Economics of Yield and Returns Variability with Dryland Cotton Cropping Systems

Cotton production in the Texas High Plains region accounts for 15 to 18% of the total cotton production in the United States. About half of the cotton in this region is grown under dryland conditions. Although much of the cotton in the region is produced using a conventional tillage cropping system, several alternative cropping systems are becoming increasingly accepted. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relative economic performance of the conventional tillage dryland cotton production system and several conservation tillage dryland cotton production systems on the Texas High Plains. The net economic returns to feasible dryland cropping systems were ranked using stochastic dominance with respect to a function. Four conservation cropping systems (reduced tillage continuous cotton, wheat-cotton reduced tillage, sorghum~cotton reduced tillage, and no-till continuous cotton) are confined to be superior to the widely accepted conventional cotton cropping system. These four conservation systems increased stability and profitability over the conventional tillage system. Hence these alternatives are options that producers should consider as conservational tillage systems in dryland cotton production and may be better suited to producer risk preferences than conventional practices.