USDA's Cotton Price Forecasts: Background and Methodology

The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 removed a 79-year prohibition on the publication of cotton price forecasts by USDA.  Accordingly, USDA began to include forecast ranges for the marketing year average price received by producers in its monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates beginning in June 2008.  The presentation will include an explanation of the average price received by farmers, its relationship to other cotton price series, and the multiple methods that USDA uses to forecast both the price mid-point and the range.