Precision and Agricultural Technology Adoption Trends in Cotton

By Cotton Grower

One of Cotton Incorporated’s missions is to improve cotton production profitability through research, according to Cotton Grower. To make sure its research direction is addressing current challenges, and that past research results have had a positive impact, Natural Resource Surveys of U.S. cotton producers were conducted in 2008, 2015, and 2023. These data are also used to tell cotton farmers’ sustainability story and document continuous improvement in the industry, in part by providing data for life cycle assessments. This article focuses on only questions related to precision agricultural technology adoption.

A common question across all surveys was for growers to rank 29 possible production concerns as major, moderate, or not an issue. The number one concern across all three surveys was cotton production costs, and as growers cannot control input costs, precision technologies are one of the primary tools to make sure they only apply what is needed so no money is wasted.

Therefore, as expected, there has been an upward trend in the adoption of various technologies, except for soil sampling, which has remained steady at 46%. Only 4% of all respondents reported not using precision technologies in the 2023 survey. Note that the soil mapping and soil sampling are in reference to use of the samples to address within field spatial variability, not soil sampling in general. For determination of fertility rates, 77% of respondents indicated they use soil test recommendations.

Use of autosteer technology has experienced a significant increase, surging from 46% in 2008 to 69% in 2015 and further to 86% in 2023. The trends in autosteer and yield monitor adoption are also consistent with an independent survey conducted by the USDA Economic Research Service on precision agriculture adoption on U.S. farms for multiple commodities that included cotton in 2000, 2003, 2007, and 2019.