Cotton producers have been struggling with low prices for most of the three years since the Agricultural Act of 2014 was signed into law. The exception has been the last few months when prices showed more signs of life than they had since "dollar cotton," or, in some cases, for $2-a-pound cotton occurred in 2010-11.

Ginners attending the Southern Cotton Ginners Association's summer meeting in Lafayette, La., were told new developments in the futures markets may make it more difficult for cotton to move back to the higher levels seen earlier this year -- a development that would make restoring the cotton program in the commodity title of the 2018 farm bill even more important, according to the National Cotton Council's Reece Langley.

Langley, vice president for Washington operations for the NCC, was joined by H.W. "Kip" Butts, senior cotton analyst and director of energy services for Informa Economics; Greg Holt, director of the USDA-ARS Gin Lab in Lubbock, Texas; and Geoff Haney, Cape & Son, Cotton Merchandising and Transloading Service, Abilene, Texas, as speakers for this summer's meeting, which is traditionally held in the home state of the current president. The current president, Randy Ainsworth, is manager of Tanner and Co., Gin in Frogmore, La.