When Is Cotton Harvested? Dates by State and Delay Cost

US cotton is picked from late summer to early winter. Harvest starts in July in South Texas, runs from mid-September to mid-December across the Southeast and Mid-South, and finishes in Texas around mid-January (National Cotton Council; USDA NASS usual dates). On 18 October 2026, USDA reported 41% of the crop picked in the 15 reporting states, against 37% for the 2021-2025 average.

The exact week for one field depends on planting date, variety, heat and rain. This guide gives the usual dates for 17 states, shows how this season compares, explains how growers decide a field is ready, and has a calculator for the cost of a slow harvest.

Cotton harvest dates by state

The table shows the usual harvest dates from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) handbook of planting and harvesting dates, dated October 2010. “Starts” is when about 5 percent of the crop is picked and “ends” is about 95 percent. These are long-run usual dates, not this year’s dates. For the current week, use the weekly USDA Crop Progress report, covered below.

Texas has the widest spread because it holds two very different regions. An older National Cotton Council leaflet (undated) says picking starts in July in South Texas. Texas A&M AgriLife says harvest aids are usually sprayed in October and most picking starts in November across the Central, Rolling Plains and Panhandle districts (AgriLife Today, September 2025).

Georgia, Alabama and the rest of the Southeast

In Georgia, NASS lists picking as starting about September 23, with the busiest weeks from October 10 to December 2 and the finish around December 18. Alabama starts earlier, about September 5, and has most of its picking between September 20 and October 20, finishing around December 1. South Carolina runs from about September 23 to December 5 and North Carolina from September 30 to December 15. A wet autumn or a late hurricane can push each date later.

Mississippi, Arkansas and the Mid-South

The Delta and Mid-South states finish sooner. Mississippi usually starts around September 15 and finishes around November 12. Arkansas starts around September 20 and finishes around November 20, and Louisiana ends around November 6.

Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and the northern edge

The northern and western edge of the belt starts later. Oklahoma starts around October 4 and ends around December 24, Kansas starts around October 15 and ends around December 30, and New Mexico starts around October 10 and ends around December 20. Missouri and Tennessee start in mid to late September, and Virginia on about September 30.

Arizona and California

Arizona starts around September 15 and has its busiest weeks from October 10 to November 10, with a tail to December 25. California starts around October 5 and finishes around November 20, one of the shortest windows in the table.

Australia

For readers in Australia, cotton is a summer crop that is picked in autumn. The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service reports that picking typically runs from March to June, earlier in warmer northern areas such as central Queensland and as late as July in the far north (USDA FAS Cotton and Products Annual, Canberra, March 2024).

How long cotton picking season lasts

Nationally, picking runs about five to six months, from the first South Texas fields in July to the last Texas fields around mid-January. Inside one state it is much shorter. Counting the days between “starts” and “ends” in the NASS table gives the lengths in the chart below.

Chart

Usual length of the picking window

Weeks between 5% and 95% of the crop harvested, selected states

Mississippi and Louisiana finish in roughly eight weeks, Alabama and Georgia take about twelve, Arizona about fourteen and Texas about 22. California, at about seven weeks, has the shortest window of the 17 states. A field is picked once the bolls are open and the leaves have been removed, so the week you start depends on that year’s crop, not the calendar.

How this season compares with the average

You can follow the harvest week by week. Each Monday in the picking season, USDA NASS publishes the percent of cotton harvested in 15 states. The report for the week ending 18 October 2026 shows the 15-state total at 41% picked, against 37% for the 2021-2025 average for that week (USDA NASS Crop Progress, released 19 October 2026).

Chart

Cotton picked by 18 October: 2026 vs average

Percent of crop harvested, week ending 18 October 2026, selected states

The states differ widely. Mississippi stood at 70% against a 58% average, Arkansas at 63% against 53% and California at 40% against 29%. Georgia was at 26% against 25%, and North Carolina at 16% against 18%. Oklahoma, at 9%, was well behind its 18% average.

Picking also trails boll opening. The same report shows 93% of Georgia’s bolls open but only 26% picked, and 78% of Texas bolls open with 46% picked. The gap is the time needed to apply harvest aids, wait for leaves to drop, and run the pickers.

How growers decide a field is ready

Growers do not wait for every boll to open. They use a few field checks and then treat the crop with a harvest aid, which speeds up leaf drop and boll opening before the picker goes in.

Chart

Bolls open vs cotton picked, 18 October 2026

Each dot is a state: percent of bolls opening (x) and percent of crop harvested (y)

• Open bolls: NC State Extension says cotton can generally be defoliated when 60 percent of bolls are open or the plant is 4 nodes above the top cracked boll (NC State Extension, 2016). University of Georgia Extension gives 60 to 75 percent open (UGA Extension, 2021).
• Check the unopened bolls: NC State says to slice a few of them. Mature bolls are hard to cut, the lint starts to dry out, and the seed coat is brownish with little or no jelly inside.
• Hot, dry Augusts: NC State’s September 2026 update, written for North Carolina, says hot, dry weather typically sheds the young top bolls and speeds up maturity, so fields can be ready earlier than normal, but only a look at the unopened bolls decides the date (NC State Extension, 10 September 2026).
• Do not treat more than you can pick: Texas A&M advice for West Central Texas (based on trials from 1992 to 2001) says regrowth can begin to hurt stripper harvest within two weeks of the first harvest-aid treatment, and cotton moisture should be 12% or less to avoid heating in modules and trailers (Texas A&M AgriLife, harvest-aid recommendations).

Harvest aids are pesticides. Products, rates and timing differ by state and cotton type, so follow the product label and your local extension advice.

Five things that move the harvest date

Five factors decide when a given field is picked.

1. Planting date. The same NASS handbook has first planting around March 22 in Texas and April 23 in Georgia, and first picking about four and a half to five months after that. A late-planted field is a late-picked field.
2. Variety. Maturity group changes the date, so ask your seed supplier or extension office. Boll shape also matters: High Plains varieties have held their locks tightly in the boll, which is why strippers became the default there.
3. Heat. NC State says a hot, dry August sheds young top bolls and speeds up maturity, so fields can be ready earlier than normal.
4. Harvest-aid timing. Defoliating too soon cuts off the last bolls; waiting too long risks weathering and regrowth.
5. Machines and crews. Picking is limited by how many machines you run and how many days the weather allows. The calculator below turns that into days.

A short checklist before the pickers start

• Count open bolls and nodes above the top cracked boll in several parts of each field, not from the truck window.
• Cut a few of the top unopened bolls to check that they are mature.
• Match the area you treat to the days of picking you can realistically get, using the calculator below.
• Check moisture at the module and keep it at or below the 12% limit Texas A&M advises.
• Read the product label for rates, re-entry and picking intervals, and follow local rules.

Why the date matters for money

Timing changes both the pounds and the grade. In the Georgia trial described below, the highest lint yield in 1998 came late, at 100% open bolls, but price discounts for colour grade applied from week 4 onward, so net returns peaked earlier. The author also gives a simple illustration of the stakes: if 20 percent of Georgia’s cotton were discounted 3 cents per pound for quality, growers would lose more than 6 million dollars (Bednarz, 2001). That was a 2001 illustration, not a current price. Use today’s quote from your gin or marketing pool when you plan.

A slow harvest also costs in less obvious ways: crews and machines are tied up longer, module storage fills, and the gin may be booked out. The calculator below lets you test these trade-offs with your own numbers.

Picker or stripper: how the machine changes the date

Two machine types are used in the US. Spindle pickers pull seed cotton from open bolls and are common across most of the Cotton Belt. Strippers use brushes and bats to take the whole boll, plus leaves and some branches, and are used on the Texas High Plains.

A USDA Agricultural Research Service and Texas A&M study of the Texas High Plains found pickers collect less foreign material and leave less fiber in unopened bolls behind in the field than strippers. A break-even analysis in the same work found that a producer harvesting 1,000 acres needed a yield above 2 bales per acre to gain an economic benefit from a picker over a stripper with a field cleaner (USDA ARS, Picker versus stripper harvesters on the High Plains of Texas, 2009). That study is from 2009, so check prices and yields for your own farm before you rely on the numbers.

How many days will your picking take?

The calculator below uses your own acres, machines and weather days, then shows what a late finish could cost. All starting values are examples, not benchmarks, so replace them with your own.

Try the numbers for your own farm below.

What rain, frost and storms do to the date

Rain stops pickers and can weather the lint left in open bolls. A multi-year University of Georgia trial applied harvest aids weekly for thirteen weeks after the crop was about 10% open, and picked each plot two weeks later. In 1998 the highest lint yield came at 100% open bolls, but colour grade fell through the weeks, so the best net return came when harvest aids went on at about 60% open. In 1999 both yield and income peaked at about 80% open (Bednarz, Beltwide Cotton Conferences, 2001). It was one site in two seasons, so treat it as an illustration rather than a rule.

Hurricanes can hit the Southeast crop right at harvest. After Hurricane Helene in late September 2024, a University of Georgia Extension cotton agronomist put losses at 50% to 60%, with a severe reduction in quality (UGA CAES, December 2024). UGA noted that the storm hit at a critical time, because cotton is largely harvested in the fall.

Harvest aids work with the plant, not against it. NC State explains that the aim is to speed up natural leaf drop before cold weather arrives, and that killing the plant outright would likely cause bark problems and lower lint-quality grades. Leaves that dry on the plant instead of dropping can also end up in the picked lint and lead to discounts.

The video below gives a short overview of how climate shapes cotton farming.

▶ A Farmonaut overview of the climate conditions cotton needs and how satellite tools help farmers adapt. · 9:17

Pests that can delay or cut the harvest

Insects that attack the bolls reduce yield, and the boll weevil was once the main cotton pest in the US. The National Cotton Council’s history of the eradication programme lists Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi as cleared by 2009, with California, Arizona, Oklahoma and New Mexico also weevil-free and Texas still working across the state (National Cotton Council, History of the Boll Weevil Eradication Program). That page predates 2010, so check your state’s eradication foundation for current status.

Integrated pest management combines scouting, thresholds, cultural practices and targeted sprays. Always follow the product label and local rules.

▶ Farmonaut video on cotton cultivation challenges, from pests to water management. · 7:38

After picking: modules, gin and classing

Seed cotton is pressed into large modules or round bales in the field. The National Cotton Council says a module holds 13 to 15 bales and that a bale weighs about 480 pounds. Modules stay in the field or at the gin yard until ginning, which separates the lint from the seed. The USDA Economic Research Service notes that lint is then pressed into bales and a sample is sent for quality classing (USDA ERS, Cotton Sector at a Glance). Moisture matters here too: Texas A&M’s 12% limit is there to prevent heating in the module.

Soil and harvest timing

Harvest date is set mostly by planting date and the weather, but the crop starts in the soil. Soil type, pH and salt affect stand and growth, and we cover them in our guide to the ideal soil for growing cotton.

Using satellite maps during harvest

Satellite images show how evenly vegetation is growing across a field, which can point to patches that are behind. Farmonaut Satellite + AI Farm Monitoring System draws vegetation maps for your fields through the season, so you can compare blocks, spot patches that are behind and plan the order of fields for harvest aids and picking. A satellite map shows a change in plant vigour, not its cause, so walk the flagged area before you decide. The Farmonaut web, Android and iOS app shows these maps.

The video below shows how satellite and AI tools are used on cotton farms.

Related pages on our site: fleet management, weather data API, carbon footprint page, traceability page, large farm management app, crop loan and insurance page, cotton production challenges.

▶ How satellite technology lets cotton farmers monitor their crops. · 9:57

How we checked the numbers

Dates come from the October 2010 USDA NASS handbook and the Crop Progress report released 19 October 2026. Lengths of season are our own count of days between the handbook’s start and end dates. Agronomy advice comes from state Extension services and the National Cotton Council. Where a source is old or covers one site, the text says so.

FAQ

When is cotton harvested in Georgia?

NASS lists Georgia picking as starting around September 23, with the busiest weeks from October 10 to December 2 and the finish around December 18. A hurricane or a wet fall can push it later.

When is cotton harvested in Alabama?

Alabama starts around September 5, does most of its picking between September 20 and October 20, and finishes around December 1 (NASS usual dates).

When is cotton harvested in Texas?

It starts in July in South Texas and, in the Central, Rolling Plains and Panhandle districts, most picking starts in November. NASS puts the finish for the state around January 11.

How long is cotton picking season?

About five to six months across the country, but roughly 7 to 14 weeks inside a single state, and about 22 weeks in Texas.

What month is cotton picked in the Mid-South?

Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee are mostly picked in late September through early November.

When is cotton picked in Australia?

Usually March to June, according to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service.