do best, why aren't we doing as much this year?

The answer to the cotton dilemma is late rains. All of that swampy weather we had prevented many of the area farmers from getting their crops planted in time. Now "in time" meant by the end of May for some in the area and a week into June for Lubbock, when crop insurance drops possible payouts drastically.

Missing the deadline isn't a total loss for our area farmers though, some are choosing to plant other crops.  What remains to be seen is what quality of cotton the farmers who were able to plant manage to get and what the reduction in the amount of overall cotton produced will do to prices.

So you will see less cotton around the Lubbock area, but what happens actually in Lubbock County remains to be seen. We'd just like to wish our farmers well and to tell everyone to cross their fingers for a good year.