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Tough times for cotton producers

Cotton1These are tough times for U.S. cotton producers.

The crop is at its lowest price level in five years, selling for around 60 cents a pound. It brought 88 cents a pound in 2011.

Dahlen Hancock, who farms near Lubbock Texas, says it’s very discouraging right now.

“This my 35th cotton crop. I’m fourth generation and I just never remember times like this when it seemed like everything was against us,” Hancock says. “You know, everything is expensive.  This machinery we buy is super expensive. But we’re selling cotton for what I did 20 years ago.  It’s just not working at this level.”

Hancock is the president of Cotton Council International, the export arm of the National Cotton Council. He says the problem is an oversupply of cotton on the world market.

“I think there is enough cotton in the world to run for like a year-and-a-half,” he says. “But on some of that, there’s a question about the quality. Around 50 million bales of that is in China and some of it’s been in those warehouses a long time.”

Hancock says “quality” is U.S. cotton producers’ ace-in-the-hole.

“They do want our cotton, they really do. We have a superior quality, sustainably grown product that they want. So you just have to believe and hope that it’s cyclical and we’re going to turn this thing around.”

According to USDA data, U.S. farmers this year planted the fewest acres of cotton since 1983.

AUDIO: Dahlen Hancock

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