Cotton sale at Next GINeration tops the national market for a day

A little bit of rain fell last weekend, aiding the growth of local cotton plants in fields in Pratt County and neighboring counties. It was a lucky stroke for those who got the needed moisture, almost as lucky as the payout last month for a local farmer who sold a batch of cotton held over from last year.

On July 19, a local cotton producer represented by a sales manager at Next Gineration Cotton at Cullison hit the jackpot when his cotton sold for $1.49 per pound, a 0.9573 premium that coded the highest price in the nation for cotton on that day, according to The Seam online marketing system.

“It was certainly an unusual event, a great thing,” said David Lingle, general manager of Next Gineration Cotton. “This guy, he is local and doesn’t want to be named, had some cotton held over. He had a price set for it, and somebody offered to pay it on the open market. You could say it was luck, being in the right place at the right time, having the right cotton go for the right price. That’s what we do here, we help farmers market their cotton, but we have never had one set a record for the highest price cotton sale in the nation before. We weren’t even thinking it would get close. But that was something.”

Cotton, like most other south central and western Kansas crops, has struggled to grow this year and last year because of drought conditions.

“It’s struggling. We’ve got drowthy cotton in the fields right now, but a little rain can help. It is just starting to bloom, so who knows how this year’s crop is going to develop.”

Lingle said that even though the number of acres planted in Kansas was up this year from last, cotton yields could likely be the smallest since the 19th century because of growing conditions.

“The hot weather has been so detrimental that it is just a guessing game now,” he said.

If yields turn out on the down side of the spectrum, as it looks like they may, that could actually propel the prices for 2022 cotton up, but it will affect the carryover crop from last year, Lingle said.

Likely most carryover will be sold, creating a shortage in the United States for cotton products, seed and feed uses, if the drought persists. Despite those dismal predictions, Lingle said cotton is still a better crop to grow during a drought season than wheat, beans or corn.

“It takes a lot less water to get from planting to harvest with cotton,” Lingle said. “Then we have two products from it—we get the cotton, and we also have the seed."

Byproducts from cotton harvest and ginning also get passed on to the livestock industry as feed filler when mixed with liquid protein.

“If we keep having the type of dry weather that we are now, more and more people will turn to cotton,” Lingle said.

And if more high-price, record-setting sales happen for Next Gineration associates, that would make Lingle and area cotton growers even happier.

“Heck ya, I’ll take that luck of the draw,” Lingle said. “We have a program here to help our customers select the price they want and then when the buyers market hits that price, we can lock it in.”

Lingle said Next Gineration also helps area cotton growers pay for their harvest by offering gin processing in exchange for the cotton seed.

“We purchase the seed from the farmer and store it here at the warehouse,” Lingle said. “Then we credit the cost of that seed per bale against the cotton processing to help the farmer. It’s a win-win situation for all of us.”

Lingle said big buyers of cotton on the world market right now were Vietnam, Pakistan and Turkey. High quality cotton from the United States is preferred over that produced in other countries.

International cotton industry speculators often come to Cullison to tour the Next Gineration facility. The Kansas Department of Agriculture brings tourists and farmers to see what happens at the processing center.

“We do a lot of tours,” Lingles said. “Everybody is shocked at what all we do here.”

Innovative equipment upgrades and continued attention to marketing advancements have Next Gineration poised to capitalize on cotton industry payouts. And a little luck doesn’t hurt either.