Historically, Neeper says prices over the course of a cotton season tend to range from 16-20 cents between the highs and lows.

“The 2014-2015 marketing season has seen a range of about nine cents, and that's something of a stretch,” the cotton marketing executive said.

“All in all, the cotton marketing season was unremarkable with few opportune pricing chances. Growers who held onto cotton hoping for higher prices likely didn’t see it.”

World economy, Chinese stocks

In part, Neeper blames soft prices on a continued slow world economy and the weight of China’s large stocks on the global cotton industry’s toes, along with fear that China would release large volumes of those stocks and pressure prices even more.

Despite weak prices, one high note this year was that Upland cotton growers could utilize the marketing loan gain provisions of the farm bill which Neeper says definitely helped improve final prices.

Looking at 2015 U.S. cotton acreage, the 8.56 million of acres planted is about 2.5 million acres less than last year. In fact, 2015 cotton acreage is the second smallest planting nationally since USDA started tracking planted acreage in 1909.