Texas Cotton is Consistently On Top
In partnership with: Texas Department of Agriculture
No one farms more cotton than Texas, with more than 4 million bales harvested in 2024. The majority of the almost 6 million acres of cotton are located in the South Plains and Panhandle regions, the state’s two most important cotton farming areas.
“Cotton was the driving force of the Lower Texas Panhandle, and it has been for many years,” says McCrae McCormick, a sixth-generation cotton farmer based in Floydada. “All the cities, towns and infrastructure around in this part of the world is all based on cotton.”
Fiber of the Family
“We’ve always raised cotton,” McCormick says. “Our great-great-grandfather and great-grandfather were both dry land cotton farmers. My grandfather started farming when he got out of the service after Korea. And then my dad moved home in the late ’80s to farm.”
McCormick took up the family trade after graduating from college in 2016, first working for his parents before renting some land of his own in 2018. Since then, he has steadily increased his acreage and is forming a partnership with his parents to manage their roughly 10,000 acres together.
See more: From Field to Fabric: How Cotton is Grown
“Cotton farming is not for the faint of heart, but when it’s in your bones, it’s in your bones,” McCormick says. “Cotton has allowed my family to sustain what we’ve had.”
He adds that this white, billowy fiber has put his family members through college.
Meet a Texas Cotton Farmer
Over in the Wolfforth area, Thomas Hicklen married into the cotton business.
However, he has come a long way since having no previous farming experience before meeting his wife at Texas Tech.
“Her father is a farmer, and I started working for him while I was in college,” recalls Hicklen, who is also a former Marine. “He just asked me to stay after I graduated, and that’s how I got involved.”
Hicklen’s in-laws, Dan and Linda Taylor, are well-respected producers outside of Lubbock and owners of Buster’s Gin.
See more: Cotton is a Texas Staple
A long way from when he started in 1989, today, Hicklen farms about 4,000 acres. He says he likes a challenge, and cotton delivers.
“There’s no two years the same,” Hicklen says. “I’ve only had one perfect cotton year. And so that should tell you that it’s not that easy. And I think a lot of it is that we get to see that little miracle come out of the ground, produce something and we get to be part of it.”
Weather Woes for Texas Cotton
One of the challenges currently faced by Texas cotton farmers is water scarcity.
While some parts of the state are beginning to recover, Hicklen says his area remains deeply affected by low water tables.
“We’ve had several poor years in a row, and the markets have been down,” McCormick says, adding that weather overall is becoming increasingly volatile. “We’ll go from extreme heat to extreme wet, and it’s challenging.”
Compounding these problems is a development boom in the area that drives up taxes for farmers and replaces farmland with homes.
“That’s production land that we’ll never get back,” Hicklen says.
Packed With Potential
Despite numerous challenges, both farmers hope to see the region’s cotton farming continue to expand.
McCormick suggests that building some mills within the state could boost the industry’s future. Since there are no cotton mills in Texas and only a few in the U.S., locally grown cotton is sold on the world market, with most of it ending up in China. Ultimately, Texas cotton is used to produce products like jeans, T-shirts and socks for people worldwide.
“Cotton is an amazing plant,” McCormick says. “It’s really hard to describe what cotton does and what it can be. It’s just phenomenal.”