Economics
‘White Gold’ Withers in Texas Cotton Fields
The state’s drought will result in the worst U.S. crop losses in decades
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The month before cotton reached its highest price ever in March, Brad Heffington bought a 7760 John Deere picker for $500,000 to help get as much “white gold” as he could out of his 6,000 acres in West Texas. Seven months later the harvester is for sale. The 43-year-old farmer’s crop is wilting; the few plants left are too short for the massive piece of equipment to handle, he says.
At least 65 percent of his crop is gone as drought crushes growers’ chances of benefiting from record prices. “It’s going to be the year of wisha, shoulda, coulda,” says Heffington, who has farmed in the biggest cotton patch in the top-exporting country on the planet for 23 seasons. “It’s terrible not to be able to take advantage of these prices.”