It’s a first for the California cotton industry. For the first time in history, Pima cotton acreage has surpassed upland acreage in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

This is the word from the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s pink bollworm program which maps every field of cotton in the state each year to monitor pink bollworm and released it acreage figures yesterday.

While the pink bollworm survey often differs from the USDA/NASS acreage estimate, it is considered the most accurate cotton acreage survey for California because fields are physically surveyed in all areas of the state.

According to the PBW program survey, 272,670 of the 528,656 acres of cotton in the San Joaquin are planted to premium Pima, compared to just 255,895 in upland.

This compares to the USDA/NASS Pima estimate of 288,000 acres.

The difference there is not what pushed Pima past upland, but the considerable smaller upland acreage reported by USDA/NASS, which estimates there are 308,000 acres of upland in California. The PBW program says there is only 283,688.

The USDA/NASS upland acreage estimate represents a 22 percent decline from last year. PBW program acreage survey says it is more than that. It has fallen so far that Pima acreage missed passing upland statewide by just over 11,000 acres.

Here is a breakdown of what the state pink bollworm trappers say is in each California cotton-growing county:

SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY

Fresno: total acres, 179,550; Pima, 113,565; Upland 65,985

Kern : total acres, 94,075; Pima, 51,420 ; Upland, 42,655

Kings: total acres, 150,700; Pima, 101,765; Upland, 48,935

Madera: total acres, 10,210; Pima, 325; Upland, 9,885

Merced: total acres, 56,575; Pima, 3,370; Upland, 53,205

Tulare: total acres, 37,455; Pima, 2,225 ; Upland, 35,230

San Joaquin: total acres, 0; Pima, 0; Upland, 0

SACRAMENTO VALLEY:

Colusa: 2,880

Glenn: 3,500

Sutter: 1,035

Yolo: 0

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA:

Imperial: total acres, 8,745; conventional, 1,525; Bt acres, 7,220

Riverside: total acres, 10,990; conventional, 895; Bt acres, 10,095

San Bernardino: total acres, 640; conventional, 45; Bt acres, 595