Dive Brief:
- Hurricane Helene’s devastating impact on farms is likely to push U.S. cotton yields to the lowest level in nearly a decade.
- U.S. cotton production is on track to reach 14.2 million bales for the 2024-25 year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s November crop report. If realized, the crop would be the second smallest since 2015-16, with national yields reaching their lowest point in the past 10 years.
- Production in the Southeast region, where Helene carved a path of destruction, is estimated to be at only 3.7 million bales this season, a 14% reduction from the year prior, according to USDA’s cotton outlook. It is also 1 million bushels lower than the average of the past four years.
Dive Insight:
Hurricane Helene, one of the deadliest hurricanes to strike the U.S. mainland since Katrina, destroyed billions of dollars in agricultural crops and infrastructure, including more than 32% of the cotton grown in Georgia — the second-largest cotton-producing state.
According to a preliminary report from the University of Georgia, the state lost up to 600,000 bales of cotton and suffered $560 million in damages.
About 59% of Georgia’s cotton crop was rated “good to excellent” prior to Helene, USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey said in a radio newsline interview, but that number has since dropped to 34% following the hurricane.
Rippey noted smaller effects on cotton production in other Southeastern states. After charging through Georgia, he said the storm took a left turn away from cotton production areas in the Carolinas and Virginia.
Despite farmers harvesting more cotton acres than last year in the Southeast, yields are projected to be 785 pounds per acre this season, according to the USDA. That’s down from an average of 922 pounds per harvested acre over the past five years.
Georgia incurred $5.58 billion in losses to the agriculture and timber industries as a result of Helene, including damages to pecans, poultry, beef, tobacco, nursery crops and cotton.