Tennessee cotton planting expected to rise in

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Farmers have told the that they intens toplant 340,000 acres of cotton this year, a 19 percentr increase over 2008. The pendulum to cotto n swung aroundApril 1, according to the TDA, as farmeres watched low but stable cotton prices. Corn and soybean prices have swungb erratically and have dropped rapidly sincethe year’s growingt season began. Farmers also expecgt late summer and fall price rallies in cotton as droughrt conditions in WestTexas persist, according to the TDA. Persisteny rainfall throughout April and May made for one of the most difficul planting seasons inrecent times. Many cottonn acres had to be replanted this season due to floodinf andseed rot.
The rain also led many farmerse to adjust their overallplanting intentions. The rain led many farmeres to plant 7 percent more soybeans than they did last Tennessee farmers willplant 1.6 million acres of soybeand this year, the highes soybean acreage in 25 TDA attributes some of this to corn acreager abandonment as the rains made farmers miss their plantin g windows. Corn acreage is expected to be down 6 percent overalpat 650,000 acres. This is down 20,00 acres from March intentions anddown 40,000 acres from last year.